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

[ODB]

Originally Posted by ODB

The list:
Early-'70s Stingray with yellow-to-red paint fade; later converted to BMX with knobbies, BMX bars and a rattle-can bronze paint job
Chrome Diamond Back BMXer tricked out with all the blue ano i could find
Dumpster 10-speed rehabbed by my bro; it's still in my dad's garage
Got into MTBing in college riding my roomate's rigid Fuji mountain bike
First MTB of my own: A '90 or '91 GT Tequesta, rigid, blue paint with a white and black spatter pattern
First suspension: First-generation Specialized FSR (the one that GT pretty much ripped off in creating the LTS) that i bought used at Rainbow Cycles in Laguna. A whopping two inches of travel via the Fox Alps 4 shock out back and a Specialized-branded Mag 21 in the front.
First custom build: '99 Santa Cruz Superlight with XT and Race Face components. Started out as a pure XC bike with Float shock, White Bros. 90 mm air fork and rim brakes. Later got an RS Psylo coil, Avid mechanicals and a Vanilla R coil-over. Retired it after i broke the frame for the third time; turns out Superlights don't hold up too well to 10-run days at Snow Summit and dropping ledges at G-Spot.
First hucker: '02 Ellsworth Joker. Has gone through various incarnations: RS Psylo, Z1, Super T and, now, my awesome new Lyrik Solo Air. My favorite of my two bikes right now.
Back to basics: Cove Stiffee hardtail. Had fun with this one for a while, but decided i wanted a second FS instead. So, enter ...
'04 Iron Horse Hollowpoint. Great all-around rig, but won't seeing much action now that i've got my Joker all kitted out.
Brief flirtation: '06 Redline Monocog 29er. Rigid SS hurts my battered old bones. I sure liked the looks of her, but I had to get out of the relationship for my own good.

Picking up where I left off:
RIP, Joker:


Long live the '08 Speshy Pitch:

[wrxkid]

My first bike was a No-name brand from the swap meet.
Second: a couple of Huffy 21 speeds.
Then a 2000 Univega Ds1400 (supergo special blowout, First Fully squish)
Then 1998 Specialized Max Backbone? <-----first tast of awesomeness
Then 2001 GT DHi<-----first taste of DH lovin. Never raced, tore ACL snowboarding
Then 2001 Specialized Hardrock <-----First bike I built myself.
Sold the DHi for a 2002 Giant AC2<------first ever 4-bar link.
Now, 2007 Kona Coilair Supreme <-------Plush warehouse.
Next, Back to DH lovin!

[Blueman]

I'll keep this list to MTB bike. My first was a '85 Raliegh Elkhorn with bullmoose bars. I then moved on to a GT Karakaram, which was a real Gary Turner GT and to this day is the best handling bike I every rode. I rode that bike for street and fireroad riding for 5 years until it was stolen. I then bought a Nishiki Alien (about 1990) with the high chain stays and cool square aluminum frame tubes. I had the alien for about ten years until it too was stolen. Next, after not riding for a few years, I bought a Firmstrong Londale off the internet for $280 bucks. Full suspension and 35lbs. I was able to keep that bike running for a full year and about 1800 miles, including three differnet trips to Big Bear to do the ski lift thing. Now I ride a GT iDrive 4. I wish I still had the Karakaram, it would make a great fully ridgid SS.

[Kpeony]

Originally Posted by 2wheel_lee

I'll keep this short, but I'm sure I'll have to edit this a few times as I remember some of the bikes I had. Most of the bikes evolved with many different components, such as Redline Flight cranks, Skyway Graphites, Phil Wood hubs, Bullseye hubs,, etc. I know there were more, but they were relatively insignificant or short-lived. These aren't in order:

- 1973 Scwhinn Sting-Ray, later turned into a BMX bike
- Webco, first race bike
- Powerlite, race bike (one of the first mild steel frames)
- CW, race bike, broke frame, damn it!, one of the "team only" brass-plated models (no, I wasn't on the team
- CW #2, race bike
- Torker, play bike (also used to jump into pools, rivers, etc.)
- KIA road bike (converted to a singlespeed with mini aluminum BMX handlebars - in 1982!)
- Unknown side hack
- Schwinn Tempo (road bike)
- Diamond Back
- VDC Chimp, 16" pit bike racer - yes, they had pit bike races (with Skyway Tuff Wheels)
- GT BMX
- Free Agent, race bike (freakin' 75-degree head angle!) The Shoup family that started Free Agent lived nearby.
- Free Agent 24", race bike (serial number #13)
- CW Freestyle bike
- Mongoose (original type) commuter bike to high school with limited availability magnesium moto mags
- GHP, race bike (I had the second generation graphics before Greg Hill!)
- Mongoose Pro Class, race bike
- Mongoose Pro Class 24", race bike
- Blue Max, practice bike (same as the Mongoose Pro Class but marketed under another name)

More modern...
- Haro Group 1 (BMX -with Campy Record track hubs!)
- GT Pro Series 24" (still have)
- GT RTS Team
- GT STS broke frame
- GT LTS-Team
- GT RTS 3 (chick bike)
- GT LTS DH
- GT LOBO DH
- GT Avalanche
- GT ZR1000, road bike (still have, for sale)
- GT XCR3000
- GT DHi Team
- GT XCR1000
- Azonic Evolution (still have)

Fast forward to even more recent...
- Surly 1x1
- Intense UZZI SLX (still have as gf's bike)
- Intense 5.5 (still have)
- Intense 6.6 (still have)
- Intense UZZI VPX (still have)
- Intense M3 (still have)

Road and other...
- Specialized Roubaix S-Works (still have)
- Specialized Ruby Expert (still have as gf's bike)
- Specialized Tricross Comp, CX bike (still have)
- Commuter bike (bought in Japan, and still have it there), has a bell, basket, kick stand, wheel lock, head light - one of my favorites. Seriously.
...and that goofy penny farthing bike I brought to the last STR gathering

I bolded some of my old favorites.
I highlighted the ones that I crashed on and went to the hospital on in red.
Broken frames in blue.
I enjoyed coming up with this list. I haven't thought about all of the bikes, let alone written them all down, ever.

Are you kidding me? First of all, how old are all you people and second, who's financing all these bikes (not to mention where the HECK are you keeping them). I thought I was a bike hog until some of these lists came out.

Hmmm OK here's my SHORT list

Can't remember childhood - something pink I think with a banana seat
Dad's roadbike
My own "Electric Blue" road bike for my paper route (stolen with my surfboard and wetsuit)
Schwinn Cruiser (sold to purchase first MTB)
96' GT LTS-3 - had for 7 months then sold for:
97' GT LTS-1 - Still have, rode for 10 years (yes - 10 YEARS , I love that bike), until it was impossible to find parts and my TA friends threatened to vote me off the island until I got a new bike.
98' GT Road Bike - damn heavy ironhorse paperweight thing
07' Specialized Carbon Stumpjumper - my new fav ride!

See you out there!

[EBasil]

I grew up in the foothills of the far west San Fernando Valley, and my first bike was a Sears 24", banana seated bike that my Dad upgraded with a cool-ass sissy bar that had spring suspension. It looked cool and worked on dirt roads.

My second bike was a Free Spirit 10-speed that ultimately had knobby 1" tires and the bars flipped for the ultimate in West Valley all-arounder bike style. We rode trails regularly, and I learned to true wheels since the craptastic steel rims would bend regularly.

There were various road bikes and, when Specialized published the ad for the Stumpjumper, I converted a Rampar roadie into an "mtb" after I realized I could never afford a Stumpy. It sucked.

In 1988, my roommate bought a used Rockhopper with a rainbow fade paintjob and she and her boyfriend convinced me to ride a borrowed bike from our place in Del Mar-ish to Los Pen. I was a fit trail runner and they crushed me into quivering submission while I pedaled a too-small, 35lb bike with a rock hard seat. We rode trails I'd buzzed around on a trailbike with and Los Pen was pretty damn fine other than the angry dude in the white truck... Cobblestone was jeep road width all the way down, but the bike sucked and wasn't very fun. I went back to trail running.

In 1990, after we returned from a backpacking trip that clearly established my girlfriend's dislike for walking, she suggested we get mountainbikes. I got a '90 Fisher Montare with full LX and badass, ultra short, elevated chainstays. I upgraded it to a Manitou 1 a year later.

My next bike was an elevated chainstay Alpinestars Al-Mega very similar to the Fisher. That wound up receiving a Manitou 2 and a King headset but was broken in an auto accident as we left the '93 Cactus Cup.

My next bike was a Manitou HT built with the XTR, King and Manitou 2 from the Alpinestars, but I added the sweetest wheelset by Earl Ball at Blacksmith. It got a Manitou 3 and SweetWings cranks before the headtube cracked and they sent a new frame. Round 2 of the HT got a Mach 5 with ti springs. Then it got a 100mm Black...with a Ti spring. Then it became a singlespeed...and it still is.

My next bike was a first year Fisher Cake that I switched a few parts around on. That's still rolling, too.

I'm not allowed to buy a new bike until "the old one" breaks. Kinda stuck for now.

[thegrover]

[FONT=Verdana]I started mountain biking in 1952 on a JC Higgins Bike from Sears. I rode it on cow trails and dirt roads. I rebuilt so many times, it got me through college. It ended up looking similar to today’s signal speed mountain bikes. From there many road bikes until my first "modern" mountain bike a Schwinn High Sierra. The Mack Truck of mountain bikes. Next a Manits XCR which I still have. A Proflex and a GT I Drive that I keep in Australia to ride while visiting family there. A Kestrel hard tail and a Chumba Evo. I currently have an Old Serrota Road bike I restored and a Kestrel road bike that needs restoring. My wife has a Mountain Cycle CSX and a Tommasini road bike.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The Grover[/FONT]

[gest24]

Started out with a Trek 800 Sport

From there it was,
97 Schwinn Moab 2 Cromo
98 Schwinn Homegrown LXT
01 C-dale F700
07 Leader 730R
05 Fuji Team SL and my 00 Homegrown

[L8 APEKS]

Originally Posted by EBasil

I grew up in the foothills of the far west San Fernando Valley, and my first bike was a Sears 24", banana seated bike that my Dad upgraded with a cool-ass sissy bar that had spring suspension. It looked cool and worked on dirt roads.

My second bike was a Free Spirit 10-speed that ultimately had knobby 1" tires and the bars flipped for the ultimate in West Valley all-arounder bike style. We rode trails regularly, and I learned to true wheels since the craptastic steel rims would bend regularly.

There were various road bikes and, when Specialized published the ad for the Stumpjumper, I converted a Rampar roadie into an "mtb" after I realized I could never afford a Stumpy. It sucked.

In 1988, my roommate bought a used Rockhopper with a rainbow fade paintjob and she and her boyfriend convinced me to ride a borrowed bike from our place in Del Mar-ish to Los Pen. I was a fit trail runner and they crushed me into quivering submission while I pedaled a too-small, 35lb bike with a rock hard seat. We rode trails I'd buzzed around on a trailbike with and Los Pen was pretty damn fine other than the angry dude in the white truck... Cobblestone was jeep road width all the way down, but the bike sucked and wasn't very fun. I went back to trail running.

In 1990, after we returned from a backpacking trip that clearly established my girlfriend's dislike for walking, she suggested we get mountainbikes. I got a '90 Fisher Montare with full LX and badass, ultra short, elevated chainstays. I upgraded it to a Manitou 1 a year later.

My next bike was an elevated chainstay Alpinestars Al-Mega very similar to the Fisher. That wound up receiving a Manitou 2 and a King headset but was broken in an auto accident as we left the '93 Cactus Cup.

My next bike was a Manitou HT built with the XTR, King and Manitou 2 from the Alpinestars, but I added the sweetest wheelset by Earl Ball at Blacksmith. It got a Manitou 3 and SweetWings cranks before the headtube cracked and they sent a new frame. Round 2 of the HT got a Mach 5 with ti springs. Then it got a 100mm Black...with a Ti spring. Then it became a singlespeed...and it still is.

My next bike was a first year Fisher Cake that I switched a few parts around on. That's still rolling, too.

I'm not allowed to buy a new bike until "the old one" breaks. Kinda stuck for now.

I still have a single speed Alpine Stars Al-Mega! And I rode a Manitou HT also...super light bike, but it was a disposable frame if you weighed over 140 lbs. I cracked mine in half in less than a year and they didn't want to honor the warranty.

I was only able to get some store credit for the bike, and ended up replacing the frame with a Fisher Supercaliber which I hated! Genesis Geometry = Can't lift up the front end if your life depends on it!

The Manitou was the most agile feeling bike I'd ever had...22 lbs, with really quick geometry. It was just an overgrown BMX bike!

[bighit8]

Two that I really miss.
P1010005.jpg

P1010004.jpg

IMG_7396.jpg

P3100019.jpg
The pic of me riding that Ironhorse G spot was on broken ribs man that hurt.Could not breath at the end.You may know where the pic was taken (I did not know it was... FILL IN THE BLANK).Oh and I had Cannodale 700 I think is what is was called and a KHS Montana sport and a few others I dont recall.Wish I had kept them all.

[richie_rich]

My first "mountain type" bike was a Free Spirit (bought at Sears) which had a spring fork on the front and 24" wheels and thumb shifters. I rode the wheels off that thing and my friends were all jealous that they didn't have shocks despite having real name bikes.

From there it was a Raleigh MT 200, Balance FS Pro, Yeti ARC, K2 Team Zed, Specialized P2, K2 Razorback SL Carbon Rear, Specialized Hard Rock (for campus) none of which I have now.

[1080P]

Hmmm, going waaaayyy back...late 60's and Honda Trail 50's and 70's as well as later, Yamaha Mini Enduros.

Grew up in the west end, far side, of the Frank Zappa song Inspired San Fernando Valley. Tons of riding opportunites up there... Bell Canyon, Orcutt Park, the Stair Cases, the White Hills and WidowMaker, Box Canyon, Tons of horsetrails at the west end of Roscoe Blvd and Valley Circle Blvd, all of Chatworth, HopeTown motos, and Chatsworth Park West moto bike races, before BMX.

'66 or 7 Purple Schwinn Stingray frame that I bought for $10 from the neighbor in 1969. It was a "short" frame for the smaller sprocket only, with short cranks only. I rode that until it was stolen. Very, very few of those frames were in purple, saw lots of candy blue, forrest green and red onew though. It had the beautiful fillet weld/braze job with the smooth radiuses where the tubes were joined. Heavy, solid, and slow. I jumped it and raced it, only thing I ever broke on it was the forks and the crushing of bearing race for the forks. I diddled between an 18 and 19 tooth rear sprocket on it. Stolen in 1975, just before I got my drivers license.
Around 1970, a Nishiki aluminum 27" 10 speed for commuting to the high school 4.5 miles away.

University and work pretty much wiped out 12 years of bike riding until 1986 or 87, when I bought a really bitchen Schwinn Cimarron in Forest Green with Shimano components, including BioPace elliptical ring gears. That bike was light, fast and sweet. My father asked to borrow it, and it was stolen out of his garage on a spring Saturday Morning while doing the lawn in back. I really missed that bike, it was light and lovely to ride.

Replaced it in 1998 or 9 with a KHS hardtail of sorts, had 2" of front suspension (if you could call it that, felt like polyurethane bumpers for shocks) Rode that until Mammoth Mtn started beating me up too much due to everyone running downhill bikes up there and the trails getting unmanageable for hardtails, and my shoulders, arms and knees started hurting.

Sept 2007, I demo'ed a Bionicon Edison on Labor Day weekend. Climbed great, rode great. I sold some flyrods on Ebay to make some mad money to make scratch to buy one. Full suspension is just awesome, made me want to ride again and whip myself into better shape.

There is something about Mountain Biking that I find is such a thrill, it reminds me of what it was to be a kid, in the hills and mountains, exploring on my own, on a bike. Still to this day, it makes me giddy every time I finish some sweet single track after doing the climb to earn my vertical.

[LncNuvue]

Started racing BMX at 11 in 86

I had various bikes before racing BMX then...
86 Redline Tri-moly (lasted about 6 months)
87 Free Agent Jr 20"
88 Free Agent Pro 20"
88 Elf Jr Cruiser
89 Revcore Jr 20"
90 Free Agent Pro
90 HiTech (gold piece of crap aweful geometry)
90 Boss 1 20"
91 Elf 20"
91 Boss 3 20"
91 CW Cruiser
92 Free Agent 20"
...something like that.

Break from racing at 17

Got into riding again and dirt jumping in 97:
96 Robinson 20"
97 CCH 20"

Into Mtb 2001 on and off - 2007+ it's all i want to do:
01 Giant Rainier
07 Specialized Enduro SL
I use a friends Kestral Road Bike

bolded my fav's

(i need more mountain bikes!)

[DBD]

I will just list the ones I had the best time on

Cheetah - 1970somthin'
Schwinn 3636 completely custom (this is when I actually started riding)
1989 Bianchi MTB ( I believe it may have been the Grizzly )
1992 Giant MCM
1999 Kona Stinky
2003 Kona Stab and a Stinky Deluxe
2003 Bianchi 928 Veloce 120th Anniversary edition

The one I miss the most is the 928. I had a great 3000+ miles on it and was going to buy it back from the guy who bought it but it got stolen, damn Oakland hoods.

[EBasil]

Originally Posted by L8 APEKS

I still have a single speed Alpine Stars Al-Mega!

I bet that is perfect. I think that bike had great geometry for an SS, not counting the wide chainstays (but what's a little smudge on the calves?).

[Big Rick]

I love these lists! Brings back some memories.

Here's the full list (though I didn't include the trike...)

72 - 20" Schwinn kids bike - blue
76 - 27" Schwinn coaster brake cruiser (took it over jumps and back in the woods a lot)
78 - my mom's Raleigh 5 speed - painted it - but eventually gave it back
79 - Fuji road bike
83 - built up a road bike around a Raleigh frame - intro to cleats and toe clips/straps, there wasn't any "clipping out" back in those days, I fell over more than once when I forgot to loosen the strap while rolling up to a stop & track stand - sold
83 - Ross MTB - friend in high school said "you've got to try out this mountain biking thing!" - 10 speed, caliper brakes - gave it to my brother after painting the frame with zebra stripes
84 - Nashbar MTB - real cantilever brakes and a triple crank! - stolen
85 - Colnago road bike - first clipless pedals, Look - sold in 91 though my roadie days ended several years before with the aquisition of a Nishiki Pinacle
86 - another Nashbar MTB - stolen and replaced with same model which was stolen too
87 - Diamond Back Apex - sold? stolen? memories (short-term or otherwise) of my college days aren't the sharpest - my first MTB with two piece stem and bars
88 - Nishiki Pinacle (at the birth of XT) - broke the frame in 93 by splitting the seat tube down the back - at 6' 6" I run my seatpost high - Nishiki warrantied the frame but I accepted a lesser frame (Colorado) rather than replace nearly all the components - burried in the back of the garage
92 - Nishiki piece of crap to commute to campus - I hated riding it so much that it got stuffed in the back of the garage and never surfaced again
94 - Performance something or other - my first bike with a front shock - RS Judy - broke the frame at the drive side dropout and Performance warrantied it - I built it up, rode it once on the road, and it was stolen.
96/7 - Trek 8500? with carbon tubes and aluminum lugs - broke the frame in 01 at the top tube to seat lug glue joint - Trek warrantied with that year's 8500 (it's good to have friends at bike shops :-)
01 - Trek 8500 warranty frame, Alpha Aluminum? - built and rebuilt several times - with a Fox Talas and front disk now
03 - Weyless whatever-it-was SC Heckler knock off, great design (on SC's part) - my intro to FS, Fox, & disk brakes - stolen off my locked roof rack - that was a great bike, Talas (front and rear) and Juicy 7s were probably worth more than I paid for it on a Supergo uber sale
07 - Ventana El Capitan - stepin' up to the 29er and I'm never goin back - with a 25" frame, I finally, after 25 years, own an MTB that's actually big enough for me