Most popular ATB ?

[FluffyChicken]

Start of the 90's for me to '95
Marin and Trek where the most popular by far, that way the are still with us and bought every other company out well pretty much.

Your dad could buy one, you local shop will have stocked them and they are proper MASS produced. So solid and cheap and had a proper sales pitch put in place

Hence why they are not cool and not lusted after in general.


People of course bought Orange and Kona's as they where generally affordable and NOT Marin's or Treks so cool back then.
Cool helps sell a bike to the non mass buying crowd that care about what they buy (well care what their friends think about what they buy cod the mags say they are cool)

GT and Specialised where the in between bikes from these two, not cool but not Trek or GT. Again shown buy the I love them and I hate them crowd.

That's of the mass names that are most common on here.

Of course there where others, but not popular on mass.

 

[passiflora]

For me Kona & Marin.

& OMG I remeber when a local shop opened selling Proflex, everyone wanted one..

 

[tintin40]

I saw lots of Muddy Fox and Specialized in my part of London plus a fair few Klein BITD

 

[velomaniac]

On Retrobike I think GT's and Konas are very popular, loads about. This probably means there was loads about BITD.

Round my kneck of the woods there were loads of everything mainstream as Edinburgh had loads of competing bike shops. In midlothian you seen lots of the cheaper often brit stuff as the area was predominantly working class low income. Raleighs, Falcons, Claud Butlers, Townsends, Emmelles etc :roll:

 

[lewis1641]

Early to mid 90's me and my chums rode ... Claud butler (when they were cool lugged and british) 4 kona hahana to kula. One alpinestars, one carrera, trek 930, trek y. Orange p7. Scott something or other. Oh diamond back apex and of course khs.

The khs and trek were sold in the village bike shop so no suprises there. Claud butler had a great name locally, all the cool kids at school had them.

 

[Fairyglass]

I managed a shop when mountain bikes first came over from the US. We sold loads of Muddy Fox Couriers, but the most popular bike we sold in the first few years was a pale yellow Saracen Tufftrax- would have been 2 or 3 years after the first mtbs emerged round our way. On a good day we sold 10 or 15, there were bloomin hundreds of them on the streets.
Later, Specialised Hardrocks took over- easy to assemble, well made and great value.
Later again, everyone went for GTs and Marins with that weird paint, and after that it all fragmented a bit. No idea what's popular now, I don't really care to be honest!

 

[lewis1641]

Always good to hear the input from former shopkeepers and staff from back in the day

 

[konaman1]

My first proper mtb was a lugged Claude Butler, it was a catalogue job and bloody massive either 21" or 23" frame far too big for me but l absolutely loved it.

Didn't get my next bike til l had my own coin, a 94 zaskar LE that actually fitted me

 

[dbmtb]

I think it was also a question of where you lived and what your local store sold. I started MTBing in Barnsley in 91 and most people were on Marins as that's what Cyco-sport sold....

Moved to Manchester in 92 and it was mostly Trek, Kona and GT as that's what Bicycle Doctor, Harry Hall and Discount Cycles in Cheadle sold.

Moved to Copenhagen in 94 and it was all Marins again as that's what Cykel-klubben was doing the best deal in town on.

 

[Matt2014]

I think it was also a question of where you lived and what your local store sold. I started MTBing in Barnsley in 91 and most people were on Marins as that's what Cyco-sport sold....

Moved to Manchester in 92 and it was mostly Trek, Kona and GT as that's what Bicycle Doctor, Harry Hall and Discount Cycles in Cheadle sold.

Moved to Copenhagen in 94 and it was all Marins again as that's what Cykel-klubben was doing the best deal in town on.

I can’t believe you mentioned cyco-sport. I bought my Marin hawk bill from there. Unfortunately it was stolen shortly after. I would pay too money to get that bike back.
I’m also looking for the cyco-sport decal if there’s anyone out there that has one?