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Our May 2022 Bike of The Month competition was a Kona special. For those who are unaware, forum member @Pipmeister, Phillip 'Pip' Mock, sadly lost his battle with cancer in March this year. Pip made a huge contribution to the forum with his knowledge of all things Kona, in particular his tireless dedication to collating serial numbers and information on some of the higher end Kona models. Pip had 'agents' scouring the internet for new additions to the lists, which can be seen in the Retro MTB Chat area of the forum. We had 26 Konas entered and you can view the nominations thread here and the poll here. I recommend checking out the build thread for @al-onestare's winning 1997 Kona Explosif Team Edition and you can see it featured as one...

Well done to @Jam_SWorks, and his Trek 8900 Pro, for a great win in the April 2022 competition. From a strong field of 15, that included titanium offerings from GT and Fat Chance, a classic Breezer Lightning XTR and a custom Dirt Shark, getting 22% of the 123 votes was no mean feat. You can see the poll results here and the nominations thread, with links to all the builds, here. The build thread for the winning bike can be viewed here

Congratulations to @Ryry_1985 and his stunning 1990 Brodie Romax on taking the win in February's competition. You can see all the entries and view the poll results here and see Ryan's build thread by clicking here

Congratulations to @Woody for winning January's competition. You can see a full list of the entrants, and links to the build threads, here

@44Racing took the top spot in the poll to win the Bike of the Year competition for 2021. It was close between the top three, with @retrobikeguy's Jo Burt tribute Zinn just two votes behind the Kona and @daveyla's Pace RC200 F1, formerly Richard Thackray's race bike, coming in third. Click here to see the full field of entrants and their build threads.

@retrobikeguy's 1990 Zinn "Project Flowers" takes the win for September with 22% of the votes. Check out the poll here

The August 2021 'Bonded Special' Bike of The Month contest was taken byRonezwun’s 1990 Valley Runner Carbon 100th anniversary edition. Check the poll here:)

Another top drawer build from 44Racing sees another win in the Retrobike Bike of The Month contest. The April 2021 result went to 44Racing's 1994 Kona Hei Hei from very stiff competition. Check the poll here.

"Once a cool thing is been done it cannot be undone" - so begins one of the most seminal films in Mountain Biking including Hans "No Way" Rey and Greg "H-Ball" Herbold. Hans has released the full version of the film on his you tube channel, for those whose VHS player is in the loft it is well worth revisiting.

Another from the BoTM archives. 24pouces 1993 Boulder Defiant Ti took the September 2018 Bike of The Month 'Suspension Special' contest in some style. Check the poll here.

The review of archive Bike of The Month contests continues here at Retrobike HQ. The October 2020 contest was taken by 44Racing's 1993 GT RTS-2 which has been built to be a replica of his 1994 / 95 race bike. The build thread can be found here, poll here.

Big BoTM news for May 2021......the competition will be sponsored by Terra One Tyres and, to follow the design remit of the Rider T1 tyre, the theme will simply be "1988 or earlier" For this month only, previous competition winners and bikes that have already entered in a normal, and/or special month may be entered again. For those who don't already know, the man behind saving your vintage show rubber, and Terra One Tyres, is Retrobike member @thekidmalone, aka Terrance. Terrance has worked hard to produce these RIDER T1 tyres and has welcomed continued interaction with the Retro/Vintage MTB community to ensure his product fits the bill. Terrance is currently working on developing new products, so keep an eye out for more information...

Tom’s Yeti beat a field of 14 to win the March Bike of the Month competition, with over 20% of the votes

Here is a fine slice of 1992 to checkout and one we had not seen before at Retrobike HQ. The 1992 Tioga Video Catalogue was found by user @66 triumph daytona , click here to view the video and forum post. The catalogue includes iconic racers John Tomac and Greg Herbold and includes the full range (or nearly the full range) of Tioga components from 1992. Highlights include the Tioga Disk Drive (of course!), Revolver Cranks, Bio-Grips, Avenger Headset, Brake Tamers and Hound Dawg tyres to name but a few. Well worth a watch, includes some great action scenes, who needs 6 inches of all mountain capability to shred ;) Credit to 90s NORBA Racer for the original you tube upload.

Retrobike has been informed the iconic early 90s tyre the Onza Octopus is being reissued for 2021. For those who don't recall the early 90s the Octopus was the street orientated stable mate of the well regarded Porcupine. Just check eBay for used White Octopus and Porcupine prices. Release date is tbc but expect to see the reissued Octopus available in black, white and butterscotch compounds. Wheel sizes are expected to be 27.5" with both 650c and 700c gravel options. All tyres will be tubeless ready. No 26"option available in the initial offering but as ever watch this space. For reference the original article printed in @mbukmagazine is shown on the right. Expect street price to be a little over the original £14.95 retail.

Bike of The Month November 2020 was jointly won by Iveto1983’s 1990 Merlin Titanium. Check the poll here, you know it's a super strong month when there are Ibis, Salsa, Curtlo and two other Merlin in the runner's up spot.

Bike of The Month November 2020 was jointly won by Prezza’s 1990 Muddy Fox Trailblazer Sprint. Check the thread in reader's bikes here. Also...please don't mention the word 'gravel' ;)