shamobius
BoTM Winner
No bike will ever have as much value to me as this one, it couldn't. You could give me the option of a $30,000 build of mint unobtanium draped over the rarest frame, and I'd take what I have now. Have now finally. Have now finally again in my possesion, after one of the greatest gaffing-est blunders I have ever asundered...
I started mountain biking in 1985 (age 16) on a Maruishi Discovery
and was hooked right away.
Went through a couple broken frames and minor component upgrades, but could never afford to buy anything decent. Back then the purchase of a new derailleur took months of scrimping to come up with. Then, the summer I finished high school I had money! And I knew exactly what to spend it on, after reading this:
There it was, the holy grail of coolness. I memorized that review, and after a month of treeplanting in the wilds of British Columbia, I wrote a letter to Doug Bradbury and placed an order for a Manitou frame, fork and stem. I even sent him some rough drawings of the frame design and geometry I was looking for. By reply he sent me his brochure (not a pic of my original):
A couple of phone calls to Doug and we had it sorted out. By October the frame was finished, and I built it up with the parts I had hanging from my current ride. A bit of a hodge-podge, but mostly good serviceable gear.
I rode that bike hard, mostly on rocky tight trails, more trials riding than cross country. We were all about who could ride the craziest descent, hop up rock faces without falling over backwards caught in our toeclips, a real one-up show of friendly spirited competition.
Helmets hadn't been invented yet... You can see my friends yellow Yeti in the background of this pic.
But after a while with the bike, and a bent pair of forks, I began to question the tall head tube that Doug had talked me in to. I had wanted something shorter than 5", but ended up with a 7" head tube, that seemed to put me up too high for the style of riding we were doing. So, I sold the bike to the tallest friend I had (he was 6'4") and moved on...
I started mountain biking in 1985 (age 16) on a Maruishi Discovery
and was hooked right away.
Went through a couple broken frames and minor component upgrades, but could never afford to buy anything decent. Back then the purchase of a new derailleur took months of scrimping to come up with. Then, the summer I finished high school I had money! And I knew exactly what to spend it on, after reading this:
There it was, the holy grail of coolness. I memorized that review, and after a month of treeplanting in the wilds of British Columbia, I wrote a letter to Doug Bradbury and placed an order for a Manitou frame, fork and stem. I even sent him some rough drawings of the frame design and geometry I was looking for. By reply he sent me his brochure (not a pic of my original):
A couple of phone calls to Doug and we had it sorted out. By October the frame was finished, and I built it up with the parts I had hanging from my current ride. A bit of a hodge-podge, but mostly good serviceable gear.
I rode that bike hard, mostly on rocky tight trails, more trials riding than cross country. We were all about who could ride the craziest descent, hop up rock faces without falling over backwards caught in our toeclips, a real one-up show of friendly spirited competition.
Helmets hadn't been invented yet... You can see my friends yellow Yeti in the background of this pic.
But after a while with the bike, and a bent pair of forks, I began to question the tall head tube that Doug had talked me in to. I had wanted something shorter than 5", but ended up with a 7" head tube, that seemed to put me up too high for the style of riding we were doing. So, I sold the bike to the tallest friend I had (he was 6'4") and moved on...
