Explain the UK scene, in your words, your history

[nobby the sheep]

breif

this is going to be breif so here goes ;
started of in 89 with K highlander then raleigh apex ,kona explosif ,gt zasker le ,proflex 856,kona manomano ,spooky band wagon ,gt lts 2000ds',orange 222 team animal gbr,orange patriot , voodoo ezruile,gt lobo[steve peats],cannondale f400,norco team xc ,voodoo hoodoo,giant cadex,felt virtue,cotic soul ,cotic BFE and hopefully comeing soon a 91/92 clockwork

 

[Barneyballbags]

Started in 1990 at the grand old age of 10. First bike was a Diamond Back Traverse

- Raced XC for a few years, did quite well.
- Turned to Dual Slalom as it was then called. Loved it.
- Progressed to DH. REALLY loved it.
- Got a bit more sensible and got into the Enduro scene.

Bikes along the way included (in no particular order) a Klein Attitude Race, Lotus, Orange Airo, Spesh S Works M2, Storm H2, Storm Cornerworker, Intense M1, Trek 8000, Spesh S Works Enduro, Rocky Mountain Vertex 70, Spesh Demo 8, Dirt Works Pirahna, Cove Stiffee x 2, GT Zaskar Carbon 4x Team Issue.... And others

Got a little bit fed up with the whole "keeping up with the Jones'.." routine over the last 7-8 years or so whereby a lot of people buy bikes simply because they're the newest bit of tech, or the latest fashionable niche. Freeride Light? What the feck is that?

Sold all my modern bikes when I moved to Penarth (apart from the Zaskar Carbon which someone helped themselves to when I wasn't looking)... Have now got an '92 Alpinestars Cro Mega LX as the one and only bike (for now) and have realised how much I love it. I'm going to take it to the CRC Enduros this year and see how many trendy people I can whip on the downhills

 

[MikeD]

At risk of undermining the hypothesis a bit... As 16/17yr olds in the early 90s my school friends and I were well aware of Fat Chance and Klein and Mantis and Grove and Yeti and weirdies like Sonoma and Monolith thanks to the ready availability of MBA in the local newsagent. But it was all impossibly exotic and inaccessible (despite the amaing exchange rate making the prices in the BikePro ads being really very reasonable...). So in reality we had Treks and Saracens and Marins and Konas

The high-end US stuff seemed a world away at the time (especially since it was always sunny in MBA and always raining at home) and almost unreal. The "cool" upgrades were the homegrown stuff - USE, Pace, Middleburn etc.

 

[brocklanders023]

Good thread jonnyboy and my history almost mirrors yours.

First mtb/atb I ever rode was Adam Pickles Mustang around Carlton park (1987?). At the time we all had bmx's or road bikes so the Mustang was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. From this point I (and the rest of the village) just had to have one of these new fangled 'all terrain' bikes so my search began.

Me and my friend (beavis) wanted various bso's for various reasons (Peugeot Lazer 'cos it looked like the roadie bike I wanted, Mustang cos Adam's was a super bike, Appollo Blizzard cos I liked the colour) but because I was young and had to save for years for anything, by the time I had any realistic chance of getting one I'd set my sights on a bike of higher quality. By this time I'd found MBUK and also realised the local bike shop in Skipton sold better bikes then Halfords so decided I had to have the 1989 Saracen Tufftrax that sat in said bike shop and also in the MBUK adds. Beavis decided upon the 1990 Marin Palisades so we put down our deposits and slowly chipped away at the outstanding balance. Then, one glorious day we both collected our bikes. Why did I choose the Saracen? It was the most expensive bike I could blag my Mum to let me have, it looked far more like a modern bike then the Mustang and I liked the colour.

Over the next few years the Orange brand was exploding around my corner of Yorkshire. The cool bike shops had them, the cool riders rode them and they were seen as local. Had to have one so my next bike was a Clockwork. I had a subscription to MBUK by this point so what they said was the law. My Clockwork was all the bike I needed (It was an ORANGE, for gawds sake!) so I stuck with it until I drifted out of the sport around 1995. If I had bought another bike it would have probably been an Orange, although I did flirt with Alpinestars and Marin for a time.

I remember thinking the Funk's, Manitou's, Merlin's and Yeti's that I saw in MBUK were very cool but also very out of my price range so I never thought too much about having one. The only bike of this standard I really wanted was the Yo Eddy. I seem to remember that a Yo frame was not stupid money, it shared my name, and Zac Tempest (A god to a teenager) had one so it was an obvious choice. Never got one but I will one day

I'm finding that my interest in retro bikes is based around the experiances above. I've tried post 1995 retro bikes but they just don't do it. I would like to try more brands then those listed above but I bet if I do they won't stay in my collection for long. The really early gear (even the really iconic stuff) justed looked like old bikes to me when I was young. I'd have turned my nose up to the likes of Cunningham bitd so it just does not register now.

I'm not a MTB historian, I just like the scene and a selection of bikes that mean something to me.

 

[jonnyboy666]

actually mike i don't think your comment does undermine anything, it confirms that it was out of our reach, even if you were aware of it, also not every local newsagent stocked an american bike mag, the bigger ones maybe but not local ones in the new forest.

 

[Andy B]

You may want to go to the loo, or get a drink before you read my personal UK MTB history, it may take some time to read.....

...It all started out when my best mate at school had a Raleigh Maverick ATB in the mid '80's, I had a go round the block on it and I was hooked, my Dawes Lightening 5 speed racer was history. I wanted, no needed an ATB...

A few months must have passed and a big box arrived from the catalogue company, I always had my lunch at home as school wasn't very far away, so I set about building up the contents of the big brown box. A Raleigh Mustang (black and white version) began to take shape, lunch went out of the window as I needed to get this bike built up and ridden back to school to show all my mates. Lunchtime passed and the bike wasn't ready to ride, I was late for school and without my new shiny bike, boy was I gutted!

So the bike finally got built up that evening and I spent hours ragging it around the local seafront and in the sand dunes, I was such a happy bunny

Time passed on a bit and some scrote decided that they wanted the bike more than I did This was the first bike I'd had stolen from me, I remember the feeling of coming back to where the bike should have been to this day, utter devastation as I saw the broken lock on the floor, I knew I'd not see that bike again.

Anyway the house insurance paid up and another Mustang was mine, this time it was the marbled purple version, again hours of fun were had on that ATB until again some scrote decided they wanted it more than I did

So once again the house insurance came to the rescue and I upgraded to a Claud Butler Magma (the one with the forest green paint flecks over a gloss black paintjob). Claud Butlers were all the rage in my town, the factory was only a 40 minute drive away and plenty of Claud's were to be seen rolling up & down the seafront.

Then whilst shopping for my new skateboard I came across a shop that sold Marin mountain bikes, oh my God, they were beautiful, I had to have one, but the prices of them meant that I had no chance of owning one, so I carried on drooling over them for several years until the shop closed down.

The LBS that had supplied my purple Mustang also stocked Muddy Fox, the white and purple Courier was now the subject of my bike lust, but again the price was too high for my hard working parents to afford & my paper round simply didn't pay enough for me to have one even if I'd have saved up for years!

After the Claud Butler went the same way as the Raleigh's I sold my electric guitar and bought a Ridgeback 602, which lasted a whole 2 weeks before someone unscrewed my parents shed door and stole it along with a crate of beer

Thoroughly gutted as I had no guitar or bike I completely lost my passion for cycling and bought a car.

10 years passed before I got the bug again, a '98 Scott Peak was purchased from the LBS I now work in! The Peak was a superb bike and I loved throwing it around the local woods and the trails up at Dalby forest, the bike is now owned by my best friends father and is still in regular use.

Then it all went a bit modern in 2003 with an Orange Gringo... but that's a story for another time...

During all my time with the older bikes I had no idea about the history of the sport, or about any other brands that weren't available in our local bike shops.

There were a lot of UK built bikes in the shops Falcon, Claud Butler & Saracen to name a few, exotica to me was either Marin or Muddy Fox, U brakes along with Exage groupsets. This probably explains why I prefer the retro bikes that I now own & why I don't lust after the high end bikes from back in the day, although I do appreciate them I don't think I'd like to own one

It's only since joining this forum that I have discovered the history of the sport I love so much and the innovations that helped create the bikes that bring such a smile to my face and make me forget about anything other than the few feet ahead of my front wheel.

 

[dirtydozen]

im only 28 so wasnt on the 'scene' till the 90s
Started with BMXs (DB and then GT)
First MTB was a GT outpost if i remember correctly which was replaced by a 91 klien attitude bought by my parents.
It was set up for road use, slicks and all, and being a teenager wanting to go more offroad i wanted sus. This was a problem with the klien not only down to the oversize headset but also coz the klein stem/handlebar (MC-1 isnt it called?) and chunky forks made the bike so i didnt want to spoil it
The klien ended up in the loft and i got an RTS-3 frame and built it up.
When i turned 16 though the powered wheels took over and i went through a couple of 50cc bikes before getting my car.
I have only just recently got back into MTBs and feel like a kid again, I have started with a GT lts300 but it wont be the last.
Dream bike would be a pace, not sure what model but saw one at the birmingham bike show in myearly years and wanted one since
Would have to admit i do favour american bikes

 

[brocklanders023]

During all my time with the older bikes I had no idea about the history of the sport, or about any other brands that weren't available in our local bike shops.

It's only since joining this forum that I have discovered the history of the sport I love so much and the innovations that helped create the bikes that bring such a smile to my face and make me forget about anything other than the few feet ahead of my front wheel.

Nail and head

 

[sinnerman]

actually mike i don't think your comment does undermine anything, it confirms that it was out of our reach, even if you were aware of it, also not every local newsagent stocked an american bike mag, the bigger ones maybe but not local ones in the new forest.

I would like to confirm this statement. the american MBA magizine played a huge part, in our world...... at the devon and cornwall..... end of the country.,

we always bought MBUK, however, MBA was only sold, in WHsmiths, and my friends and i would all try to be the first, to get into town to buy it.

Why did we do this....?????.....lol....

the American MBA magazine had advertising, and reviews, for trick custom stuff, high end product. The best bit of the magazine for me was always the same, the trade show pages..... showing pictures of things like Yeti, Mantis, Breezer, Mountain goat, Cunningham, and all the cool Cnc and aluminium components, Grafton, Cooks, Bullseye, etc etc etc.

It became like a competition on the school playground, who could get the MBA mag first,, my friends and i all new, this magazine showed what was new and what was to come.......and it always showed it, at least a month or two before Mountain biking uk, followed by Mountain bike International magazines.

I still buy it, and always have done. my regret i wish i had kept a lot more of the early ones.

 

[player]

I was 16 and remember seeing MBUK in 1989 for the first time,the one with Mike kloser on the front and that really started it for me really.Having been into bmx for a while it just seemed alot cooler.

My first bike i bought was in 1990 was a 89 Saracen Tuffrax i bought new was was just great but the constant local rides (Woburn woods and Stockgrove Park area)which were daily were killing the original Shimano stuff so kitted the whole bike in the end to full XT11 gears,hubs and brakes,MA40 rims and then it got nicked(the usual story i know)I ended up doing plenty of xc races on it and started to see what others were racing in early 1990 and they all seemed to be Marins,Offroads,Konas,Oranges and other Saracens.I always couldnt wait for the next Zoom installment in MBUK to see who was riding what and who Tim gould was beating the next.I dont seem to remember any trick bolt on stuff at that time apart from those original Rock shox RS1 and then later manitou.

My second bike was a Trek 990 in red i bought in about late 91,had that for about a year untill i ghost rode it done Totternhoe Knolls and bars twisted so my Magura brake lever smashed into the top tube and that was that.Funilly enough my mates were looking how strong my Maguras were on that ride during standstill they were pulling on my levers and watching my bosses splay out.

I then bought a Pace RC100 with RC35 and tricked to the max with Pace hubs,bars,Use ti post and Ringle Ti Stix.I was then buying MBA along with MBUK and MBI,i couldnt decide which was best so bought all three.That other post was right about the photos in MBA though,blue skys and Toby Henderson getting air on those dry trails.I thought that mag gave me the best bike info for sure and you could almost see the next fad before it hit our shores.

I just couldnt get on with the stiff ride of the Pace to part exchanged it for a Manitou,my first Yankee bike.I t had matching forks with Grafton Joy sticks cranks in blue and other Ringle bits and bobs.Loved that bike untill i got bored with the riding and racing and had a year out to pull and get drunk.So i sold that to help me get a Honda CRX V-tech.

Regret number one selling that bike.

That was a waste of time so started up again and went to Bromley Bike and bought something id seen before and that was a Yeti AS short travel frame.Full XTR,Ringle hubs,Post,skewers,stem,Cooks cranks all in blue and of course a Tioga disc drive which just had to be done.

That was the best bike ive ever had and regret number two as that was my last bike untill a year ago and about a twelve year lay off.

So what i learnt was by 93/94 i was well hooked on the big American trick stuff or suckered i dont know,but hey i did enjoy it while it lasted.


Cheers