#Justsaying

[Whatleymeister]

My first real bike was a '98 (I think :? Rockhopper FS. Indy C front forks that flexed loads, and specialized finishing kit which I thought looked quite good for the money. Sold that to a friend of mine who still has it. Bit of a bugger really, it has a lovely minty set of Z1 BAM forks on it which I am still thinking of trying to get back!

Second one I miss, though it was never a bike for just riding around and i never had the brass to really push, was my 2005 Kona Stinky. You could just sit down and float over almost any bumps. Some awesome kit too - upgraded Junior T's from that year, full Hope M4 discs, the price I got for it should have made me keep it really :cry:

 

[pete_mcc]

To be honest I am only too happy that mine were sold, scrapped or stolen - all I am left with now are memories and every single one of them is positive and happy which far outweigh the love/hate relationship I now have with early, low end bikes.

Its a bit like wedding day photos vs video. Photos only capture the great bits: the blushing bride, the first kiss, the cake cutting and all in beautiful black and white. These are happy memories that will endure and a good photographer makes sure that all the shit photos go in the bin. A video on the other hand is far too real: It shows the rain clouds, best man having a fag outside the church, the ashen-faced groom barely able to stop from vomiting after the stag do, the vicar with the speech impediment, the screaming kid, the reception fight....

Give me the glorious photo memories that I can weave into some magic memory of what my first bike was and not the technicolour video of what ownership of the bike was really like warts and all.

The grass roots of an obsession is the feeling you got when out riding, not the bike you were using when you did it

 

[Matthews]

Still got mine but it looks like it's going to be retired due to cracking alloy frame, hopefully will use all the bits on another frame
Matthew

 

[Neil]

Whilst I understand your perspective, I feel it's coloured by your current views on bikes, rather from those back in the day.

The grass roots of an obsession is the feeling you got
when out riding, not the bike you were using when you did it

And that is where I disagree - and I suspect many here, will.

For just as many, that first, true mountain bike wasn't just some transient thing they'd like to forget, now, because it looks a bit ordinary in contrast to revisionist perception of bikes. It was something they planned on, wanted, spent a lot of time on, upgraded, had many happy hours - and yes, maybe moved on to other things.

Sure, for some, it may have been nothing more than a bit of misty-eyed, rose-tinted, euphemistic experience of mountain biking - like a drunken night out, fun at the time, but they'd largely like to forget most of it, now - but for many, it was more than a brief encounter, that's something of an embarrassment, now.

 

[MiniNinjaRob]

Whilst I understand your perspective, I feel it's coloured by your current views on bikes, rather from those back in the day.

The grass roots of an obsession is the feeling you got
when out riding, not the bike you were using when you did it

And that is where I disagree - and I suspect many here, will.

For just as many, that first, true mountain bike wasn't just some transient thing they'd like to forget, now, because it looks a bit ordinary in contrast to revisionist perception of bikes. It was something they planned on, wanted, spent a lot of time on, upgraded, had many happy hours - and yes, maybe moved on to other things.

Sure, for some, it may have been nothing more than a bit of misty-eyed, rose-tinted, euphemistic experience of mountain biking - like a drunken night out, fun at the time, but they'd largely like to forget most of it, now - but for many, it was more than a brief encounter, that's something of an embarrassment, now.

Spot on that man!! 22 years after starting, every single spare penny spent on mountain bikes, it's an obsession all right and I LOVE IT!

 

[Neil]

This place is what enabled me to be able to buy another of my first real mountain bike.

After misty-eyed reminiscing in a thread here, about my long, lost (stolen, actually) Lenore - there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door, who offered me the chance of buying back that bit of history and nostalgia, that was my first love in mountain biking.

That truly was a moment of recapturing those first days of mountain biking to me, and being able to ride the very same bike, that I spent so much time on, and rode so many miles, BITD, and it did truly bring back the memories and feelings. And I didn't ride it, or look at it and curse it - I remembered why I'd bought it, rode it and enjoyed it so much.

Maybe that's a thing for some - maybe their first bike wasn't such a great experience? Perhaps that colours the perspective of some on what or how they'd like to remember their first bike.

Nevermore.

 

[ferrus]

I still have my first mountain bike, my beloved Breezer Storm; couldn't conceive parting with it - to be mauled and abused by somebody else *shudder*
For me it's an insecurity/retentive thing, -I like to think that every thing I buy is going to last for ever, even if it's a potato peeler. (RetroPANTS excepted).

 

[elPedro666]

My first proper mtb was knicked so no chance of ever seeing that again :cry: Full deore lx first year of the all black set, flite saddle and all other blingy bits. :cry: :cry: God I loved that bike I was physically sick when I discovered it nicked.

I lost two Cannondales this way, one from a van and one from underneath me! I had changed every single nut, bolt and washer and had them all listed (well I had to do something in school), the insurance company must've wondered what the hell was going on when the details of the claim went in!

That Delta-V would be a serious BotM contender if I still had it...

 

[pete_mcc]

Whilst I understand your perspective, I feel it's coloured by your current views on bikes, rather from those back in the day.

Exactly. I would never want to ride my first mountain bike again in a vague attempt to recreate that 'first ride' feeling as that will destroy and dispel any myth I have created around it due to the simple fact that the bike was shit.

The feeling was not due to the bike at all, it was due to the sense of liberation and freedom

 

[ferrus]

The feeling was not due to the bike at all, it was due to the sense of liberation and freedom

afforded by that 'shit' bike though surely? ...are they that exclusive?