The bike that got me into Mountain Biking was an Orange Aluminium O a neighbour owned. Saw it when he first moved in. It was the proper Orange colour scheme. With the orange and white tubes. Had an XT groupset and Pace RC35's. I wanted one from the minute I saw it. Never seen one for sale though in my size though. Still look every now and then. It was a totally different galaxy to the Universal Sierra Nevada I was riding at the time.

The first mountain bike I had though was a Diamond Back Axis Team Ti. Bought it from a police auction in Wandsworth in 1995. Gorgeous bike but some Scally nicked it. So I found an Axis steel frame which lasted 3 years before the bottle cage bosses had worked loose and caused the frame to snap. After that I realised the costs but was hooked anyway.

What are the bikes that started you off?

1988 Specialized Rockhopper. I'm sure a few of you have seen it already but I can't help throwing it around for all to see hehe:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=202072&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

BH Top Line :/ I had it for 1 month then I bought another spanish ride Grisley Mega 20 :/

If you fancy an Ali 'O' frame have a word with GT-Steve as he was selling one recently

First bike that hooked me was a Raleigh Mustang one of the lads in the village had. It blew my mind how easy it was to get up the grass bank in the park using the granny ring

I had to have a MTB after that and set my sights on a green and white Apollo Blizard. Used to often go to the Keighley Halfords to dream.

Luckily, by the time I could afford a bike I'd been reading MBUK so set my sights higher and ended up with a 1989 Saracen Tufftrax.

Purple and white 1989 Raleigh Chinook 'lightweight' with a 21" frame (I'm 5'7"!)
Ended up bending one of the seat stays after hitting a hidden jump on Exmoor and got about 5' off the ground! Lucky that's all I bent

1984/85 In all honesty it was not a MTB that got me started it was an old Raleigh Arena Racing Bike with Cowhorn Bars, Cobra Grips, and Nobbly Tyres instead of Slicks. It wasnt the toughest but great for flying around my local Recreational ground and also along the old disused railway line and gravel pits.

1986 The Raleigh Bomber, rugged, beefy and different. This was also my 6th Form year, and landed a job working in a local bike shop (Cutmores Cycles, Rushden, Northants) Dawes & Raleigh stockist so saw some early MTB's come through the doors, sadly still overshadowed by the BMX Craze and Road Cycling.

1986 - 1988 Spent playing on BMX's owning a Mongoose Supergoose & Skyway TA, before cutting loose on my youth and signing up for a life in the Royal Air Force.

1991 - After drooling over numerous magazines finally opted to purchase my first MTB. Diamond Back Axis XT, great Blue/black Splatter paint effect (Still have the touch-up pot of paint in the man cave) was a close call between that and an Orange, but the Diamondback won with its funky Brama Bars and high spec groupset.

Present day - Still in HM Finest Air Force and now a plethora of MTB's in the Man Cave........ Still a big kid at heart i guess!

No-named pipe with frame 3" too big for me. Then in 1991 I bought a demo model Trek 8000 aluminum for the handsome sum of $700. A kings ransom for me. My brother still has it!

I had a Raleigh Area and thought it was the bees knees until my friends brother got a bright pink Cannondale SM600; teenagers wet dream…

Raleigh Avanti / Ozark and then Marin Bear Valley (pre zolatone), man I wanted that bike so much.

Scott Mohaka. I lusted after one of those since I joined here, and finally managed to find one a little while ago. They were low-end consumable bikes back then, but who cares?

Tomac signature Raleigh carbon/ti

'88 (I think?) Marin Palisades Trail: the plain red one with yellow decals...

an 85 or so puch that my mums cousin had , borrowed it when on holiday there in 86 , had a great time on the local trails with him and some of his mates
a raliegh maurauder after that , which made me realise how good the subsequent DB topanga was that i got in about 89

A black Falcon with white forks and white stem, can't remember the name or year, maybe 87, was the first 'real' mountain bike with cantis.etc but had been using a Raleigh Bomber to do trails and stuff.
Never been able to find a pic of the Falcon.........

1986 - a random 20" Rayliegh that i put flat bars on
1987 - emelle 12 speed atb

but my first real one was a:
1988 - specialised rockhopper (awesome)