R.I.P. - List your old bikes here! What did you start on? What bikes do you miss?

[Big Guy]

I grew up in Canada, we rode trails all the time, we didn't have any hills but a lot of cool single tracks that we constantly raced. I always built my bikes from multiple hand-me-down bikes from neighbors and older cousins. My best bike was a red CCM with 24" wheels, I had a 10 speed seat on it and handlebars that look a lot like the one on modern mountain bikes. That bike was faster than everyone else, they all had banana seats and high handlebars.

I was about 16, the first time I saw a mountain bike. I was fascinated. I would be 5 years later until I bought my first mountain bike a white CCM with a neon pink fork and lime green chain stay. I commuted with it, pulled a trailer with 2 kids, but hardly did any trails.

When I move to OC 8 years ago, I got hooked:

RIP
Specialized hardrock Sport

KHS Comp ST (broke frame)
KHS Team ST (upgrade from warranty-broke frame)
KHS Team ST (sold - buyer broke it and upgraded for full suspension KHS)
Kona Coiler (kept 2 years - sold)

Presently have:

Ellsworth Moment (love it)
KHS Elite 3000 (won it in a raffle)

[EMrider]

Wow, there are some very large bike collections and histories on this board!

Mine is comparatively short.

1993ish: Specialized rockhopper (gone)
1997ish: Cannondale super-V (gone)
2007: Chumba XCL (wow)
near future: either Titus motolite or Giant hardtail.

Rob

[BAD_S197]

Don't laugh too hard but when I was in the NAVY, living on PMTC Pt. Mugu in Ventura, I rode a Murry (sp?).

It was a standard bike with no suspension and the one thing I remember about it was that it had a little shoulder harness/pad in the corner of the frame in front of the seat post. This I believe was so you could toss your arm through the frame, rest it on your shoulder and carry the bike uphill.

I rode it for about 2 years and then gave it to a girlfriend of mine when I left the Navy. To my knowledge it was passed around after she left so someone might still be riding it on the base.

hahahahah

before that I rode a bmx style bike and my dads 10 speed in highschool.

WOW have bikes changed since the early 80's....

[L8 APEKS]

Originally Posted by Big Guy

I grew up in Canada, we rode trails all the time, we didn't have any hills but a lot of cool single tracks that we constantly raced. I always built my bikes from multiple hand-me-down bikes from neighbors and older cousins. My best bike was a red CCM with 24" wheels, I had a 10 speed seat on it and handlebars that look a lot like the one on modern mountain bikes. That bike was faster than everyone else, they all had banana seats and high handlebars.

I was about 16, the first time I saw a mountain bike. I was fascinated. I would be 5 years later until I bought my first mountain bike a white CCM with a neon pink fork and lime green chain stay. I commuted with it, pulled a trailer with 2 kids, but hardly did any trails.

When I move to OC 8 years ago, I got hooked:

RIP
Specialized hardrock Sport

KHS Comp ST (broke frame)
KHS Team ST (upgrade from warranty-broke frame)
KHS Team ST (sold - buyer broke it and upgraded for full suspension KHS)
Kona Coiler (kept 2 years - sold)

Presently have:

Ellsworth Moment (love it)
KHS Elite 3000 (won it in a raffle)

I gotta ask...where did the KHS frames break?! I'm 215 lbs and I ride it pretty hard...where should I check for fractures?!

[J_Sims]

Originally Posted by L8 APEKS

I gotta ask...where did the KHS frames break?! I'm 215 lbs and I ride it pretty hard...where should I check for fractures?!

If I wereyou I would check the back of my rt calf

How are you healin???

[OMR]

Originally Posted by Break n Bones

CURRENT bikes

Mantis pro-floater ( Best ever )

Are you still running the Noleen 1 rear shock or have you switched it out to a Risse yet? Although the rear is not as laterally stiff as more modern bikes, it still works very well.

[J_Sims]

Originally Posted by OMR

Are you still running the Noleen 1 rear shock or have you switched it out to a Risse yet? Although the rear is not as laterally stiff as more modern bikes, it still works very well.

BAck in the day .... That was THE bike to own... Still sick by any standard the green rules

[Big Guy]

Originally Posted by L8 APEKS

I gotta ask...where did the KHS frames break?! I'm 215 lbs and I ride it pretty hard...where should I check for fractures?!

The Comp and Team are soft tail, they have about 1" of travel, but no pivots at the bottom, the chain stay flexes up. the first frame broke on the chain stay close to be BB. Probable fatigue in the metal. The second one I found the crack while washing it. It cracked in the weld of the top tube and the seat post.

The third frame seem to have a defect, the rear wheel was rubbing on the chain stay when under power like climbing, it probably flexed too much and the tire rubbed some of the material off and my friend found the crack after only a few months.

I am also a big guy, after each ride, I wipe the bike, get all the dirt off and check the welds for something unusual.

[Break n Bones]

Originally Posted by OMR

Are you still running the Noleen 1 rear shock or have you switched it out to a Risse yet? Although the rear is not as laterally stiff as more modern bikes, it still works very well.

Sweet Bike
Ill keep my bike untill I die

Then cpatcrash will get it back ( Well all my bikes )
He`ll probably put it in the first flight museum with his last mantis

Still all original / Even the swing arm was never replaced like the one in the photo

[Pho'dUp]

Sweet thread. But dang we need more pictures! Unfortunately, no digital cameras to capture those sweet power sliding Big Wheels and old school GTs etc.

[autoduel]

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by Break n Bones

Sweet Bike
Ill keep my bike untill I die

Then cpatcrash will get it back ( Well all my bikes )
He`ll probably put it in the first flight museum with his last mantis

Still all original / Even the swing arm was never replaced like the one in the photo

Damn! I kinda miss that bike. It's one of the ones Richard made himself too. If I had to list all my old bikes it would take me a long ass time!

[Burner]

Originally Posted by BAD_S197

To my knowledge it was passed around ... someone might still be riding it on the base.

the girlfriend or the bike?

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by J_Sims

BAck in the day .... That was THE bike to own... Still sick by any standard the green rules

Green AND it glows in the dark too!

[Neccros]

I started out with stealing my sisters schwinn and turning it into a BMX bike..

Got a cheap cruiser, it got stolen
Got a Bassett cruiser, jumped that till I broke parts, made it more 'BMX'
Then traded it for a mongoose BMX
Acquired another nickel plated Mongoose with heavy ass mag wheels
Acquired a CW... built that up as a race bike ??-92ish
got a Dave Scott Ironman Centurion 89-94
2002 got a 97 GT LTS-1
2004 built a 2003 Jenson/Santa Cruz Chameleon(sold the frame, bought an '04 frame from Santa Cruz)(current hardtail in my collection.)
2005 bought a Enduro Expert(current full suspension bike)
2007 built a road bike, swapped frames for a Leader frame(current road bike)
2007 building sister up an access hardtail...

Bout it for me...

[jake]

1980 - Schwinn Tornado 20" (Stingray Style)
1983 - Redline 20" BMX (CW Bars, Araya rims)
198? - GT Mach One 20" BMX
198? - Revcore Jr. 20" BMX
198? - Robinson 20" BMX - (Chrome, Cooks Cranks, Stolen)
198? - Robinson 20" BMX #2 - (Red powdercoat, Nice, DK stem, Cooks Cranks, Sun Rims)
198? - S&M 20" BMX (dirt jumper)
1989 - GT Tequesta MTB (Heavy, Ugly Hot Pink Splatter, Suntour, pod shifters)
1990? - Schwinn MTB (forgot model, Red & Black, Deore DX, first rapid fire shifters)
Sometime here I rode my Dad's Rockhopper and a few different hand-me-down Stumpjumpers which were given to me.
1991? - Specialized Stumpjumper M2 (First ever M2, Purple & Green, Manitou 2)
199? - Road Bike - Custom built frame (Really cool road bike with Mountain style sloped top tube and smooth brazed joints, Ultegra)
1993? - Proflex 855 (Free!, Red, very lame fork, Broke at BB weld)
1994? - Proflex 955 (Free!, Blue, installed Manitou 3)
1995? - Intense Spider (Not free but cheap, Polished finish)
1998 - Stumpjumper M2 FS (96' model, Blue, Still riding this one now)

I raced BMX when I was a kid. When I turned expert and stopped winning I pretty much lost interest in BMX racing but I kept racing and jumping till I turned 15.
When I was about 15 I started my first job was at a local Schwinn shop and soon after purchased my first Mountain Bike, a GT Tequesta. Man that thing was heavy, and oh so ugly with it's pink smoked splatter paint job. My next MTB was a Schwinn with Deore DX and the first ever Shimano Rapid Fire shifters. I did my first XC races on the Schwinn. After the Schwinn store closed down I got a job at a Nice MTB shop and raced XC regularly. I picked up the brand new Stumpjumper M2 as soon as it came out and put a bunch of titanium and anodized parts on it. Suspension hit the scene and I installed a Rock Shox and then a Manitou 2. That Specialized was a great bike and I'm pretty sure my brother still has it somewhere.
Next was a Pro Flex 855 which I broke at a BB weld and then a Pro FLex 955 to replace it. I got these bikes for free through a sponsorship program Pro Flex was running at the time. Jeff Steber, the guy who started Intense came in to our shop regularly and gave me a great deal on an Intense Spider. The Intense was probably the nicest bike I'll ever own with White Industries hubs, King Headset, White Industries titanium BB, Topline Cranks, XTR shifters and derailleurs, Syncros seat post, and other goodies of the mid 90's.
In the late 90's the MTB shop closed down. I bought a 1996 Stumpjumper M2 FS frame which had been laying around the shop for a few years and built it up with leftover parts. I'm still riding this bike today and plan on racing it next season.

[andykee]

'96 Specialized Hardrock - loved this bike until my mom sheared it in half with a tree when it was strapped in to the roof rack
'97 Schwinn Moab 1 - it was purple. it got the job done.

took a few years off - 8 to be exact

'98 Schwinn Moab 3 - my dad's bike. again, got the job done but i beat it up pretty badly.
'07 Kona Kula Primo - this is the best bike i have ever ridden. i love it. only had it since this spring, so it is basically stock (although i switched out the black rock shox fork for a fox f100 rlc - the white looks better with the bike!)

[sdyeti]

198? Pink Angel with banana seat
1994 Huffy, electric pink
1995 Nishiki, fully rigid
2003 Marin Palisades Trail, hardtail
1998 Gary Fisher Big Sur, converted to single speed
2003 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo (stolen )
2005 Specialized Demo 8, parted out
2003 Intense Tazer (stolen )
2005 Intense M3 (stolen )
2007 Yeti 575

I MISS my stolen bikes, all of them, but I really am sad about my GF HKEK...that bike was so solid and lived through all the crap I subjected it to as a beginner rider...lots of crashes. Of course, being without a dh bike means riding places like Bootleg and Mammoth are limited. Maybe I'll go shopping next year?