The Retro thread......blasts from the past

cheehee

Inspired by reading supersonic's and wheeliguy's musings over elastomers and shark fins, here are some of the things I remember from MTB'ing when "I were a lad"

Purple anodized stuff
Barends - I've still got 'em.
Toe clips and straps.
The Raleigh Lizard
The Raleigh Activator
SIS shifters - on top of the bars
John Tomac
Missy Giove
Tim Gould
My old GT Outpost - that got nicked :evil:
My mate's Emmelle Corniche
My bro's 'Tim Gould' Peugeot - which was heavier than Rick Waller and Michelle McManus combined
Really, really wanting a GT Zaskar.....

Ahhhhh, I'm off to polish my rose tinted spec's

Cheehee

Sarnian

My first MTB had friction gear levers on top of the bars.

Wheelieguy

Im already wearing my rose tinted specs after supersonics replies on my thread....


I remember the early mtb vids aswell such as

Dirt,
Chainspotting,
Getta grip,
Dirty tricks and cunning stunts,

they were cool...

Things like My first decent bike a raleigh mak chromo 1

Uno Kally stems, tranz-X bar ends, as already said girvin flexstems, tioga psycho and psycho2 tyres....

DCD`s they were ace (imo) mk1 crud catchers looked like a slice off someones pack up box, wow i could go on all night lol

Reeco

my friend used to have a raliegh (cant rember actualnanme of it) but after going to the speed way we thought we wuld make it light by cutting all the brake cables nd taking them off nd basically ripping off everythin apart from the wheels :P such a waste , but we were like 8 so we didnt know any better :oops:

Dr S

just put a set of tioga psychos on my dads bike, cracking tyres!

Wheelieguy

I used to run them all the time way back when, didnt like the rear soecific ones though so i used a pair of fronts with one reversed on the rear lol

I miss the old days, crud cog hogs and crud claws (if thats the name) lol

Northwind

Raleigh Lizards and Activators, my word. I had a Carrera Krakatoa- still do, I'm rebuilding it from bare metal- which was about 5 kilos lighter, faster, shorter, stronger, and more agile than either of those. And it had panaracer smokes on, still not bad today... But damn, I wanted a Lizard, just because everyone else had one. I actually wanted SIS instead of my Altus rapid fires, and I was completely convinced that 21 gears was worse than 18. Agh, peer pressure! How did we survive?

And it had my own biggest Blast From The Past- the FLEXSTEM! What the hrll was that supposed to be. It's a stem that weighs half a kilo, with a LETHAL POINTED END pointed directly at your tackle (which had only reached a size where I had to worry about it being hit, and suddenly was threatened with being cut back down to size), which provides a suspension effect roughly equivalent to letting down your tyres by half a psi. Until it wears out, which it does instantly, at which point it makes sure that your bars constantly rattle at about 50 hertz, and means that the bars are only connected to the bike by means of a hinge, with all the handling advantages you'd expect.

mtbikerboy

ahh the good old days, when didnt have to worry about which bike i had as long as i had one. didnt care about the latest technology and comforts and weight and brand names....seriously, i have had probably about 5 bikes in the last 10 years, i really cannot remember their makes. and i still had loads of fun!

Surf-Matt

Biopace oval chainrings - LOL!
Chainstay mounted "U" brakes

hucking_fell

I'm planning to single speed up my ancient British eagle K2 and use it as a commuter bike over the winter. It's got the oval shaped Biopace chainring on it though. I've been told that it will still single speed but anyone know for sure? Might have to check with Sheldon Brown.

Surf-Matt

I've got an ancient (1994) British Eagle "Strike" in the garage. Still full working. Alivio groupset, steel frame, etc.

dave_hill

Back in the day before Shimano introduced STI there was a trend of fitting your thumbshifters under the bars and swapping them over - oddly enough it worked pretty well as long as you remembered that your shifters were back to front!

Then there was Campagnolo's monstrous Centaur groupset - I actually had my Scott Super Evolution fitted out with it - it was pretty good apart from the awful shifters and the 2 pound weight penalty over XT!

That said, Campagnolo used to also make some of the best MTB rims going, they were lighter and much stronger than Mavics.

Keith Bontrager's own hand made frames before he sold out to Trek - I had one of those too, fitted with a pair of original Paul Turner RS1 Rock Shox, reworked for Bontrager to give a whole 3" of travel!

Salsa, Bontrager, Fat Chance, Mountain Goat and Yeti were the frames to have. Ringle, Grafton, Pauls, Cook Brothers Racing, Onza Porcupine tyres, Tioga Farmer John and Farmer John's Cousin, then Mud Dawgs and Panaracer Smokes - awesome tyres. As were the original Specialized Ground Controls.

Overbury's, Pace, Highpath, Swallow, Muddy Fox, Saracen, Chas Roberts and Dave Yates led the charge in Britain. I remember having one of Hope's first titanium hubs, designed specially for stiffening early suspension forks (Rock Shox Mag 20s to be precise), and I also managed to get hold of one of the first pairs of Pace RC35 suspension forks.

Happy Days!!!

Surf-Matt

Well I remember windsurfing sail manufacturer Tushingham branching out into MTBs - which are now called Orange.

Lester Noble was and still is the man in charge (I think!).

Early bikes were very very lumo and sodding expensive too.

timpop

Lucky me is from Canada and I worked in the Rocky Mountain Bikes factory packing water bottles when I was 16! Thus getting me fully into their bikes. My favouite though was the Stratos, light and fast. Which is also how to discribe the thieves that took it... (among other censored words) I also had bar ends and a purple jacket.
All in all lots of good times riding B.C. trails.

mikeage

Wheelieguy wrote:

I remember the early mtb vids aswell such as

Dirt,
Chainspotting,
Getta grip,
Dirty tricks and cunning stunts,

they were cool...

Was all about Mud Cows and Mud Cows 2 free with MBUK!

Still have all of these videos, sadly no video player...damm you technological advancements taking up all my plugs.

Also, the stuff of dreams at the time


I had to make do with Quadra 21's and a home made long 5mm allen key/socket/extension jobby to get inside em cos of the stupid lowers/drop-outs

Wheelieguy

If you nosey on youtube those vids are on there, i know dirt definately is as i found it not so long ago and it spurred me on to get back into biking again yeyy quality vid!

Its so good to watch them again but it makes you feel old and upset that you dont have your childhood anymore lol.

I used to run Judy XC`s and always wated the previus years Judy DH`s as per your picture!

jayson

I was 11 yrs old and i'd just got a brand new raleigh equipe racing bike for xmas from my parents and i was overjoyed with it.

However, after returning to school after the new year a lad in my year had got a raleigh maverick mtb with weird brakes and lots of gears with fat tires and the first time i saw it i fell in love and just had to get one of these fangled 'mountainbikes'.

My parents weren't at all happy that the brand new shiny bike they'd spent money on just weeks before now wasnt good enough and i already wanted a new one. This went on for about 4 years when my mum finally caved in and said they would buy me a mtb, that xmas a brand new shiny raleigh montage was picked up by a completely uncontainably excited me and taken up my local woods where it got completely covered in thick gloopy mud, needless to say my mum wasnt happy again.

Ever since those early days in the 80's ive always loved mtbs and riding them, we've had our ups and downs over the years but its the one thing in my life i dont think i'll ever truly leave behind or get bored of.

Chris5.5

I remember I had my Deore 2 thumbshifters upside down on the wrong side as well with a deore short cage rear mech running 24 speed as the shifters had an extra click in them.

Also had the original Answer Manitou suspension forks on My 1990ish Scott Boulder in Lime Green and white. The forks are still some of the best looking ever made in my opinion

Loads of purple anodised bits including a ringle bottle cage and a USE seatpost. Still have the original Onza bar ends.

Don't forget the white Onza Porcupines!!!

Chris

jayson

Chris5.5 wrote:

Don't forget the white Onza Porcupines!!!
Chris

Do u remember the year MBUK got one of those white rubber soap trays and took a photo of the suckers underneath it and put it in the magazine saying it was a new road tire made by onza in the april issue one year??

Apparently the importers of onza at the time even phoned the mag to find out what they knew and where they got hold of them LOL

Uncle Peter

I had those exact forks on my RC 200, complete with Crud Claw, Onza clipless pedals (the ones with the elastomer instead of a spring) And a Tektro brake booster. I also had one of those wheels for the rear derailleur which did away with the cable loop.

Those were the days :roll:

Mate of mine had a Klein, Purple paint splatter finish - it was awesome, internal cable routing and it had the best welds/brazing you've ever seen. Top tube was like one of Mark Hughes' ankles!

Remember Hans Rey? Jason McRoy RIP

supersonic

Hans still going strong!

My semi retro steed:



12 year old frame with a few modern touches. Still original headset! Just fitted some A2Z ti skewers.

dave_hill

Chris5.5 wrote:

I remember I had my Deore 2 thumbshifters upside down on the wrong side as well with a deore short cage rear mech running 24 speed as the shifters had an extra click in them.

Ooh yeah, I'd forgotten that. I used to be a bugger for mixing and matching cassettes too - that was when you could dismantle them completely and make up custom ones. I seem to remember cobbling a short cage rear mech together out of an XT paralellogram and a 105 cage too, that worked pretty well because it was still capapble of travelling over the range of an MTB cassette.

Anyone remember quad chainsets? Somebody used to make an adaptor that fitted onto the inside of the granny ring and allowed you to fit an 18 tooth sprocket as a fourth chainring.

Suntour self-energising brakes - cantilever brakes that had a helical thread on the boss. the forward motion of the pads as they hit the rim actually pulled the brakes on harder. Took a bit of getting used to but they did work.

Cheeky Tosser

First "real" MTB 1989 Saracen Limited Edition - No suspension, Reynolds 531 cro-mo frame, Biopace oval chainset, SIS friction shifters, 18 speed, U rear brake and cantis up front. Looked after it lovingly for 16 years till it got too old to bother upgrading. Loved that bike. £420 in 1989- still have the receipt (I'm sad like that)

.blitz

*ahem*

supersonic

When I was a mechanic a few years back some one had an ancient proflex with a flex stem - he wanted forks fitting, keeping the stem!

.blitz

supersonic wrote:

When I was a mechanic a few years back some one had an ancient proflex with a flex stem - he wanted forks fitting, keeping the stem!

Wheelieguy

Uncle Peter wrote:

And a Tektro brake booster. I also had one of those wheels for the rear derailleur which did away with the cable loop.

Remember Hans Rey? Jason McRoy RIP

My old bike still runs a mk1 and a mk2 tektro booster, the mk1`s ha discs to insert rather than just a groove where the bolt goes through to position it correctly....


Those wheels were cog hogs and are perfect to replace V-brake noodles!


Hans rey is ace and a legend on a zaskar lol..

Jason McRoy absolutely briliant guy and its hard to beleive it was so long ago, 24/4/94 iirc...r.i.p. still remembered to this day!

supersonic

Hans and Peaty on Zaskars - why I got mine ;-)

big_tex_uk

Hmmm

Still cant beat the £20 plastic disc wheels you could get............sounded just like the Tioga disk drive.
Madison bike shops.......i thought they were like the oracke until i found a decent lbs (Thanks Langsett Cycles)
Anything made by Bula was coll even though you looked a complete fool....
My mate still has his Jellybean Salsa frame which was is so sweet.
Onza White Porcupines ruled, once comlpetely smoothed one in about 3hrs pulling skids on the road.
Etto helmets, fingerless gloves, specialized hardrock 1.5 tyres ruled in the mud, sella flite saddles
But mostly doing downhill and trials on saturday then racing xc on sunday at national events. Proper racing weekends!!!!

Milkie

Wow!!!

I remember Elastomers, different colour for different hardness, well... It was on my Marzocchi's on my M-Trax!

I've still got the original Cog Hog, another crud catcher product.

I was tempted to fit it to my current bike, until I upgraded the rear mech to a shadow.

My friends were big fans of the Activator, despite going through 3 of them in a year! I had a Raleigh M-Trax, and then rode a friends LTS then a Zaskar LE, then a STS, then I was old enough to drive!

robertpb

Dave-Hill,

It was Geoff Apps who led the charge with Cleland all others were later.

I used to ride with Dave Wrath-Sharman of Highpath back in the early years I also rode with Geoff Apps of Cleland, the Highpath was a Cleland design.

The bike I have been riding upto about six months ago was a Swallow built in 1986, it is a 14" frame with 24" wheels, I built the frame up with Suntour roller cam brakes designed by Cunningham. Shimano Deore XT chainset, Swallow tandem hubs with Araya rims, BMX bars and the original pedals which are still in use on my Commencal meta 5.5, Shimano Deore XT beartraps.
The seat post was made for me by Dave Wrath-Sharman because there wasn't any thing on the market long enough. The cost of this great bike £1,500.

This Sunday I was riding with Geoff Apps over at Wendover, he had his latest bike the Adventura, also with us the last Highpath made in 1988 and 1984 Ritchey.

There are some pictures of this ride on www.retrobike.co.uk, look for the wendover bash aftermath thread.

There is also a thread on this site about the early years of MTB with Geoff Apps and Charlie Kelly putting in their vast knowledge, this is under Jack Taylor 'Rough Stuff' 1979

I also have a 1984 Dawes MTB though the fame was seriously bent in a crash by a friend of mine in 86 and replaced with a very short 16" frame from Covent Garden Cycles.

In the early 60's I used to ride an old trade bike off road, it had the one low gear, fat tyres and was built like a tank. I've still got it in my shed.