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

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
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 Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
My 1994 Cannondale Killer v900 in polished aluminum...I bought it brand new from Halter's...That bike I miss to this day and wish I still had it...F'in bike thieves...This bike meant alot to me for a couple of reasons...

a) I bought it with the my own money that I saved up my senior year of HS

b) It was my transportation all thru college

c) It was my first high end bike ($1300 was alot for an 18year old hs student)
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
My 1999 Trek 8000. Before then I was just a putz that liked to roll through mud puddles. Now I have a refined taste for singletrack but still have a soft spot for the mud puddles. At the time it cost more than the car I was driving and I was proud of that fact.
 

BiknBen

Well-Known Member
It was the spring of '87. I was finishing my Freshman year of high school. The Fuji Palisade was my bike of choice. It was a road bike (sorry). I purchased it at the Pompton Cyclery (Pompton Lakes, NJ) for $310. I realized later that the geometry and gearing was more touring-oriented but I thought it was screaming fast and didn't know better. It was the first generation of Suntour's index shifting system and had brake cables hidden under the bar tape.

It was on this bike that all things changed. I went from my neighborhood to all the surrounding towns. I lived in Wanaque but regularly rode around the lakes in Ringwood and the Wanaque Reservoir. Oakland and West Milford were the areas of unknown that I slowly began to explore. For a 14 yo kid, this was my coming out party. Exploring places I'd only seen from the window of a car. The first summer on the bike was awesome. Mom and dad went to work and I explored. I didn't dare tell them where I had been. It was my secret. I bought the county map and began highlighting all the roads I had been on. Then I bought the maps for the surrounding counties and things took a life of their own. :D
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
Oh ya forgot to throw this in...The first off roading I did with it was 6Mile...No red trail at the time, you had to walk across the water...Thanks to Alex Herron who had the sick Delta V full susser
 

Eileen

Active Member
I started out riding the fire roads of Ringwood on a 2004 Mongoose Wing Comp. I was loving it and soon ventured on to single track and learned what real riding was all about. By the end of the summer I broke just about everything on that bike (newbie trail side repair). Next thing I know I'm with the Bikery crew, riding an epic and racing every change I get :D Still lovin every minute!!!
 

sixseven

New Member
Murray Baja. I think I got it in 7th grade. 1979?1980? The LBS had one and I was completely fixated on it. All I could think was it had to be better than my bmx bike...the tires were bigger! Might have been a birthday present or for confirmation. I knew it was called a mountain bike but I don't think I had any idea of what that really meant. Might have been a birthday present or for confirmation. It rode like a dream.
 

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MEAN IRISH GUY

Horse-faced space dog
the bike that did it for me was an old cannondale ridgid. dunno the model of it but it was the first mountain bike i rode on that i was like "yo, this f'n rules". its been downhill since than. hahaha.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Two Bikes, one that changed my life and the other that changed bikes there after.

In 5th grade I had a red no-name bmx bike, which i rode to school everyday. One fateful afternoon, I was pulled out of class by my parent because my brother was just sent to rehab for the first time. We forgot my bike. When we came back to get it (the next day) it was completely destroyed by vandals. My dad didn't think twice about letting me pick out a brand new neon green schwinn predator. Man I wish I still had that bike as it represents the day that was the beginning of what would shape my non-bike life.

The bike that changed my bike life came after getting bike jacked in baltimore. As I said in spence's insurance thread I got a check two weeks later, which happen to be right before Xmas. A day or two later, my friends and I piled into the car and made our way to Action Wheels in bethlehem, pa. If this place wasn't magical enough, seeing your favorite ECD or area riders working in there made it even better. Anyways I bought a Standard Trailboss in cream and black and built up a sweet ride. While the bottom bracket was much higher than my Homeless Mack, in a day our two I was used to it and I became a manualing machine. I learned so much on that bike and rode some fun trails and like all bikes, they are just there for you and you only.
 

GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
A little over a year ago I saw this bike on Craigslist and thought that I always wanted a full suspension mountain bike. I hadn't ridden a bike off-road in about 15 years. Wound up buying it and getting totally hooked. Cracked the frame after a few months and bought another bike right away. Still think this thing looks pretty cool!:D
 

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THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
First came the Huffy BMX (stolen & abandoned in woods) that was shared by my bro and I when we were little, then the Dyno GT Air (sold it this year) that I paid for full in elem, then the Mongoose Supergoose (will always hold on to forever, one of the first alum bmx bike of that time. It is feather light. Worth $$$).

Was always a sucker for Mongoose so what really changed it all for me was walking into sports authority junior in HS and buying a Mongoose Zero-G. It's been to hell and back (to everywhere I ride and once at Diablo) and miraculously it still works with orig parts (knock on wood). Now it's the bike I will loan to bikeless friends. The best I ever felt was when I "raced" USGP on it last year and some little kid yelled (in a good way), "OMG that is a Mongoose!" :rofl: That made my day and the reason why I didn't get lapped or place last :p

Plz Mongoose.. make a come back :cool:

Manny (enough with the parenthesis) C.
 

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Glancing Aft

Active Member
For me it was 1995 Mongoose Hilltoper. After a year of saving lawn mowing money at $500 it was the bombdigity for me as HS freshman. With it's rockshock fork and v-brakes I was able to start exploring the single track of Ringwood instead of just the fireroads. I rode the bike all through High School and off and on throughout college. I took it for my first ever ride in the snow. I took it for my first ever downhilling experience at Plattekill (yeah big mistake), I took it on weekend trips to Connecticut, I just took it everywhere.
Sadly rust got the better of it and when I moved to Pennsylvania at the beginning of this summer the bike did not come with me. However it was donated to my friends little brother who is using parts from it to build up a mountain bike. So the spirit of it will live on!
 

tommyjay

Not-So-Venerable Asshat
Without a doubt - 2004 Rockhopper base model.

I hadn't been on a bike regularly since my sophmore year of college (1990) when I sold my full rigid Giant Iguana commuter MTB for food money.

The Rockhopper changed everything. I bought it with the intention to ride the trails casually to get back into shape. The middle thirties sedentary lifestyle was catching up with me. Next thing I know, I'm *really* mountain biking (not just puttering along the Tow Path - which is many s layman's view of mountain biking). Two or three months later, I'm back in the bike shop dropping a few grand on a 2005 SJ FSR Expert 120 (my current ride). At this point, I'm completely hooked. What started as a way to get a little more fit becomes the end in itself to the point where I find myself hitting the gym at work to improve my cardio and leg strength to be in better shape for the activity I undertook originally to get into shape.

Amazing experience.
 

FFT

Gay & Stuffy
2002 SC Bullit. I assembled it and took it to the biggest cliff I could find and sent it.
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
my first mtn biking experience was in colorado - out in telluride. i stayed at skyline ranch and they had a few rigid diamond backs which we took out for a bunch of rides. i got the bug, and for xmas got a gary fisher tassajara - fully rigid and red - nice bike. i rode that thing for a while and took it to college where i'd buzz from campus to campus on it. then every component was stolen of the bike one night. thankfully, that wasn't the bike that did it for me.

i took the frame and front wheel to the sports people in bedminster (great shop - good bike stuff, great for skiing and fly fishing), where they traded the frame and wheel in for a fully rigid mongoose they had in stock. that was the bike that did it for me. i rode that thing until it died - it finally gave out during a ride at chimney rock.
 

Mare

Well-Known Member
Hmmm....but I often still think I am a random idiot in the woods.

My first ride in the woods was on a road bike. I came out of the woods with bent rims and excruciating pain in my quads. I loved it! So the following week I got a Mongoose Rockadile that was about 2 sizes too big, with onza bars, a squishy saddle, and fully rigid - I later replaced the fork and got maybe a half inch of travel. I thought I was the shit.

Then I upgraded to a Klein Attitude - I suppose that is when I got more serious. Looking back though, even the riding I did with that was lame compared to what I do now. Each bike is a step farther from being a random idiot in the woods.
 

rocknrollgirl

Well-Known Member
A Marin East Peak full suspension. His name is Bob and he weighs in at 32 pounds which is only really funny until you see me in person!

He is still my winter and night riding bike....I love Bob, he is a bit heavy, but man can he take a hit!
 

BicyclePhD

Jamis Bicycles
Shop Keep
I had a 97 ProFlex 757 every week i would walk in to Amber Cycle and hand over my pay checkuntill i payed it off. I thought that i loved that bike untill my friend wanted to ride it, so one ride we swaped bikes I rode his Kona Munimula with a Manituo Stroker (Palmer Edition) from that moment i knew the HT was for me. I would invite him on rides just so we could swap bikes. I don't know if it was the frame of the fork that i loved so much. but if anyone has a green stroker laying around let me know i'll buy it from you
 

Cyclopath

Shop Owner / Employee
Shop Keep
Hmmm....but I often still think I am a random idiot in the woods.

Perfect, Mare!!! I didn't know how to say it but you hit the nail on the head!!

I had to go back to my blog to find it and it's as fresh as yesterday... the bike that brought tears to my eyes. I went from no riding in 15yrs to training for a 100 mile, 2 day tour in under 4 weeks. Way out of shape, riding my rigid Fuji Sandblaster and struggling to push all of me and that bike for each 3 1/2 mile lake loop. My brother in law finally offered his 04 Fuji Roubaix. It was dusty, w/2 flats and it wouldn't shift. But it looked like just the right size. I pulled it from behind boxes in the basement. It was light as a feather. With blurred vision and a dizzy flash, I could almost see myself on the TDF. I swear I held my breath for two days until it was fixed and fresh from the shop. I became a cyclist on that tour and I've been working ever since to become a really good one.

The following fall, I decided to put my "mountain bike" to good use and took it(by myself) to Shepherd's lake, (MTB, How hard can it be?). I rode the fire roads and got bounced until my eyes twirled around in their sockets and I couldn't tell the rocks from the trees. I saw some single-track and said "WTF, that's a deer trail!". Today, I love love those deer trails, I have a more appropriate bike and a whole lot more sense(or not).

I'm looking forward to meeting the next bike that brings tears to my eyes.
 
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