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what was your first DH bike?

Demomonkey

Demomonkey

Monkey
Apr 27, 2005
857
0
Auckland New Zealand
First DH bike was a Yeti Lawwill DH with reportedly 6" of travel. I had the shock out and cycled the suspension and it was 4.5" of travel. Still it was great travel. Frame was completely flogged and it had 2" of sideways travel also. It was great on small chatter but would bottom out on anything over 3' of vertical.

First DH that allowed me ride with confidence on anything big was a 2004 Demo 9 DH. That was the year I started to 'send it' so to speak. It was a great confidence builder.

No pics sorry. :(
 
T

thad

Monkey
Sep 28, 2004
388
21
Iron Horse THS-1. Toby Henderson sig, built by Foes with a Curnutt shock and 6" travel. 72 deg HA and 16" BB:rofl:
White Bros DC110
Full dark grey XTR V BRAKES!!!11!!!!1 except red cook bros cranks.
IRC Missile tires

Wish I had a picture of that bike.
 
Gary

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,684
5,617
UK


1997 GT STS DH - pretty similar spec to above..

snapped 2 of those frames!
Rock shox DHOs - later upgraded from elastomers to speed springs then swapped for a few different 6" DH forks.
Rock shox deluxe shock that liked to blow/fall apart, unwind itself from the stupid adjustable mounting
AC chainguide/cranks and massive 46T ring
XT V brakes - later changed to Hope discs, which in all honesty were awful, needing the pads wound in and out during longer runs - this became an important skill to ride the things.
Azonic bars/stem
Mavic 121 rims on hope XC/Ti glide - only just gave away my last 121 a few montha back.

was really proud of this bike but in reality it was an absolute piece of crap and too big for me.

I also had an ATX990 around '97 which I put the DHOs on and used as a mini DH bike.. that was a reliable wee bike and loads of fun!!
 
norbar

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,371
1,609
Warsaw :/
Gary that's a great setup. How long AC as been making those cranks? AS I Remember buying them brand new around 02/03. I actualy loved how they looked they were imho a genuinely good product.
 
Gary

Gary

"S" is for "neo-luddite"
Aug 27, 2002
7,684
5,617
UK
Oh.. that's not mine in the pic (just a random one from Pinkbike).. mine's long gone

Yeah, those cranks were sweet, dunno, I first saw AC stuff over here (Scotland) in about '95 there was an LBS back then near my closest DH track and the owner was really into his DH and he used to travel to the states and come back with all sorts of stuff you couldn't get here yet. hadn't seen any AC products for years then bought my daughter a 16" Redline BMX a couple of years back and it came with mini AC cranks.
 
Udi

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
MC shockwave, risse champs, vanilla rx, azonic pdw's, grimeca 4-pots



The risse's leaked all over the brakes most of the time, and the frame had horrible geo as you can see... my next two frames were bighits and I loved them to bits. Literally. (got the second coz I broke the first)
 
dhr-racer

dhr-racer

Monkey
Jan 24, 2007
410
0
A, A
thad said:
Iron Horse THS-1. Toby Henderson sig, built by Foes with a Curnutt shock and 6" travel. 72 deg HA and 16" BB:rofl:
White Bros DC110
Full dark grey XTR V BRAKES!!!11!!!!1 except red cook bros cranks.
IRC Missile tires

Wish I had a picture of that bike.
Click to expand...
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,088
6,024
borcester rhymes
LOL @ the 2004+ bikes in this thread.

I had a Straight Six which I loved, then upgraded to a Straight 8. Before that I had an STS 1500DS or whatever with the frankenbreak. The 8 was a freaking tank, wish I kept the six.
 
frango

frango

Turbo Monkey
Jun 13, 2007
1,454
5
My first, real DH bike :) SC S8 size M 2004, I guess
24" wheels, Duro Wildlie Leopard 3.0" :D I also had 3,0" slick ties from cruiser/chopper bicycle. My S8 looked like supermoto bike :)

 
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bizutch

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
1995 Schwinn Homegrown - Tioga Psycho tires, Judy SL (ti bolts in the clamps boys), 44 tooth red anodized big ring, Bullet Brothers billet red anodized derailleur tensioner, Answer Alumilite DH bars and massive Sun Ringle Rhino Lyte rims laced to whatever the heck came on it.

I thought I was the stuff doing runs with Johnny O'mara, Jimmy Deaton, Kite, O'Driscoll, Toby Henderson, Jay Dejesus. :rofl: Little old me in sport class and my bike wasn't much less advanced than the top pros at that point. :thumb:

 
boogenman

boogenman

Turbo Monkey
Nov 3, 2004
4,317
991
BUFFALO
I had a Karpiel Amrageddon for about a week but sent it back to the anus that sol dit to me because it was beat. Dude bent the lowers on the Risse fork.
A week later I picked up a 2000 or 1999 Yeti DH8 with a ghetto Rock Shox pull shock. Bike came with a Super Monster that I swapped out with Shiver when I got the bike.

Pics later when I get home
 
RMboy

RMboy

Monkey
Dec 1, 2006
879
0
England the Great...
First, Kona Stab 99... Actually rode soo nice, once i upgraded the shock to a Fox RC... :-D



Second, was this beast!! The RM7, has the blue imported from Canada especially to the UK.. never saw another blue.. If you own it, i would buy it back from you now!!!

 
bdamschen

bdamschen

Turbo Monkey
Nov 28, 2005
3,377
156
Spreckels, CA
Dang, can't remember the year, but I got a a good deal on a GT RTS1 with a judy dh. Guy hadn't had the bike too long and was getting one of those cool new STS frames instead. At the time I thought that bike had bottomless travel since I had been racing my GT avalanche frame with a mag21 at a few dh races before that.

I saved all my lawn mowing money and eventually got a set of magura rim brakes. They were awesome for about 2 months and then V Brakes came out :(
 
Total Heckler

Total Heckler

Beer and Bike Enthusiast
Apr 28, 2005
8,171
189
Santa Cruz, CA
My first real DH bike was a 2005 Santa Cruz VP Free.

I scored it from an old high school buddy who was doing powder coating for them at the time for $2500 complete with Saint components and a Dorado fork.

(I am still using the old saint brakes on my current DH bike)



 
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M

MDJ

Monkey
Dec 15, 2005
669
0
San Jose, CA
bizutch said:
1995 Schwinn Homegrown - Tioga Psycho tires, Judy SL (ti bolts in the clamps boys), 44 tooth red anodized big ring, Bullet Brothers billet red anodized derailleur tensioner, Answer Alumilite DH bars and massive Sun Ringle Rhino Lyte rims laced to whatever the heck came on it.

I thought I was the stuff doing runs with Johnny O'mara, Jimmy Deaton, Kite, O'Driscoll, Toby Henderson, Jay Dejesus. :rofl: Little old me in sport class and my bike wasn't much less advanced than the top pros at that point. :thumb:

Click to expand...
I have almost the exact same picture (including the lycra shorts), except I was on a Specialized Stumpjumper HT with a Judy. My addiction to DH took over after that race. What a mud fest that weekend was.

The next year I started on a Pro-flex and then got my first real DH bike. A '96 GT LTS DH with a whopping 3" Judy fork.
 
manhattanprjkt83

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,646
1,217
Nilbog
good thread...this was my official first dh bike...

specialized fsr frame
monster t
green doublewides
3" gazi
moto seat
some kit to make my rear travel longer...

everything before it was an overbuilt hardtail, here are a few pics of me riding it back in 02 or so...
 
mandown

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,281
7,812
Transylvania 90210
after messing around with a 2000 Kona Stinky Deelux and an IH SGS, I left the freeride world and sacked up for a BB7 with a Shiver and Gazza front and rear rubber (26X3.0 front and 24X2.6 rear), with an Avy. man, i kinda miss that bike.

 
bizutch

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
MDJ said:
I have almost the exact same picture (including the lycra shorts), except I was on a Specialized Stumpjumper HT with a Judy. My addiction to DH took over after that race. What a mud fest that weekend was.

The next year I started on a Pro-flex and then got my first real DH bike. A '96 GT LTS DH with a whopping 3" Judy fork.
Click to expand...
Were you at the finish in pro class when a pro's fork sheered clean off coming across the road and hitting the 3 foot deep ruts covered in hay? The lady screaming at him to "go, go, go!!!"? He just stopped and stared at her with the biggest WTF ever....:rofl:

Worst DH race ever. Best crowd ever. Got bumped by a 14 year old in Sport DS by a 14 yr old kid in Harry potter glasses. Ryan White!:thumb:
 
T

thad

Monkey
Sep 28, 2004
388
21
dhr-racer said:
Click to expand...
That's the one. Mine was red, too with very similar spec, down to the tires. Had the same Kore stem and azonic double walls, the brand new full dark grey xtr. Only differences with the White DC110, red cook bros cranks, 52T Real ring, and red AC chainguide. That AC guide was such a nightmare.

Next bike was a LTS. What a pile, the rear shock constantly blew up, and the shock shuttle bent.
 
Stan_Ireland

Stan_Ireland

Chimp
Jul 25, 2008
27
0
No pics sadly, but my first dh sled was a GT RTS-1 as ridden by "Fast" eddy Beechinor in the world champs...which i saw on eurosport! Best Irish rider of the era.

Closely followed by a GT LTS-1. Broke both unfortunately:(

Those were the days huh:D
 
B

Banshee Rider

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
1,452
10
The bike that landed me this awesome username almost 6 years ago.



My first "downhill" bike looked like this back in 05' though.



To be honest, I'm glad I missed 'the glory days' though. Some of the bikes in this thread look terrifying.
 
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