retroislandbikes
Retro Newbie
Hello everyone, I thought it was about time I joined up and recorded a bit of my cycling history now that i've reached my mid 30's and retrobikes were actually the cutting edge rather than the past.
Aged 13 or 14 my first decent bike was a 1995 Trek 6500, with snowflake wheels and a punishing oversized aluminium frame. I rode that up and down Snowdon a few times, my body taking quite a pounding I remember having to stop and shake the blood back into my hands thanks to rigid forks and cantis. Tacoing the wheels saw a nice shiny new set of Mavic 521CD ceramics which stood up to the beating handed out better than the lighter originals.
Saving up for a while saw an upgrade to a shiny new Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo, I remember it had some rubbish Rockshox forks on it, they were the first thing to be upgraded to some plusher Rockshox, which actually worked. Next up came 521's again, and a downgrade to 8 speed in search of longer lasting chains due to the mileage I was clocking up at the time. Not being able to drive we'd think nothing of riding to a mountain, then the actual ride, then home again. I was a fair bit fitter in those days! A hope C2 front disc was added at great expense, I think they were about £300 by the time i'd had a new wheel built
At the same time came a Marin B17, and learning to drive so weekend were spent firing ourselves down the mountains in the Lake District, Peak District and North Wales. I built it up as a downhill bike with a set of Stratos MX6 forks, Hope front disc, the 521's and some Tioga 2.3 Factory DH tyres which at the time seemed amazing. Running a single ring at the front meant it struggled a bit ot get it up hill, I became better at pushing to counteract this.
Motorbikes then sneaked in, the HooKooEKoo was stolen, the B17 was taken out for a spin occasionally, a move to London stopped my mountain biking, instead enjoying hustling with the traffic on a 3-speed ladies bike.
Moving out of London Bristol bound in 2010 saw a mid/late 90's Kona Cindercone arrive which is what i'd term as my main bike to this day. Having one I ended up buying another to pinch the set of Project 2's from, but ended up keeping that one as well.
That nearly brings us up to date, today I chanced upon a lovely Kona Kilauea, it appears fairly original still with the A:/ and B:/ drive tyres on it. I think my plans for it are simply to clean it up, give it a thorough service, then enjoy riding it. I may stick in a set of suspension forks i'll see how my older body copes with not having any first of all. It's got XT thumbshifters, front and rear mechs, Sugino cranks, LX hubs on Kona 399 rims. I'm not sure what year it is. The manual heftometer says it's pretty light, a fair bit lighter than my Cindercone with suspension forks.
Aged 13 or 14 my first decent bike was a 1995 Trek 6500, with snowflake wheels and a punishing oversized aluminium frame. I rode that up and down Snowdon a few times, my body taking quite a pounding I remember having to stop and shake the blood back into my hands thanks to rigid forks and cantis. Tacoing the wheels saw a nice shiny new set of Mavic 521CD ceramics which stood up to the beating handed out better than the lighter originals.
Saving up for a while saw an upgrade to a shiny new Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo, I remember it had some rubbish Rockshox forks on it, they were the first thing to be upgraded to some plusher Rockshox, which actually worked. Next up came 521's again, and a downgrade to 8 speed in search of longer lasting chains due to the mileage I was clocking up at the time. Not being able to drive we'd think nothing of riding to a mountain, then the actual ride, then home again. I was a fair bit fitter in those days! A hope C2 front disc was added at great expense, I think they were about £300 by the time i'd had a new wheel built
At the same time came a Marin B17, and learning to drive so weekend were spent firing ourselves down the mountains in the Lake District, Peak District and North Wales. I built it up as a downhill bike with a set of Stratos MX6 forks, Hope front disc, the 521's and some Tioga 2.3 Factory DH tyres which at the time seemed amazing. Running a single ring at the front meant it struggled a bit ot get it up hill, I became better at pushing to counteract this.
Motorbikes then sneaked in, the HooKooEKoo was stolen, the B17 was taken out for a spin occasionally, a move to London stopped my mountain biking, instead enjoying hustling with the traffic on a 3-speed ladies bike.
Moving out of London Bristol bound in 2010 saw a mid/late 90's Kona Cindercone arrive which is what i'd term as my main bike to this day. Having one I ended up buying another to pinch the set of Project 2's from, but ended up keeping that one as well.
That nearly brings us up to date, today I chanced upon a lovely Kona Kilauea, it appears fairly original still with the A:/ and B:/ drive tyres on it. I think my plans for it are simply to clean it up, give it a thorough service, then enjoy riding it. I may stick in a set of suspension forks i'll see how my older body copes with not having any first of all. It's got XT thumbshifters, front and rear mechs, Sugino cranks, LX hubs on Kona 399 rims. I'm not sure what year it is. The manual heftometer says it's pretty light, a fair bit lighter than my Cindercone with suspension forks.
