Let's see your old mountain bikes

Here's my first DH rig that I purchased used in 2003. I think it was a 2001 model. Big Hit Pro with a 24-inch rear wheel, Stratos fork that didn't budge, Azonic Loveseat, ghetto chainguide, and "custom" pedals filled with self tapping sheetmetal screws. Urban hucker ftw.







I'd later convert it to a slalom bike which worked out alright. Pretty wild looking back on my old setup. I'd never run it that way these days!







One of my favorite old bikes was my Canfield Formula One. That thing could plough through the chunder and handle high speed chatter so well. Here it is perched on top of Silverton Mountain.

All,
I still have very first MTB, 1989 TRECK 830, turn it into my commuter bike

Here is my old girl, Betty. She was a 2005 Kona Coiler. Eventually upgraded the rear shock to a DHX 5.0 with a titanium spring.
She was a fun ride, I certainly progressed a lot while riding her.







Even placed 4th (cat3) with her


But she was high maintenance, always needing new tubes, derailleurs, chains, and such. So eventually we had to part ways.

Not the best pic taken,
1995 litespeed obed FS
Marz Z1 bombers (original version)
RF turbine cranks
Original XT V brakes

This isn't my actual bike, but my Diamondback Outlook looked identical to this. Neon is sweet.

It was actually my mom's bike... during the mountain bike boom in the early 90's my parents bought each other his and her Diamondbacks. My mom rode her's maybe twice, so it became my bike (which was way too big for me).

I eventually bent the forks to a near 90 degree angle after sending it one too many times off the rad plywood+brick ramps my buddies and I built in the front yard. By then pops wasn't riding his much, so I stole his bike until I inevitably broke it too

Loved my sturdy Super 8. Absolutely bombproof bike built with a Monster T, Profile cranks, AtomLab/Hadley wheelset, Azonic Hammer stem, etc. Front end height was still viewed as "the higher the better!" The good old days...

Bike is covered in typical Snowshoe, WV mud freshly acquired during a winning sport class race run!

Sic as thread.
Still one of my fave rigs ever and one of the best cornering bikes I've ridden in this travel.

RFX.





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my first "freeride" mtb, some hand-me-down, beat up Diamondback XC bike. Here are some shitty old video freeze frames from two road gaps we had set up around the house. Good luck being able to tell what kinda model it is, haha.





And then thankfully, was able to get a Stinky as a birthday present... still the best gift I think I've ever gotten.



allowed me to send some gravel pit lines that I had been wanting to do at the time... I will miss thy Stinky




Great idea for a thread. So awesome looking through everyone's pictures.

Here's my 2002 Marin dh

My first DH bike. Got on the SoBe/Headshok team and got my dream bike, the Cannondale Super V DH 4000. It was a cool bike until both Coda brakes failed at the same time at Mount Snow.



This BeOne Dh bike was a favorite of mine.

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This is my current bike, just took me a lot of money over $3000 and time 14 months but pretty stoked with it Giant ATX DH Team Rob Warner replica.

This is my bike from '98. There was this magazine ad for GT; it had Peaty holding an LTS frame above his head, with a picture of the full bike next to it.

It was love at first sight.

My original plan was to order the sister-bike to the one in the ad. That beautiful baby had the same frame (except the frame was anodized orange, like, FANTA frickin' orange!), and it had the same component group (except for the SPIN carbon wheels, remember those?). My good buddy told me I'd be better off with a bike with spoked wheels. So I bought the one in the ad.

This meant I ended up with a RockShox Judy XL; a fork that had two crowns, but only 4 1/2 inches of travel, and a damper cartridge made of PLASTIC. A front brake that RockShox bought from AMP, and then re-released under their name, even though it was a piece of shit to begin with. This FRONT brake had a hydraulic piston that was actuated by a cable and a V-brake lever; and the rotor was attached to the hub by THREE standard bottle cage bolts. The frame was designed to accept the 22mm rear disc brake standard, not the international standard that you can now see at a department store, but the bike was spec'd with a rear V-brake. The seat angle on the bike is something like 54 degrees, so the seatpost head binder bolt breaks once a month, but the seatpost diameter was 31.6mm. Good luck finding one of those (back in the day). And to top it all off, the upper shock mounts at the top link? They're also made of PLASTIC.

All this being said, I had a blast on this bike for 2 years. The rear end is literally held together with chainring bolts and water bottle mount bolts. I rebuilt it two years ago with a borrowed Z1 and dumpster parts. My buddy has a Lobo from the same era, and we are planning a vintage DH day this summer. I can't wait.

All the bikes in this thread made me very nostalgic...

Bullit, it was my first full suspension bike. I have lots of fond memories!

My 02 Cannondale Jekyll 900 SL. The craftsmanship of these frames is perfect, neat and tidy welds. Everything on it worked great except for the CODA brakes those where awful and terrifying, how anyone rode DH (or XC for that matter) with those I don't know.

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ye olde karp

coda Cranks too mine stripped out and had to be replaced, everything other than the frame made by Cannondale eventually failed.

This be my 1st Mtn Bike , 1994


GT Backwoods, hardtail

That B1 is so sic even now it looks like a sic DH rig.

Had a number of Coda cranks top model never had an issue myself.
Brakes also, not in todays class but for the time these and Hayes were pretty much it anything was better than V brakes, I used to wear out rims with Vs

Though still have a soft spot for Magura Reds, Johhny Ts hydraulic rim brakes came stock with 3 different pad compounds so u could swap per conditions which was super easy to do and way easier than changing disc brake pads of today even, they were sic as, but no rim could hold up to them for to long the braking surface soon died and ya needed strong rims, builds or the rim would twist such was theyre power awesome, simpler and funnier times me thinks.

First MTB - Giant Yukon with 0.5 inches of elastomer travel and plastic cantilever brakes
Being raced at our National Downhill event in Paarl near Cape Town in 1994.




This was upgraded to a Diamondback Axis TT



And then to my first full sus - a 1999 Wheeler 6000 DZX (which I still have in the garage as a spare for noobies bike!!!)

Here is a pic of my old 222.... After breaking my KHS 'DH' bike I bought the frame (and some components off Greg Minnaar back in 2004.
I rode that bike (with a few upgrades) up until 2011!!! Loved that thing!

My first Dh bike, though, was a Schwinn 4 banger!!

This orange Merida was responsible for getting me into MTB, in 2005 I think it was. I only rode park back then, as you can clearly see in the picture.

Represent!


2001 K-pie disco with custom bassboat blue white brothers fork (because gold annodizing has always sucked)




That bike rode a hell of a lot better than this thing I replaced it with.

Seriously man, look how much better even the headangle was on the OLDER bike. It had 2014 trail bike geo! Woot woot! You could put a front derailleur on the one I had which I did when I got that banana boat. I sold the banana after two months but kept the disco going for a while. You know....for the riding free.