The unicorn bike paradox

I'm currently building one of my Unicorns, which is my own 1998 P7. It's been mine since new, and the only original part is the frame. Paint has just been redone at Orange, and built up with as much British kit as possible (and that I can now afford, which wasn't the case in my teens...) Will try and get a pic up. It's been a good ten year search for the parts its going to be wearing, and I'm still not quite there.

My worries on buying other bikes is the whole "never meet your heroes" piece. I really want a Vectored Proflex, and will likely pick one up to play with. An RTS is up there but I think it would be disappointing. I'd always wanted a Pace, but after owning a Cannondale found aluminium to be too unforgiving. Steel is real...

I'd also like a boxfresh 96/7 Lava Dome as I had some great times on mine back in the day before it snapped on the top tube

Also.... as a result of this thread reminding me.... In addition to my real world modest unicorns I mentioned.
posh/exotic(?) bike Itches I might need to scratch to add my Unicorn list:
* Roberts Dogs BOLX, maybe look at a modern version - would that be as nice?... * and/or Yates Cats Whiskas. hmm or variation from this range!
* Pace RC200/100/300 one day perhaps hmm
* GT Zaskar and or Xizang


while I'm in crazy dream world
* Orange Formula

I bet theres more if I dig deeper!

Tootyred said:

What stops you owning your dream/ unicorn bike?
What makes a unicorn for you? And why don't you have it?

Is it that you can't quite establish exactly what it is? Or is it the fear that you will get it and find its not exactly what you thought it was and has spectacularly failed to turn you into " no way ray" overnight?

Does a unicorn have to expensive? Or could it be that £295 bike you just could not quite afford from your paper round? Or was it your dads/ aunties/ brothers or just been with you for years and is wrapped up in a sentimental blanket of great feeling fluff.

Are you lucky enough to own it already?

Or is it just the cash?

DISCUSS with pictures. (10 marks).

Click to expand...

I don't really have a unicorn bike. My emotional connection with bikes was lost when I was mugged for one back in the early 2000s. It was like a switch being turned off. I still enjoyed riding and appreciated a bike that rode well or that looked great, but no longer felt that deep visceral connection or desire to own them. They simply became objects.

I always liked the look of the early Pace suspension forks BITD - and owned a set of them for a few years about a decade ago before selling them on again. I've had a few titanium bikes as well - again something I really wanted back in the 90s. The trouble is that it's a weird material - in the wrong builders hands, a titanium frame can feel leaden or be prone to cracking.

I'm not sure I have one that stands out above all others but the 1987/8 Chas Roberts White Spider remains right up there for me. Maybe the ultimate British handbuilt MTB of its time.



Back in the day, when I was riding my Raleigh Chinook (part of the misleadingly named 'lightweight' range) we only had one bike shop in town (a Raleigh dealer who didn't stock anything high end). Trips to the big smoke that was Taunton were few and far between so most of our drooling was done via catalogues and magazines. I remember the new Konas were a real game changer. The Cannondale and Fisher catalogues were also ones that I really remember standing out back in those early days. The 1988 Cannondale Red Shred and SM600 and the Fisher CR-7 and Mt Tam were the ones that I lusted after. I rode more Konas than anything else but was always drawn to the Brodies in the 1989 TBG/Kona catalogue. I'd never seen one and to me they were the real unicorns. I'm lucky enough to own a few Brodies now, but am always looking for earlier and unique examples to hone my collection. I also own a 1988 Red Shred in near mint condition. Others that made a big impact were the Zinns, which I first saw up close at the Malverns. I'm also fortunate to own one a rather special one of those.

What's still on the hit list? A Rocky Mountain Wedge or Thunderbolt, a Pace RC100 and a first year Zaskar with the full Triple Trak Plus package would also be very welcomed. Also a special mention to my long broken, but not forgotten, fillet brazed Bromwich and my long ago stolen Lava Dome with cherry picked parts spec - I'd love to have those two in my hands again.

back in the day, there were few brands with a more recognizable livery than Orange. A clockwork, or a Formula, the brand became iconic. Im sure Unicorns for many.

Crazy, this thread, i post a picture, and it makes me think..again.....WHY.

the makings of a Unicorn, simply the colour and loving it, and then never reaching it.... now rare, and expensive and yet that memory of it,....another Unicorn....?

The Klein Attitude.......................In those colours.....................Pink White Green..........

Mantis Valkyrie …. Holly grial with that fantastic design, dropper seat post, IRD brake … it represent the freedom of design in the first part of the 90s and looks fantastic. I will never get one in my size … never.

My unicorn was always, since 1993 and even during the university years when I didn't do that much biking, I wanted to have a Klein Adroit in that Storm paintjob that Tinker rode with. I used to read MBAction magazines with adverts and race stories featuring THAT bike.
Fast forward to 2006 when I found that there are pretty cool vintage bikes available on eBay and bought my first Kleins ('97 Adroit and '95 Pulse 20th Anniversary frames). Then many followed with lovely colours but I was always on the look-out for the Storm one. Back then there was no Jonrock's repro paintjobs available so the only way to get one was to find a real thing. Lucky for me, I did find one at one point from New York. Was even a very special one, with a very early Team Storm version of the paintjob.
With the help of this forum's members, I built it to be a Tinker Replica. Even though Tinker's actual race bike was found and somewhat restored a couple of years ago, I still think mine's pretty cool and special as well.

Even though I'm very lucky to own such a legendary bikes as GT Xizang and Yeti ARC and having owned several Merlins (Metalworks that is ), Spesh Epic Ultimate, etc., none of those have such an emotional feeling for me as this Storm Adroit has.

The only other bike that really gets my heart beating is an another legend: Raleigh USA John Tomac Signature. Even though I've been in this collecting hobby for some 15 years or so, I've never had an opportunity to buy or even bid for one and probably never will. And if there would be one for sale, the price would end up to such a level that I would be insane to pay it.

For me it’s a combination of nostalgia and aesthetic. I love late 90s DH bikes because it was a time fo invention and discovery. Sure they may be crap to ride by modern standards but they just looked so much cooler.

I have three unicorns and have am fortunate to have two of them; The Giant ATX DH Team and the Mountain Cycle San
Andreas. I think they’re both incredible looking bikes, and they happen to be icons in their own right. The fact they were also gracing the pages of MBUK when I was in my mid teens has a lot to do with it as well.

Weirdly the third bike is a bit of a ‘meh’ - the 1997 Kong Cindercone with Project 2 forks. It was an achievable bike I just couldn’t quite afford at the time but again with the aesthetic, I love the graphic style Kong had at the time, and the silhouette of the frames with their low top tubes. I’d love to have a mint one.

there are a couple of others - The Scott Endorphin and the Scott Octane DH with the twin shocks. I have a bit of an affinity for Scott having had a couple as a teenager and again, I think these two bikes stood out in the ‘discovery’ period. I have an FX DH frame with the massively adjustable rear triangle - it’s bonkers and I love it.

The other bikes aren’t ones with any ‘meaning’ to me - they’re bikes I’ve come to want. I’d love a Giant ATX DH prototype. I only learned of it last year but now that I know they exist, I want one.