The Introduce Yourself Here Thread III

[brocklanders023]

Hello Everyone!

I've had an interest in bikes since the late 80's/early 90's. My friend and I saved up for untill we could afford our first 'proper' bikes. Mine was an '89 Saracen Tufftrax in blue (Later sold to my brother in law who recently informed me he'd chucked it in a skip last year!!) and his was a '90 Marin Palisades. Thems was the days.

In '93 I got a year or so old Orange Clockwork LX that I loved. I drifted out of the sport around '97 when girls and beer got in the way but I kept hold of my trusty Clockwork. I flirted with riding again around 2000 when I got my first (and current) proper job and got myself a GT XCR 4000. Kicked myself for not getting another Orange as I never really got on with the GT and it was eventually sold to a friend.

Around '05 my Marin loving chum decided we should get back into biking and it didn't take much effort to get me looking at the latest bikes. After my GT experiance I decided to go hard tail and got an '05 Orange Evo4 that was great (another now sold to a mate). After a house move in '07, and feeling flush, I fell for the Orange 5 Pro Hope so upgraded. This is still my main ride although I quite fancy an '09 frame.

All this time my Clockwork hung about in the background but a year or two ago I realised it was just to small for me and it deserved to be riden so it went on ebay. Maybe one of you lot picked it up? It's a 90/91 orange and white fade with '93 LX shifters and (nearly new) crank. It also had various Mint Sauce stickers from BITD. My ebay ID is the same as the one on here.

Anyway, I've missed the Clockwork ever since and found this site while looking about on google for another. My friend is talking about building a single speed 29er so I decided I need to build a retro classic. I'm looking at a Clockwork or early P7 as a base and going from there. I might end up with the 2007 Clockwork frame but use retro gear for the rest of it. This is a brilliant site but I can see it taking up much of my time and money!! Hope you're all well and no doubt see you about on the forum.

 

[heero]

Hello everyone,

I discovered the sport of Mountain Biking in 93/94, my first year in university in Canada. I and my roomate were looking for commuter for riding around the town. While we were in the LBS, we were stunned to find out that suspension was used in bikes and we started learning everything about MTB. At the end, we both bought the same CroMo frame (i think it's a Nishiki) with a front suspension fork as our commuter and started trying dirt riding. We were happy to ride around the town with it and soon we want something better for serious trail riding.

2 years later, I was sold to a Cannondale Super V Carbon 900 simply because the frame looks radical. I and my roomate would hit the trail few times a week after school except winter. That were the best days in my memories~

In 97, I graduated and return home to Hong Kong along with my Super V. There weren't much place allowed for MTB riding in Hong Kong (it wasn't a popular sports) and I've left my bike standing alone in the living room for almost 10 years.... It was still a pleasure to look at the bike, hopping on in the living room but not riding on the trail.

Few months ago, Cannondale had my attention once again by introducing their new all mountain purpose frame MOTO and I bought it from my LBS almost right away and started going back to trail.

I found this forum while I was searching around for my dream bike - Super V DH. Reading this forum brings back a lot of good old memories, e.g. Yeti ARC AS-LT, Manitou FS, etc. And thanks to this forum, Super V DH is now a member of my bikes family now~

 

[al-onestare]

Ezy all.

Another Kona lover here, specifically Cinder Cones. Purchased my first back with my first uni grant in 93. Was nicked within a year and through the insurance ended up with a 95. That was nicked two years later and I kept my trusty 97 with me.

Back in 2006 I decided it was high time to get back into cycling after moving house and having space to mess around with bits and pieces. I stuck some slicks on the old horse, lubed a-hoy and started commuting to the city from Bromley. Most of the original kit was going strong.

All was well until I was knocked off by some pcunt that autumn. Frame was a right-off. Thanks to the ebay I purchased another 97 but it needed and indeed, still needs much love. It's fully functional and I use it every day for the ride in but I've figured it's high time it had some love.

Hence a re-spray is on the cards, and new kit is already ordered and on order.

I do a fair bit of charidee rides so if you see a wheezing 30 something on a blue Kona it's probably me!

 

[Gruff]

Thought i'd better post on here as been using the site since back end of 2008.
Always been into bikes thru' 80's BMx's then road then MTB's around '92/93.
1st bike was a 1993 Kona Hahanna which got heavily modified over a couple of years including a set of Rond CNC'd elastomer Sus forks which were great!
I then went to the other end of the Kona list & px'd my Hahanna for a 2nd hand '94 Kula.....mmmmm gold this was my dream bike of the time & it was great until i managed to crack the head tube. I sent it away for a new tube to be fitted then re-heat treated & a respray but i always had that niggle that it wasn't as strong so sold it to a bloke in sweden!
I used the money to buy the best bike i have ever owned an AMP RESEARCH B4 with B3 forks. it was candy red with a polished seat stay & rear end. it got a very early set of xt v brakes & beacuse i couldn't get any shimano levers for them i had to buy some Pauls Love Levers (much to my Mrs disgust at £80) this is the only bike i have a photo of so i will try to dig it out & scan it.
I then stopped riding for a while & as i needed some money i sold the AMP!!! more fool me looking at the prices now!! :cry:

I then went thru' a rigid trials 26" but got bored real quick so sold that within a year & discovered the forum RADBMX & ended up restoring a Firebird Freestyler(Mid life crisis the other half said )
Anyway that went & i bought a 1999 Kona NU NU to ride around the park with the kids.Then i found RetroBike!!
Now am after a steel Kona as even though my bum has more suspension than it used to i find Alu too hard!

I think thats enough rambling now as you lot will be asleep
Gruff

 

[SStumpjump]

Well, I'm 34 years old, living in Denmark, working in the bikeindustry. I found this site while looking for inspiration for my old frame. Hooked...

I've been into bikes since 1873 or so, starting with BMX, moving to road as a young teenager, then got my first mountainbike in 1993.

Started of with a crappy taiwaneese frame with DX and XT, but quickly moved the good bits to a nice light Easton frame with MAG21's back in '94.
Since then I've had numerous bikes, all in several build-ups: Litespeed Obed '96, Specialized FSR Comp '98, Stumpjumper '97 (still got that), Rockhopper Comp '97, Chameleon, Bullit, Schwinn Rocket 88, DMR Trailstar, Specialized P1 and probably a few more I don't recall...
I've been taking a break from biking for almost 4 years, but recently got a brand new LaPierre Zesty, a found my trusty old Stumpy in the shed.

The Stumpjumper Cro-Mo '97 is now being sandblasted and painted, and will be built up as a nice, rigid singlespeeder - to balance the high-tech carbon-long-travel LaPierre. :roll:

So within a month or so, I should be back on the wheels of my beloved Stumpjumper again, hoping to get the motivation back to get out and ride more.

 

[hondamatic]

Hi everyone.

I'm a Canadian - originally from Regina, but I lived in Calgary for a while and now I live in Kitchener-Waterloo, near Toronto. I'm an engineer for a certain, well-known cellphone brand's design office there

I turn 26 next week. I worked weekends as a 14-year-old to buy a leftover '97 Trek 6000. I started riding in the '98 season, and eventually saved to buy a '99 Stumpjumper Comp. In my teens I did sport-class racing and rode with a few clubs. During university I rode with a bike club, and I got into DH riding in '06 and '07 - I rode at Whistler and Mount Seven. I had a Cannondale Gemini, and later a Specialized Demo 7 II.

I bought a leftover '08 Specialized FSR Stumpjumper Comp last month, but I still keep up my '99 Stumpjumper. (I had an '02 Giant Reign 2 in between, but it wasn't suited to flatter Ontario riding.)

As far as vintage stuff goes... well, I'll never part with my '99 Stumpjumper. However, it's well-used and I'd sooner keep it useable rather than 'retro' - it has a newer Fox Fork, newer Deore and XT parts, etc. Of course I get nostalgic when I see '96-99 stuff; I was very into the hobby at that time. I'd love to find a steel Kona, a steel Brodie, maybe a Bontrager? My co-worker has a '91 Stumpjumper M2 with Team parts - he worked at Alcan when they were doing fatigue tests on the frameset. I've discussed finding him a $400 used bike and trading him. But honestly, I need the money for riding gear and parts for my current bikes! (You guys know how life goes...)

I'll add pics of the Stumpjumper later. Good to find this group.

 

[mr_ship]

Thanks for a great site, only found it recently!! Currently sitting offshore taking a few trips down memory lane....My bike history so far;

'90 Trek 7000
'92 Kona Explosif
'93 Manitou Hardtail ( I wish I still had this!)
'95 Stumpjumper M2 FS (which my sister has)
'99 Stumpjumper FSR XC Comp (still have)
'05 Scott Scale 30
'06 Commencal Meta 5.5.2

The Manitou was an awesome bike, why did I sell it, must've needed the cash. Purchased from Blossomgate Cycles(as it was then) in Ripon and built up with Graftons, Machine Tech brakes, Pauls Love levers, Ringle hubs, snowflake front wheel, Tioga Disc drive...bloody great sound they made....rumbling around the Dales :cry: Wonder if it's still alive?

Keep up the good work fellas.

 

[Marshall]

Hi guys, came across this site totally by accident while searching for some info on a Sintesi I'm selling. Been into mountain biking for about 5 years now, started out doing a cross country ride with a few mates but soon discovered that I liked the DH sections more than the uphills (who doesn't?) which in turn led me down the downhill route.

I'm based over in the Isle of Man, where we've got some nice fun and fast trails on the go, although nothing official but enough to keep us from being bored. Other interests are classic/retro cars and keeping the missus happy. Currently have a Mk1 Escort undergoing restoration, at a snails pace, and last week found the missus an immaculate 1984 Mk2 Golf 1.6D, to replace her old Mini.

Bike history is quite alot for the past 5 years, as you'll see in the pics below.


Giant AC2

Intense Tazer

Cortina DHE-8

Foes Mono DHS

Iron Horse Sunday

GT iT1

Giant DH Team

And finally, the Sintesi Bazooka

I've currently got the Sintesi frame and a few bits up for sale to make way for a Keewee Cromo8 which should be on it's way to the Island as I type this, pic of that below.

So yeah, that's me.

 

[SassafrasSprings]

Finally introducing myself!

Hi everyone!!

I've been lurking for awhile and finally decided to say HI!! I'm Barbara and along with hubby Greg live in Oklahoma, USA. We have several older bikes and really like them. Some are listed in our signature. We love all the information and knowledge there is available here.

We are fairly new riders (August 200 and got into the older bikes quite by accident. We hadn't ridden since we were children and didn't want to spend much so older bikes seemed the way to go. Now we would never consider a new bike and have probably spent way more than the new bikes would have cost. LOL :shock: :twisted: Bikes have taken over about 99% of our free time.

I'll be posting some pictures of some of our bikes later in reader's bikes. Just wanted to introduce ourselves properly first.

 

[JFoo]

Hi,

I got into mountain biking back in the early 90s (I was about 12-13 years old) with an old Taiwanese-made clunker with thumbshifters that barely worked and a rigid fork that got quickly bent out of shape. My first serious purchase after months of bugging my parents was a '94 Kona Lava Dome with a Marzocchi fork and mostly LX parts. I used the bike a lot over the years that followed and loved it, but stopped riding when I moved to New York for college and passed the bike to a friend.

In '07, I found myself living in London and the desire to make weekend trips to Wales led me to my LBS (Evans Cycles - Liverpool St) where I picked up a Scott Scale with XT parts. I had some fun rides on it in Wales but never really fell in love with it the way I did with my Kona.

Anyway, I've moved back to Singapore recently, along with the Scott. I still go on weekend rides with my old riding buddies over here (They ride a '92 Kona Hot, a '96 Answer Full Sus, '96 Giant) and recently got my old Kona back from my friend. Its still in decent shape and I'm committed to spending some time and money restoring it at the bike store over the next few weekends. Love the feel of the steel frame! it also wieghs significantly less than the Scott Scale that I have.

Will probably be removing the front fork and replacing it with a rigid Kona Project Two fork.

Best,
Jeremy