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The first time you ever "loved" mountain biking.

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The first time you ever "loved" mountain biking.

Old 07-07-06, 09:51 PM
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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
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!
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Old 07-07-06, 10:01 PM
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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 Biking is so fun.
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Old 07-07-06, 10:31 PM
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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.
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Old 07-07-06, 11:47 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 01:33 AM
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The first time that I went to soem local jumps. Couldn't stop hitting them with my Sport mare bike.
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Old 07-08-06, 06:07 AM
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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
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Old 07-08-06, 08:21 AM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 09:32 AM
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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
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Old 07-08-06, 10:32 AM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 01:20 PM
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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
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Old 07-08-06, 01:26 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 01:27 PM
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Originally Posted by zx108
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
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Old 07-08-06, 02:08 PM
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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.



Originally Posted by zx108
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."

Last edited by cryptid01; 07-08-06 at 07:53 PM.
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Old 07-08-06, 02:13 PM
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Originally Posted by gastro
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...
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Old 07-08-06, 02:14 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 02:15 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 02:47 PM
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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!!
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Old 07-08-06, 03:31 PM
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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
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Old 07-08-06, 03:57 PM
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These storys are so cool. I think the RI-DE gene is very important to good health and happiness.
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Old 07-08-06, 04:22 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 04:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Girlscout13
Then when dad saw me he was ticked. It's been all downhill from there.
Good times...

Originally Posted by mtnbiker66
These storys are so cool.
We've been blessed!
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Old 07-08-06, 04:35 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 05:32 PM
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Originally Posted by mcoine
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"?
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Old 07-08-06, 06:12 PM
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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.
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Old 07-08-06, 07:19 PM
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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.
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