Mountain Biking - The first time you ever "loved" mountain biking.

In light of the thread about this forum being messed up, I can understand. So I want to bring this thread to life.

Basically, the first experience on a bike that got you into wasting thousands on high end components :P
When you were so full of adrenaline from the flowing track you just couldn't stop, you wanted to pedal back up the two miles of road to the trailhead and do it all again.

For me, when I was a (comparatively) wee little child, some of the older kids made a jump out of some strong plywood and cinderblocks and they let me ride off of it. That got me to lure my friends into getting mountain bikes.

We headed down to a big "dirt pit" in Shoreline Park in Mountain View, CA (for those in the area, I think Pheard lives in the bay area?) where some jumps and a small track that resembled a pump track was set up. i had the time of my life there, and persuaded my dad to take me up into the foothills on some of the XC they had there.

I just kept doing more and more from there.

Post up, have fun in the rememberance!

I started on a triathlon bike called the IronMan. I started on hiking nature trails and got hooked. I bought my bruiser about a year later. The thing tames trails like a king, everything is made so easy!

I remember learning new things on the IronMan. I first started trail riding and learned I could pull up my front end, and, with enough speed, could have the rear hit into something (board walks and curbs usually) and get over stuff.

I got the bruiser and now I'm bunnyhop to manualing board walks :D Biking is so fun.

I'm glad to see this thread.

I've been hooked on it for awhile, while at times it waivers, it always comes back to me. Don't remember how or when I caught the bug.

In about 1982, when I started riding trails on my bmx bike.. then I got into bmx racing.. thousands of dollars and lots of good times later.. here i am.

The first time that I went to soem local jumps. Couldn't stop hitting them with my Sport mare bike.

Battlefield Park, April 1996. thought I was in heaven. been hooked ever since. no specific thing happened , I just enjoyed the thrill, pain, breeze, chicks on bikes( was about to go through a divorce), sweating,sounds of tires on dirt, etc.
I had been riding for about 2-3 years already but caught the love that day

Not counting the BMX in the '80s. I remember riding trails in Pisgah in the early 90s on my sweet Yokota Yosimite full cromo.One decent I remember was a gnar steep rock garden on a trail called Bennet Gap. Everyone was looking at it so I said I'll hit it. Just about crashed al the way through.... Good times.

Back when I was like 10 years old I never knew anything about mountain biking but I though I was so cool when I had my bike from wally world with every upgrade they sold (the grips, colored tires, little computer thingy's that told you your speed and stuff, pedals, gel seat) MAN I thought I was the coolest kid in the world. Then I saw Drop In on tv and I thought it was going to be a skateboarding show (I was big into skating lol) and I watched it and it turned out to be a wicked rad Bike show and it completly got me hooked. I saved up for a couple of years and bought my first "decent" bike. A Norco Wolverine. Its been good to me and now Im in the market for a new bike... hopefully a P2 hehehe

3 years..maybe 4 years ago I grabbed my gf's bike. I had just moved to whistler and was bored to crap. It just plain sucked here. I took the bike and road the valley trail, concrete 6 ft wide trail. I got to a road thinking, this isn't too bad. Road alone the rode for a short time and saw a trailhead. I dove in expecting the best time of my life. Little did I know I just dove into one of the more technical trails in the valley, river runs through it. The first 10 ft I could barely ride and then I saw my first stunt. I walked half the trail riding small sections to keep me happy so I could go home and say "I road River"...All along this trail I was blown away by how difficult it was. I had never seen any trails like this in Ontario. I was instantly hooked. 3 weeks later I had my first bike and started riding.

To this day I can't clean that entire trail, but boy I still love it.

last summer i started riding on paved trails just for fun and a little fitness. after a couple rides i said, screw this its booring me to death. i knew there was a mountain bike trail close. brought my bike over there rode for a little more than a half hour.(yea i know is short, but it was my first time out) and i was instantly hooked.

and to this day, i still dont know why everyone doesnt mountain bike :)

First time I got hooked must have been when I was about 12 or so. My friend, and current riding buddy, invited me to go camping with him at Banff. He told me to bring a bike so I took the only one I owned. My good old trust rigid CCM Ice. We went on a couple for XC/AM trails...and my god did I fall in love with mountain biking. My wrist hurt like hell after but it was the greatest time of my life. From there I soon found my self pushing my self to improve and got more into FR/DH/DJ...still enjoy a good XC ride though.

and to this day, i still dont know why everyone doesnt mountain bike :)

Funny I was asking myself this. I have lots of people in town who have tried it and hated it. They found it to difficult and too dangerous. I never got that out of it myself. The only people who get hurt bring it on themselves haha

I was a farm kid, and in about 1980 (age 10), some friends and I used to shuttle 20 inchers to the top of the hill with a tractor and cart and race elbow to elbow down logging roads to the bottom. I guess that's where it started for me.




and to this day, i still dont know why everyone doesnt mountain bike :)

There was some old movie (Expendable Youth, maybe?) where a guy says "We have the RIDE gene - you get the RI from your mother and the DE from your father. And if you don't have it, well, I'm sorry, but you can't really get it." ;)

There was some old movie (Expendable Youth, maybe?) where a guy says "We have the RIDE gene - you get the RI from your mother and the DE from your father. And if you don't have it, well, I'm sorry, but you can't really get it." ;)

Thats freaking awesome...hahaha...

The best times I've had didn't involve any expensive bike. Just our old 21 speed walmart huffys that we would ride. We would fall all the time into the brush, and fall and scrape our knees, but for some reason when you're a kid you don't mind being in pain.

I always loved mountain bikes ever since I first got to take a ride on my friends GT Backwoods (I think that's what it was) when I was like 11 or 12. Once I got my own bike years later I think I fell in love the first time I sped through some tight singletrack with no idea what was going to happen next.

Standing in front of a bike shop in Boulder(about 1981-1982) and looking at a oldskool Dimondback 12-speed MTB in the window...and thinking to myself,Wow a Schwinn Stingray For adults!!! Evil Knevil Rides Again!!

Biking in general, i woke up on my 5th birthday and tripped over the new bmx my dad parked in front of my bed. Fell on top of it and cut my shin, but was so happy i couldnt stop smiling (or bleeding, little did i know it was the first of many :) )

Mtn bikes, 1993 my dad bought me an 18" Giant Rincon, way too big for me. 1 year later after riding it on the road alot, i found a fire trail that went downhill for about 1.5km. Me and my mate Luke rode down it (a little scared) the first time and thought it was great. We rode straight back up and did it again....this time off the brakes, and that did it. We named it "the hill". Rode that bike for 9 years. I dont think ill ever love a bike like i did that old Giant :)

These storys are so cool. I think the RI-DE gene is very important to good health and happiness.

I was on Burnt MTN on a 20" inch 5 speed murray. My dad told me not to ride some steep waterbrakes. I went for it anyway. Crashed hard , lost a shoe, people were asking if I was o.k. Then when dad saw me he was ticked. It's been all downhill from there.

Then when dad saw me he was ticked. It's been all downhill from there.

Good times...


These storys are so cool.

We've been blessed!

Growing up in the midwest (suburbs of Chicago) in the 1980s, as a kid, I didn't have many mountains to experience. My youth was occupied on the saddles of random deptartment store "mountain bikes" which constantly broke down and had to be repaired. However, we used to chase each other around on our bikes, riding through forests and gravel backroads, up and down apartment building stairs, etc and developed our bike handling skills that way. Every once in a while we would head north to hilly Wisconsin and find offroad trails there. As I began to acquire my own source of income as a teenager, the first thing I purchased was a 1986 Specialized HardRock Sport as did my friends. My friends and I took our bikes to as many local trails as we could find and discovered that offroad riding was a lot more fun without dodgy brakes and derailleurs that refused to shift. We also did a lot of cyclotouring which involved attaching a rack, mounting panniers and loading the bike up with camping gear. We would ride out to campsites, unload our gear, go ride the trails, get back, sleep, load up and ride to another set of trails to do the same.

As I began to progress in skill, I moved up from the HardRock and bought a Nishiki Ariel in 1990. I started racing XC and did okay but continued to do what I thought MTBing was really all about... to boldly go where I had not gone before... to seek out new trails and new experiences.

In about 1982, when I started riding trails on my bmx bike.. then I got into bmx racing.. thousands of dollars and lots of good times later.. here i am.

Yep...I had a redline bmx bike in the mid 80s and rode it everywhere. We made our own trails or got together with kids from other neighborhoods and went at it with machetes. We'd cut trails and make jumps constantly. We didn't know what MTBs were until about 5 years later.

OT...anyone remember the movie "RAD"?

I started racing XC and did okay but continued to do what I thought MTBing was really all about... to boldly go where I had not gone before... to seek out new trails and new experiences.

This is what mtn biking is all about to me as well. Exploring.

This is one of the best threads ever.

It all started with Evel Kneivel, a Big Wheel, a flight of stairs, and a 4-year old child.

It then progressed to teen's BMX,a huge hill, some plankboards over cinder blocks, and my older sister's Pinto.

Somewhere along the line I inherited my brother's 10-speed, and learned that girls don't like to ride alone.

Then came adulthood, random road trips to the Great White North, money, bigger bikes and even bigger stairs.

Evel Kneivel better watch his back.

Started this January when I finally fixed up my x-mart mountain bike leftover from my teenage years. I only rode on bike paths because I didn't trust the brakes on the darned thing. A couple months later I bought a Rockhopper. During the semester I was busy with school and working part-time...not enough time to hit the trails so I rode alot on the streets. Once I did have a chance to hit the trails I was instantely hooked. I love the outdoors and I never had the opportunity as a kid to visit the mountains (except on a rare time when it would snow) and the county parks we have here. Mountain biking lets me get out there and visit those places while providing something more interesting than hiking/walking. I get great exercise, a good adrenaline rush, and I get to see/experience new things. Gotta love it.

today, when i rode my Marin Bolinas Ridge for the first time :D

Hmm. As a kid my bike was always my means of transportation. Not many trails in the area, nor was the bike suited for them. The whole mountain biking thing didn't come along until I was 26. About a year ago a couple buddies convinced me to come out riding with them. It'd been quite some time since I was on a bike, so we borrowed a bike that was too small for me and hit some trails. It wasn't an instant love affair for me, but I did enjoy myself. We went out a second time on another borrowed bike that fit me. I started to see the light. After that, I bought a bike and started getting out as much as I could. It quickly became a passion of mine.

I had a boyfriend that got me into it. Well, I still have my bike, the boyfriend on the other hand...:)

The first day I loved it? I rode my wally world dually up Greenmount on the highway then cut into John Forrest national park to go back down. The bike should have exploded underneath me going up let alone coming down, but the ride and the trail were a revelation, commuting was never the same. As the bikes got better the experience only got better with them. Love it still.

I had a boyfriend that got me into it. Well, I still have my bike, the boyfriend on the other hand...:)

funny. when i bought my bike, it generated a fight between me and my then girlfriend which eventually led to the end.

actually, for me, i saw my friends kona stinky, and never had seen anything like it, three weeks later, i had a hard rock comp with disc brakes, and i spent all that money, even though i never went mountain biking, but i forced myself to like it, and so far it has worked out great

For me it was when I discovered downhill mountain bikes. I got to pedal a bike shop employee's Trek Pro-Issue DH bike (98-99 vintage?) around the store parking lot. It had a Monster T on it, was heavy as all get-out and pedalled like a slug. But it was the closest a bicycle had ever come to resembling anything like my trusty IT175 Yamaha (same color even :)). Up to that point, I thought mountain bikes were a joke: little or no rear suspension, wimpy 3" 'toy' front forks.

I remember thinking "Now this kind of mountain biking I could get excited about."

The reason why I ever got into mountain biking was due to the first-ever Olympics MTB race in 1996. I had the bike bug because of a Trek (MTB), that my dad had purchased for me, but I hadn't really gotten into it. I remember watching Bart Brentjens just smoothly glide through the race to win the gold. For some reason, the action of the MTBers in the race REALLY appealed to me, and then I got hooked. In fact, I still have that old VHS tape, I recorded the race on.

It started at an early age for myself. I still remember every bike I have ever owned. My first one was a blue X-Mart 16" that didn't have training wheels. I was about 6 y.o. and on top of the world. I moved to a farm a couple months later and began riding gravel roads. I soon grew out of that bike and my parents bought me my first "real bike". It was a 20" GT BMX bike. It even had a single hand brake for the rear wheel with a gold chrome lever and bar pads. I was jumping the terraces and skidding around in the gravel until dark.

I was soon introduced to Freestyle. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen!!! I was watching movies like Rad and getting all sorts of magazines. My parents couldn't afford to get me a new freestyle bike, so my Grandma's boyfriend (yeehaw G'ma) bought me a K-Mart bike that had a rotor with front and rear brakes and a set of pegs. OH BOY WAS I STOKED. Soon after, my cousin got one and I moved back to the city. We went everywhere jumping off little 2 footers and steps, cruising the urban landscape. It was not long until I got a 1988'ish GT Vertigo Street. I was in pure H-E-A-V-E-N!!!! I didn't really know how to freestyle, but I could turn my wheels in a 360 and ride around jumping off of stuff...that was enough for me. I finally learned to bunnyhop and so began my journey toward bigger things.

I was a skater for a span in between, but hopped on my friend's Hardrock that was completely rigid, steel, and full of wheelie riding power! I had to get a MTB. It was all I could think about! I bought a used Diamondback Hybrid b/c at that point I thought they were the same as a MTB. I was in Hog Heaven, man. My second ride out, I went off a 3 foot wall and bent the goofie riser bars down. I went to the shop to get a replacement. (this is where my lust for aftermarket parts began) A couple months later, I bought a used Trek 820 that was blue and was seriously in need of some aftermarket "blue anodized lovin"...you remember the time. I bought a blue flat bar with blue bar ends and a blue cable hanger. I ended up giving the Diamondback and Trek to my sister @ some point.

I was still hanging out with skaters and skating now and then and I had this revelation: I will ask for donations for a Brand Spanking New bike...no more used stuff. I told everyone who donated, that I would put their names on the frame with little stickers. It worked out. I saved up $700 for a Rockhopper A-1 FS Comp with a Rockshox Indy fork. Holy crap!!! I may as well have just bought a new Monster Truck. I hit the trails for the first time on this bike and was in awe of what it could do. A new BB, 20t granny (yup they mad 'em), XT rear der., and riserbars later, I traded it for a GT LTS-3. My first endeavor into Full Squish. I was invinceable. I didn't do any trails with climbing b/c even though I rode all the time, it was either urban jump stuff, or flat twisty trails. I wasn't really in "Bike Shape". The GT was traded for a Cannondale Super V 900 Comp that soon earned a Scott Vertigo riser bar, XT rear derailleur, XT/x517 wheels, Avid SD brakes with brake stiffener, and a set of Yeti Logo grips. I went a little nutz for a while, I also bought a Mongoose rigid, and schwinn 24" cruiser (because I thought I could do BMX). I ended up selling all but the C-dale. I put sooooo many miles on that one. Took it to lots of trails, but mostly still urban/jumping stuff.

The time came for me to go back to school and grow up so I could support my wife and hopefully a kid in the future. I sold the Super-V for tuition and book $$$ and quit riding for a couple years. I finished school.

The guy that I work with now said one day "we should get bikes and get some exercise". I was like HOLY CRAP, I forgot about my passion!!!

March of '05, I bought a Gary Fisher Wahoo that I was not happy with, so I traded it for my HKEK which I love. I started riding trails with actual hills and rarely ride urban anymore. I love the trails so much more now than I ever have. Since then, I have built a Trek 4500 ground up for a snow bike and a Jamis Dakar XLT ground up. I sold the Trek not long ago, but still have the HKEK and Jamis. I have come to the realization that I will never be happy with what I have. ( I think there's a Bible verse about it:D ) I am always upgrading and building...that's part of the passion for me. As soon as I get everything done that I wanted to do...I have the perfect bike for me...now I want to change it. There in lies the thousands of $$$ of components.

I find myself having those "if I were a millionaire" dreams and fantasizing about a full S-Works line-up going from state to state riding all the trials.

Sorry this is so long.

I discovered that I like mountain biking on vacation in Sunriver, Oregon last summer. The only biking I had done before was on pavement. Using an old comfort bike (no suspension, no gears, and to brake you have to pedal backwards), I went to see a nearby waterfall. At the edge of the resort the asphal pavement ended, and I was faced with a rather dramatic choice between a dirt road wide enough for cars on the right and a very narrow path through the woods on the left. I chose left.

At the beginning of the trail I could see that sections of fallen trees had been cut out, leaving just enough room to pass a bike through. I was surprised that the entire tree, which didn't look that heavy, hadn't been removed, or atleast had wider peice cut out. As I rode on I realized that the trail had been designed to be difficult, and I began to enjoy the focus and concentration that was required and the adrenaline rush that came with the danger of crashing.

Thanks for the stories guys, they're all great reads and I'm glad to see that this thread keeps growing.

Because of where I live and my mom considering it a "short drive" I might be heading up to Whistler Blackcomb in the next couple weeks. Up until now, I've only had experience on moderate XC trails and small dirt jumps, but now I might be able to go on to the real fun stuff. :D

Again, thanks.

Thanks for the stories guys, they're all great reads and I'm glad to see that this thread keeps growing.

Because of where I live and my mom considering it a "short drive" I might be heading up to Whistler Blackcomb in the next couple weeks. Up until now, I've only had experience on moderate XC trails and small dirt jumps, but now I might be able to go on to the real fun stuff. :D

Again, thanks.

Wear armour and a full face. Regardless of how you feel.

Wear armour and a full face. Regardless of how you feel.

I've PMd you on the subject :)