Getting to Know You...Question #10...

[mwlikesbikes]

I got the urge to start biking again in my early 20s so I ressurected my old 10 speed that I got when I was probably 12 more or less. I soon realized that I needed a mt. bike. After shopping around a bit I got a shiny new 1991 Diamond Back Outlook from The Bicycle Rack In Spotswood. It was heavy, hi-ten steel, 18! speeds, And came with a kickstand!!!! But it introduced me to the joys of off road riding in faraway places like Cheesequake park. and I was hooked from there.

 

[kimrey]

The one I'm still riding over a decade later. Cannondale Killer V500.

Or maybe the one I rode way too long ago, back in the day of parachute pants - my first bike with hand brakes including one up front for endos! a Predator with mag wheels and bear trap pedals (who invented those things?! Shit they hurt!)

 

[don]

Life changing bike was in summer 1983 when I was racing my Schwinn Scrambler & I had gone through all my BMX mags and written out a component list of the ultimate BMX bike- total build sheet with the best of everything. I lost the list. I came down the steps on Xmas morning and saw the bike sitting there! Torker frame, redline cranks, hutch hubs, MCI neck, Shimano DX pedals, Uni seat...etc. exactly how I had written it down, with a couple of improvements courtesy of Rod at Howell Twp. bicycle world who built it and said it was the most 'rad' bike he had built in a long time. My grandfather had passed away in October & had left some money for me. My parents snagged the list used it to have the bike built as a last gift from Pop-pop. I literally grew up on that bike. Even if I wasnt riding, just hanging around the neighborhood talking, we'd all be on the bikes with the front wheel perpendicular & balancing while we chewed the fat. I still have it. I will always still have it!

That is the best story I've heard in a while. Very cool of you parents to do that. Sounds like a dialed bike too with the Torker frame and Redline cranks. Seeing as it was '83, I'm wondering if you spec'd Bottema forks for that thing I'd love to see a pic of it if you have one.

 

[ArmyOfNone]

For me it was not the bike that really did it for me. I was so lucky to happen to fall into a great group of guys who loved riding their bikes. They dragged me around the trails (and still do!) and taught me everything I know. Thanks!

But my first SS ride was an older model cannondale frame that J had in the shop. He built up an ENO wheel and that put my Yukon on the shelf. I knew from there SS was for me!

 

[ItsWin]

1989 Mongoose IBOC Pro, $700, Shimano Deore II with thumbshifters, Biopace (which I later switched to round rings), purchased with hard-earned burger-flipping money. First mountain bike. Rode it all through high school and college until it got stolen. I later found out it was too big for me. But first loves are unforgettable ...

 

[Steve Vai]

I've probably owned 100 bikes over the years, but I'll never forget my first mountain bike, a 1993 Kona Lava Dome. It was steel, rigid, and had a full Deore XT (OLDSKOOL) kit complete with 7-speed thumb shifters. Many years later I tried to replicate that bike and built a custom Kelly Deluxe, also rigid. And although those bikes were fun, this is the bike that changed everything I though I knew about mountain bikes

-Jim.

 

[jShort]

Not a mountain bike but I had an 89 Robinson Pro XL BMX bike.
That bike was so badass... I was such a little rebel punk when I had it.
I would terrorize the streets.
Bunnyhopping over anything... 8 skateboards stacked up, barrels, hoods of cars, :getsome::getsome::getsome:
I could bust out sick tabletops off curbs alone. My friend's sister has an old ass Polaroid of me and Ive been trying to get it from her for years....


Ahh.. the good old days....

 

[montclairbobbyb]

For me it was my 1985 Peugeot Orient Express. Paid $289 from Clifton Cycle on Van Houten Ave... in June of 85.

Ah, what a magical time it was.... and a WHOPPING 34 pounds... DOWNHILL MATERIAL!!!

BB

 

[wonderturtle]

my first mountain bike was Giant Iguana (would have been around 1990 maybe)...after braking the frame and twisting the fork in a bad spill...got a Bridgestone MB-4 (would have been around 1993). had that bike for about a decade before I got my current bike.

 

[bonefishjake]

i rode a couple of different mt bikes, a fisher hoo kee ko, some random mongoose, before i owned my first. the bike that really changed it for me was my trek 850. full on rigid, toe clips, shimmery purple paint and a tank. i remember thinking i had changed the world when i upgraded the rear DER from lx to xt. i had so much fun bombing around splitrock on that thing...of course, sans helmet.

too bad that bike was stolen in gettysburg. i replaced it with a trek 970 that i still have.

 

[Frank]

97 Trek 930 for me. 19.5" and too small but I love it anyway.

 

[BiknBen]

It was the spring of '87. I was finishing my Freshman year of high school. The Fuji Palisade was my bike of choice.

Ironically, I found a picture of this bike recently. JDog is using it as his Avatar. Yes, that is me in his avatar (1988).

 

[lou_b_83]

For me, it was not even my bike. It was a 06 Santa Cruz Nomad. My boss was going on a ride and I took it for a ride around the parking lot. Jumped down some stairs and BOOM I was hooded. No more BMX for me, its all about the Mountain now. And yes I do get to leave work on "lunch" with him for a quick ride in ringwood.

 

[Engignar]

A 96 GT Aggressor. Triple Triangle!

It had a 2" travel RST elastomer fork and a Shimano Atlus drivetrain. I put some Velociraptors on it and took it everywhere. Off jumps and walls, across town, through the stream and woods, and eventually to Ramapo mountain, where I got started and got hooked. Served me well up until two years ago! (you should have seen the bottom bracket when I finally opened it up. Not pretty).

 

[Roger De Vlaeminck (RDV)]

Transformation...

Describe the bike that changed everything for you.

Yeah we all think our current bike is the bomb and all but...describe that one bike that changed everything for you. You know...the bike that transformed you from a random idiot in the woods into a mountain biker. :hmmm:

The first bike was in the early 90s. A red rigisd Cannondale and the Wilkes-Barre/Jim Thorpe trails. Man I loved riding that bike and epic rides we had when we should have been in Statistics. That was the bike that helped me get through the first fall of not playing soccer and brought me back to the bmx days and trail riding of my youth.

The Bianchi Campione was the next bike that brought me away from the trails and to the roads. Ironically enough, I bought the bike to train for mountain bike racing after suffering through 2 Vermont 50s. I fell in love with the simplicity of leaving from my apartment and having endless miles to ride in central New York. I began to reach for the road bike more than the mountain bike and found myself wanting to race road bikes more than the xc races.

Now I am missing the trails and the singeltrack. The GF Paragon will be bring it all back home. "He not busy being born is busy dying." One more reason this site is great.

 

[ChrisG]

Describe the bike that changed everything for you.

Yeah we all think our current bike is the bomb and all but...describe that one bike that changed everything for you. You know...the bike that transformed you from a random idiot in the woods into a mountain biker. :hmmm:

My second mtb was a 1994 Bontrager Race frame, built up with a Mag 21 and a hand-picked mix of parts.

I was riding just under two years when I built it. I rode my brains out, did a ton of races, including a 100 mile ride at Allamuchy, upgraded to Expert, and learned an awful lot on this bike.

I replaced it in 1999 with a 1996 Race Lite. It's been hanging on the wall in my basement ever since. I don't know if I can ever get rid of it.

 

[BiknBen]

I still posess my first MTB frame...

I was cruising the net and came across a history of Fuji Bike catalogs. Holy crap, did that give me pause. My first real road and MTBs were Fuji bikes. I even worked in their shipping department for a short time. Talk about kid in a candy store!!!

This was my first MTB. The Fuji Discovery in the summer of '91.

This is what is left now:

Since I had access to all the decals, I re-branded it. It didn't get any lighter though.

The first ever ride was in the Back Beach area of Wanaque, NJ. Second ride was Ringwood. Things have never been the same.

 

[The Kalmyk]

Ben...I love the Onza sticker...Do you have a set of Porcs with that

 

[BiknBen]

Ben...I love the Onza sticker...Do you have a set of Porcs with that

Here are some actual Onza bar-ends in action. This was fuji's first attempt at Aluminum frame design. Unfortunately, the brake cable guides were breaking off and many frames were returned. We riveted them back on in the warehouse and kept them for ourselves. The frame eventually cracked behind the BB and was officially retired. I'll give special props to anyone that can name the component group.

That frame was replaced with my first Cannondale. I bought this off one of the wrenches at Cycle Craft. Special props to anyone who can name the location of the photo. :hmmm:

 

[xc62701]

Here are some actual Onza bar-ends in action. This was fuji's first attempt at Aluminum frame design. Unfortunately, the brake cable guides were breaking off and many frames were returned. We riveted them back on in the warehouse and kept them for ourselves. The frame eventually cracked behind the BB and was officially retired. I'll give special props to anyone that can name the component group.

That frame was replaced with my first Cannondale. I bought this off one of the wrenches at Cycle Craft. Special props to anyone who can name the location. :hmmm:

What is the Skyline Drive castle?