What got you into riding?

[Bike Hoarder]

Had an older brother so i just followed him.

Off-road started on building sites, cause that's all there was, riding big piles of earth, and making ramps and stuff from bricks and boards.

When i started secondary school, i used to ride there, and take the long route home, usually over the hill. That progressed quite quickly to riding my 5 speed racer off-road.

I didn't get a Mountain Bike untill i was 14 (1991), didn't get a proper one till is was 15. Had a good friend at school who was a rider too, he had a Raleigh Apex, custom sprayed with mainly DX, he was cool.

Rest has been downhill, guess i've never stopped riding, bloody hell, i've been Mountain Biking for over 20 years!!!

 

[scant]

I lived on the side of a steep mountain.. my father was into motorbikes.. you can probably work out the rest when mountain bikes came out a few years later me & my mates all bought bikes.

 

[Augustus]

Mtb's - Summer 1987. Richmond Park. Muddy Fox Courier. Friend at school called Luke Peters (not on here are you Luke?)

 

[legrandefromage]

er... how shall I put this? um... 'family' issues - it got me safely away from the house, helped me forget 'stuff'.

 

[cchris2lou]

BMX was massive in my town with several good riders ( including a world champion ) , so did not take long to go from BMX to MTB .

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

I was into walking and wanted to cover bigger distances, just as mountain bikes came along a meeting of minds you could say. but before that I can remember growing up in the 70s in rural Lancashire and watching the local cycling clubs ride past on a sunday and thinking I want some of that, this was still the days of plus fours and carradice saddle bags, with a yellow cape straped on the back.

 

[Jamiedyer]

What got me into MTBing

What got me into MTBing?
The thought of chicks and the big money..............

 

[The Ken]

I've always been into cycling, taught myself to ride at age five when my dad was away, lots of bloody knees that day. (Raleigh Rodeo)

By 10 my mate and I were modding my little sisters bike so we could jump a burn with it... hurt my nuts that day, but cleared the burn ...must have been all of 4 feet

I got a racer (Viscount Sprint) in 82 just as ET came out and I learned to jump on that (bent the frame but didn't tell the parents) I could get further that the BMXs but that was down to the speed I could get up before the ramp.

I kept missing the trends a little - lived in a small village, so didn't get my first real MTB till '88 when I moved to edinburgh. (Rockhopper Comp)

But really I had been singletracking since age 6 or 7 (1975ish)

 

[IbocProSX]

Started riding off-road proper to stay fit for Windsurfing in winter.

When I got my first proper job I bought an MTB to ride to work. Lucky me by pure chance I decided on a used (90?ish) Stumpjumper. So when I took it to a local trail for a bit of fun it absolutely rocked! So the idea of keeping fit riding off-road was much more appealing than anything else.

The seeds for this move were planted some 16? years earlier though. BITD we had a little gang of kids who fumbled moped front suspension forks and front wheels in old crappy kids' bikes (Rivel anyone?). Singlespeed choppers they were and we'd ride them around the pits and heaps of building sites in the estate. I'm just getting to the point where I'm contemplating harassing the old folks in my moms street for ANYone who took pictures then ....

Enjoy!!

 

[greenfinger]

First 'big bike' as a boy was a raleigh burner. My dad's always been into all types of motorbikes so i used to tear around on the burner pretending i was on a scrambler Started getting really into bmx as time went on and eventually my life revolved around it. ....

Forward a little bit and i started going fishing alot and going further afield on my bike to do so. My mate was selling his muddy fox courier, so i tried it out and liked it and thought it would be better to cover distance to go fishing. i drifted away from fishing and started to love mtb's so that became my thing until maybe a couple of years after i discovered motorbikes and cars and had a break from cycling.