NOSTALGIC MOMENT

[lobo Tim]

HI all just wanted to share this with you all. i was just sitting looking at my half build gt lobo 1000 dh. and thought to myself why do i have this bike theres so many newer better bikes out there. The reason is that way back when there was me and my best mate. in about 96 we were getting into the mountain bike scene we read mbuk and we always used to look at the new stuff coming out. At the time i had a mongoose hilltopper sx with rockshox quadra 5s and my mate had a giant with rst mozos the next four years were a real benchmark in my life we used to ride into our local town (mansfield) at nite with a few others and make jumps out of market stalls and then into the woods at weekends and always used to attend the nec bike shows. these memories are the most prominent of my childhood and always think if only i could have just one of those days again. And there i am the reason i have this bike is i always wanted one as a kid and to think i could ride this bike and feel even slightly as i did back then is an amazing thing. i wonder if there is any one who has a retro or old bike for the same reason or if mountain biking has touched any one elses life in the same way as mine ....... Lobo Tim.

 

[SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum]

Awesome story I'm sure we'll hear more good ones.

 

[kool maudit]

at the time, there was no sustained appreciation for the recent past; i was an increasing-up-the-ranks junior racer, and in 1992 (after placing at the bromont worlds) i got a local distributor-level deal with specialized, which meant my old 1990 neon 500lx nishiki e-stay and 1992 stumpjumper were sold off upon the arrival of the 1993, full m900 m2 team - and were long forgotten by the time the 94 fsr and 95 m2 came upon the scene.

now, it's odd. that 95 m2 was godly for the time - m900, ti bolts, hugi hubs, carbon judys...but i'd sooner find that hefty old nishiki and built it up with custom paint, 1990 xt and a pair of switchblades. i won more races, rode more miles and had more fun on my 93 m2 team than my 92 stumpy, but a nos purple frame would be far more desirable to me now.

it's the innocence, i guess. i got that nishiki at 12 or 13 - my buddy had the next model down, and we were young enough that our first copies of mountain bike action were perused by flashlight in couch cushion forts at his dads house. the success of racing, travelling, seeing the pros, that was great, but it was adult stuff. a young boy's initiation. running the 92 stumpy home from cyclesmith to show jason and ben my new toy was still kid-level, still self-contained, part of no larger world than my own fun.

my retro world is 1990-92, neon paint, maybe suspension but probably not, dx topmounts and yellow on black giro helmets. xizangs, psyclones painted in karakoram purple haze, a nod from the desire to what was realistic at that age.

my dream project is to build a yeti ultimate up in workmanlike dx, and paint it in the lime green-neon yellow fade that my humble old nishiki sported. white decals with pink borders even -

it's less a bike and more a hopeful stab at proust's madeleine.