new arrival
hi all, Lee from Leigh here,
had a bmx background as a youngster riding/stunting, building and swapping/trading bits and pieces with friends , i found mountain biking through a friend i made around 89 , i used to borrow a beat up steel monster to go out for rides ,meanwhile i got a job at a bike local bike shop and so bought my first mountain bike on drip ,it was a raleigh "Mirage" purple thing a £265 bag of shite to be frank ,i was 5ft 5 at the time so obviously i needed a 21" frame being a big man of 16 years
, it was a tough learning curve on a bike three sizes too big , try running for a bus in clown shoes you get the idea,
a couple of years later still at the same bike shop, raleigh dealer , i bought a black silver dynatech mission , great bike i loved it for real and {drum roll} it fit my size, 17.5" ,yes thats the frame i am not a leprechaun,
i started getting busy by this time out and about at least 3 times a week the odd race but mostly for fun and risks ,
i later ,92 i think, decided to crack the misson frame in the workshop where i worked using a two pieces of wood and a big monkey wrench , heaved on the back dropout until it went daang , lol , ..why ? i here you ask !
well the titanium dynatechs had come out and i set my mind on the mt4 frame set ,,,so,
i needed money for the old mission frame ,and a brand new replacement from raliegh is easier to sell (i know its naughty but i was on a YTS course doing 40hrs a week earning less than £40 for my labour of love, at 18yrs old you are getting creative or acceptting your slavery ! ).
so i sold the brand new mission frame for £200 and put the money down on the mt4.......... ,rode it , raced it , crashed it ,lived for the ride ,
then one day i had a brain wave aabout stripping it of its paint ,
so firstly i stripped it of all its parts, then in a flash i neglected the bike and the sporrt and turned into a party head instead (to this day i dont know how that happened, it just did)
so it has remained in that compromised naked state ever since , id say about 15 years would be a close estimate :shock: :shock: :shock:
so that brings us to the hear and now,
i found this site looking for info about decals for the dynatech mt4 ,
ive still not stripped it completely
,but i have just ordered a m970 group so there is no backing out of the rebuild , i am gonna build this sucker to the best speck i can afford as a tribute to all those years of just scraping by as a poor boy . [que: violins]
its nice to be here at retro bike , ive been prowling the forums for some weeks now and i can tell we have a genuine group of good soul's here ,so i look forward to contributing to the community.
il post some pics shortly and i have a few questions to ask if thats hunky dory with you's
best wishes to all
Lee
ps
wow thats a lotta long waffle for a first post ,well !, you asked how did i get here, there it is !
