Old Times!

[Zippee]

Having been out of the MTB scene now for quite some time I was wandering how many old timers we had on here? Who remembers fondly events such as the Cheddar challenge, Malvern Hills, Worlds @ Plymouth, Eastway evening series etc?
For me its 12 or so years since I raced competitively, my best times being in Juniors at the national events and then towards the end the local race series in sports.
Virtually every weekend was taken up travelling the length & breadth of the country to various races or riding every Sunday in Epping Forest.

[nessiemac]

Zippee said:

Having been out of the MTB scene now for quite some time I was wandering how many old timers we had on here? Who remembers fondly events such as the Cheddar challenge, Malvern Hills, Worlds @ Plymouth, Eastway evening series etc?
For me its 12 or so years since I raced competitively, my best times being in Juniors at the national events and then towards the end the local race series in sports.
Virtually every weekend was taken up travelling the length & breadth of the country to various races or riding every Sunday in Epping Forest.

Well...very similar to yourself,very active in the mid to late 90's and just getting back into it now after a looong time out the saddle!!

Did my very first DH race in '95 i think at Longmoor army camp near Lip hook in Hampshire on my GT RTS 2 and a few more races that year. '96 was actually training and having a more serious bash at things and entered most of the SAMS races,few NPS and spent half my life at PORC in Kent!! Done the dual eliminator at the Malverns,year that a young lad was killed IIRC. Went to the world XC round at Newnham Park in Devon and actually had John Tomac run over my foot as i was taking some pictures!! Raced the Coors Dual Descender (remember them??) and went up against Will longden at Newnham and thrashed the pants off me!!!

Moved onto to a GT LTS which was superb and next couple of years doing the NPS rounds and short course stuff at PORC. Great memories from then!!

[gorisan26]

Those were the days really, its worth having a look on www.retrobike.co.uk it brings alot of memories flooding back.

I rode and raced as a kid, won a few local sprogs races in the early 90's, Then tried a bit of dh only to find that living in devon there's not much going on. I ended up messing around with a few friends on early trials bikes and ended up with a few british championship podiums and finally in 99 came 2nd overall in the british biketrials championships (senior class) and also won the porth cawl trophy.

At that point I was running short of time to train and chose to quit while I was ahead.

Ironically I've owned a cycle shop for over two years with no intention of cycling at all. This changed a couple of months ago when I treated my self to a kona road bike. The scary bit is I'm really enjoying it and the local country side, even entered a couple of local time trials next month!

Still, there will be nothing like the 90's for how new and booming it all was, it all seemed alot more wholesome and simple back then, people were just having fun on bikes without it being so contrived. Ya just had a mountain bike and went mountain biking, simple as that!

ho hum!

Edited by gorisan26 on Tuesday 15th April 10:31

[Zippee]

gorisan26 said:

Still, there will be nothing like the 90's for how new and booming it all was, it all seemed alot more wholesome and simple back then, people were just having fun on bikes without it being so contrived. Ya just had a mountain bike and went mountain biking, simple as that!

ho hum!

Too right - it was also great fun watching how the bikes evolved at the time - everything from C/Fibre Trimbles to handbuilt Roberts and suspension etc. I can still remember paying over £500 for one of the first pairs of Rock Shox Titanium SLs in the country - looking back now they really were pants but back then despite the fact they cost the equivalent of a small used car back then.
Mountain biking also seemed to be everywhere - now it seems to be starting to resurrect after having died out for quite some time.

I used to look forward to the Malverns every single year and to me it made up some of the best weekends of my life.

[Top Banana]

Ahh....memories of late 80's / early 90's MTB'ing

remember going twice to the world cup x-country at Newnham - gobsmacked at the speed of the top riders down the infamous 'pipeline' descent. Watching Johnny-T tearing round with tioga disk wheel drumming away....

who else remembers the lake jumping at the malverns..

wednesday night Beastway - sunday mornings meet up at the high beech tea hut for a 3 hour tear around epping forest...Breaking my collarbone on the jumps at the top of pole hill ! !

MBUK magazine when it was a great read.... mint sauce....mag21's being the hight of suspension technology available.... JMC ( RIP :-( )....zak tempest....PACE shiny bits... purple anodizing..

still have my original GT zaskar complete with GIRVIN forks - still the best handling MTB i have ridden - brought it out of retirement for the final Beastway series, must get back to epping again one day...

thanks for the memories

regards TB

[Zippee]

Top Banana said:

wednesday night Beastway - sunday mornings meet up at the high beech tea hut for a 3 hour tear around epping forest...Breaking my collarbone on the jumps at the top of pole hill ! !

Was that with Epping Forest MBC? I used to ride with them pretty much every sunday from 1990 to around 96 - may well have ridden with you then?

[Top Banana]

Hi Zippee - used to ride either with a group of mates (on kona's , proflex, early trek 'Y' frame), or sometimes just tagged on with whatever group were around the tea hut at 9.00 ish

rode all the singletrack from the hut up to pole hill - then across towards the golf course and up to a bike shop to check out the latest widgets (shop might have been top banana in buckhurst hill ?)

then back across the chingford side of the forest, past all the ponds and iron age forts - down the hill towards theydon bois - then back up to the epping new road, around the back of the petrol station, and back to the hut - then maybe back up pole hill for a bit of fooling around on the jumps

also did a couple of night rides with home made lights - that was a right laugh

still miss those sunday mornings - i have now more or less turned into a roadie and ride with Bishops Stortford CC, but will be doing the Beastway replacement this year on the trusty zaskar

must get the kids out to epping this year on their bikes,and take them round dad's old haunts

[neil_bolton]

Cor, lemme get my old pics out

I remember all those old races and scenes - I remember the shock of the Malverns when someone was stabbed, and thus got it cancelled.

Also was there at Cheddar when the DHers ran amok and ruined it for everyone else

Me in old times (on my 96 vintage Y11):




My old shop where I worked - check the bling Proflex 956 out behind my Y11 on display...




XTR'd up Principia, with me leading some race at Ringwood



Oh how I miss this one - Gary Fisher Paragon mutt...

Edited by neil_bolton on Wednesday 16th April 16:33

[central]

I'm fairly sure I had the first MTB in the Kettering area. A 1986 Overburys "Cross Fell" complete with Shimano Biopace chainset.

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