What mountain bikes did you own BITD?

At the end of the day, what really matters is if it’s fit for what you (you as in triple underscore indelible what you want to achieve) bought a bicycle for (and there is scope for even a basic buy). If the frame is sound and bits that you depend work adequately and you enjoying using, that counts a great deal.

And if you’re into modding to build budget racers, hybrid use bikes or outright extreme projects, a good solid bike is the foundation - you may delve into frame swaps down the line, but if you can’t basically test the water with a basic solid bike as a donor - something is very wrong in paradise.
 
My first bike was a Wheeler 313 in neon yellow. It had a Shimano gs200 groupset at first. But most parts like the deraileurs and hubs I had to swap quite soon for LX and XT - whatever was available used at that time. Don't know where that bike went. I think my parents gave that bike away a few years after I moved out. Out of nostalgia I "recently" bought the same frame and built it up the way I would have liked it back then. If I had the means. Shameless plug: That bike is up for voting for Bike of the month right now :D Klick to get to the vote!

My build thread has all the story about the bike. https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/tribute-to-my-very-first-mountainbike-a-wheeler-313.428732/


My second bike was a Hercules Titanal. I still have it and use it occasionally. I bought the frame used from a classmate. Built it with brand new parts that were sold at that hip new store in the town where I also went to school. My parents didn't know how much money I spent on that bike.
It had a Magura HS11 and XT drivetrain. A very nice set of wheels with Mavic ceramic rims and Ringle front / APC rear hub. Later (much later) I swapped everything to M900. This is what it looks like today:
 
rentedmule said:
These are the ones I don't have anymore:

1994 Rockhopper with an SR Duotrac
1995 Stumpjumper FSR
1995 S-Works FSR
1998 FSR Extreme

Can't recall years on the rest...
Kona scab
Nashbar Reynolds 853 (so sorry I sold this...)
Cove G-Spot
Banshee Chaparral
Turner 5-spot
Titus Racer-X Carbon
Planet-X Compo
Santa Cruz VPfree
~1999 KHS Team
Carrera Banshee
Click to expand...
I heard great things about the Nashbar 853 frames BITD
 
Unfortunately, no pics/photos exist any more.

Simply, at a particularly stressful chapter of my life - i had a pretty nasty meltdown and trashed literally everything relating to the past, including anything to do with the fun parts.

So everything i write that recalls past stuff literally is based on a rapidly deteriorating fragmented memory of such. That i can recall anything technical is because i was obsessively detail-oriented back then (today it would be called obsessive compulsive bordering on a disorder) - which combined with a powder keg fragile lack of tolerance for failure etc made projects very much a solo venture as nobody i knew would tolerate my nature.

Sad really, because the photo i most regret destroying is the one where it was used as a display piece where i traded in for the next donor bike. You literally couldn’t tell at a distance what it was based on, many people thought it was based on a Swiss military MTB or a Raleigh Amazon. But it certainly caught the eye, and probably induced a few migraine cases when lit up.

Probably it was actually closer to the Swiss military bike in the reconfig and frame mods. But the shop photo never did justice to the creative metallic camo finish it ended up with, a mixture of chrome patches and about ten different carefully blended metallic car finishes across the paintwork.

Why, ferk knows why i went that mad over the paint. I guess having friends at a bodyshop and spending hours going through samples etc just caused crazy inspiration - most used were BMW & Merc metallics.
 
I purchased my first mountain bike in September 1996. I was just out of college at 23 and two months into my first home mortgage. I drooled over the Kleins in the shop but they were way out of my price range. I also eyed the Zaskar on the showroom floor but even that was out of my budget. I came from racing BMX and always liked GT. I went home with a shop built 20” GT Talera that I’ve since put many thousands of miles on. I even had a kid’s jumper seat mounted a couple times. She’s been my only bike until just this year. I don’t have any scans of old pictures of her, but here she is in the last pic in original form minus the seat and tires, and a pic of how she’s built now.
IMG_3723.webp IMG_3927.webp
 
No photos exist of mine that I know of.

First bike was some red Emmelle not-quite-an-MTB bought from a neighbour that was probably too big for me. It was junk really but I remember the FREEDOM of being able to go anywhere in no time so I loved it. That got stolen outside a newsagent.

I had some Peugeot with 24 inch wheels bought for probably £15 from a local bike shop with a hand painted sign that said "BIKES" and that my brother and I called "Risky's". I honestly don't remember what happened to that; I might have sold it back to Risky's to get the next bike.

There was a blue Saracen Tufftrax (the one with yellow (?) funky shape-graphics) on it from Risky's which gained some polished alloy parts. That was actually a pretty good bike, but that got stolen too.

After that was a brand new Ridgeback 603 bought in 1994 which I replaced parts on until there wasn't a single original part left on it, including the frame. That thing got some MILES; it was my 364-days-a-year paper-round bike as well as my bike for Epping Forest rides and jumps and general funs. I fell out of cycling some time around the start of 1999. I think these days it would be diagnosed as a deep depression which hit me at the very end of the 90s, but it's entirely on me that I spent two decades dealing with it in the worst possible ways.

(Things are much better now and have been for some years. All I'll say on that, is that there's a lot of people for whom alcohol means cheer and relaxation. Then there are a very few of us who must never touch it in any form or quantity, because it will destroy everything we love before it kills us.)

I ended up buying a Ridgeback 603 on Sunday for old time's sake and because you people forced me to. Have plans (and a bank-balance-obliterating amount of 90s parts ordered...) to build it into something that teenage-me would call "wicked". ;D
 
Out of all the bikes I have owned, narrowing down to just mountain bikes it's 30 and 15 of them were GT's, including the '91 Zaskar currently in progress.
I have owned many different brands besides GT of course...
Dawes
Peugeot
Raleigh M-Trax
Boardman
Trek
Voodoo
Carrera
KHS
Marin
Mongoose
Merlin (Columbus Zona tubing, bought as frame only to replace my dying GT i-Drive 4.0)
Most of them sold, a few of them stolen.

Only in the last couple of years did I decide to hang on to some bikes that have meaning to me and those are currently in my signature.
That started with the purchase of my '99 GT Tequesta two years ago, which I did end up selling on.
Now I find myself contemplating whether to narrow my collection down to just my early 90's bikes and my modern Zaskar (29er)
 
Bike's 005.webp Bike's 029.webp Bike's 062.webp Bike's 082.webp Bike's 084.webp Bike's 105.webp Bike's 108.webp Bike's 109.webp

All my mountain bikes in order. The first was a Diamond Back Accent that was way too big. Back then (89) we took the sizes from our road bikes. Second was a re-painted Saracen with snowflake front wheel and Girvin flex stem. Next, I bought a Stumpjumper frame and Ringle stem from a friend and just swapped the parts over from the Saracen. Next, a Diamond back Axis TT with LX groupset and Pace RC36 forks. Next, into my downhill days, and I bought the Santa Crux Heckler frame. Again, adding the other bits from the previous bike. Next, after a few years away from mountain biking, I bought the Litespeed Niota aluminium frame, and assembled a new bike with XT parts and Avid Juicy 5 brakes. Next, as my health went south, I changed over to a Pace 303 frame and added Rock Shox Revelation forks. Finally, the Orange P7 was my last bike before I gave up cycling and my first attempt at a retro build. There were also some road bikes, but they were only for training!
 
lewisflex said:
No photos exist of mine that I know of.

First bike was some red Emmelle not-quite-an-MTB bought from a neighbour that was probably too big for me. It was junk really but I remember the FREEDOM of being able to go anywhere in no time so I loved it. That got stolen outside a newsagent.

I had some Peugeot with 24 inch wheels bought for probably £15 from a local bike shop with a hand painted sign that said "BIKES" and that my brother and I called "Risky's". I honestly don't remember what happened to that; I might have sold it back to Risky's to get the next bike.

There was a blue Saracen Tufftrax (the one with yellow (?) funky shape-graphics) on it from Risky's which gained some polished alloy parts. That was actually a pretty good bike, but that got stolen too.

After that was a brand new Ridgeback 603 bought in 1994 which I replaced parts on until there wasn't a single original part left on it, including the frame. That thing got some MILES; it was my 364-days-a-year paper-round bike as well as my bike for Epping Forest rides and jumps and general funs. I fell out of cycling some time around the start of 1999. I think these days it would be diagnosed as a deep depression which hit me at the very end of the 90s, but it's entirely on me that I spent two decades dealing with it in the worst possible ways.

(Things are much better now and have been for some years. All I'll say on that, is that there's a lot of people for whom alcohol means cheer and relaxation. Then there are a very few of us who must never touch it in any form or quantity, because it will destroy everything we love before it kills us.)

I ended up buying a Ridgeback 603 on Sunday for old time's sake and because you people forced me to. Have plans (and a bank-balance-obliterating amount of 90s parts ordered...) to build it into something that teenage-me would call "wicked". ;D
Click to expand...
Well, as for the first - one of countless branded/sub-branded/sometimes overpriced boutique branded ‘junk’, not what enthuiasts call ‘a proper MTB’ bike, we pretty much all (bar the rich gits and bank-of-parents monied gits) had either one of that grade as a starter MTB or maybe an old much abuse 1st gen ‘tank’.

But regardless of the quality, and some were remarkably robust even with the lowest grade mechanics, it was indeed a freedom machine that the honest amongst us recall with some sentiment for the good/bad/ugly nature and if nothing else were a good basis that taught you what you needed to improve it and it often made you look at possible replacements with a more informed and discriminating eye.

My Peuguot first MTB was used and junk grade, but what didnt wear out or break (frame and forks) was actually a good project bed to potentially rebuild.

So our first junky ones probably were actually better to us because we exploited them and judged them with honest discrimination about the good, bad and ugliness in them unlike those who crapped on them like armchair internet ‘keyboard warriors’ do.

But yours didn’t put you off the idea of MTB’s, so it wasn’t that bad if you think about it.
 
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