The bike that got you started

1989 Specialized Stumpjumper Team - I raced a couple of seasons of XC, DH, and DS on it.

i rode this beast for 2 years, a raleigh smokin DH. it had 5.5" travel and the craziest geo ever. originally it came with an RST alfalfa dh i think at 6" so this is it "raked out" with a 7"fork..... notice the BB.... this thing would clear just about anything. in its 2nd year it developed about 2 inchs of rear wheel "flop" when you grabbed the bars mand moved the bike side to side quickly. the frame could literally be steered. so that no one would get hurt riding it we ended up burning the frame. within 30 seconds of throwing it in the fire the head tube literally burst off the front. the shock however was the highlight once that nitrogen caught......

after this it was on to a 2002 bighit dh, a 2004 norco six, a 2005 norco A-line, and now my 05 DHR

I'm on the left there. You can barely see the bike but it's a c.95 Santa Cruz Tazmon w/ 97 Bomber, original XT v-brakes, World Force bar/stem, Ringlé tie-dye hubs and I think Kooka cranks. This is at the Whiteface race in summer 1997, when you used to have to take 2 lifts to reach the top.



-ska todd

1990 Trek Antelope-

2001 Rocky Mountain RM6 I definetly got this one cuz i saw it in a video

Um with some hook ups built it for $500 brand new.(massive hookups!) Condsidering the cranks ran for $300 alone. Ended up selling it for about $1000 on ebay. Really what got me started. It was 3 years ago I was 13. The faith is my second one, and the Morewood is my current.




The Faith


The 'Wood

A 1995 Bianchi Ragno 24" wheels, hi ten steel frame, plastic cantilever brakes, Icastelle seat, etc. It was stolen i wish i had a picture righ now.

Had this my freshman year in high school, pictured with a few upgrades.

First legit mtb was a Schwinn Moab 3...maybe 1997 or so. Did some DH on it too. First DH-ish bike was an SC Bullit a few years later.

My moms diamond back hardtail.

1991 Lime Green Trendz. It was from Toys R' Us and had 20" wheels. I was 5. Eventually it got an LX/XT drivetrain and brakes.

I found a pair of fresh-ish Porcs for my race run in HB's trashcan in Helen Ga in '94. Raced with that setup (1.25" peperoni fork, 135x15 stem). I have a distinct memory of Missy Giove bunnyhopping my head as I was laid out across the track in practice

uh oh. I'm old or something?

Started on a 198something schwinn enduro 5 sp. It had 22" tires and was sort of a cross between a bmx bike and a mountain bike. I was like six years old when I got it though, so it fit like a mountain bike. I think I'm one of the few weird kids who started mountain biking first and switched to BMX later.

I grew up at the base of noble canyon though, and there were not any bmx tracks close by, so I guess it makes sense.

If I try really hard, I can still be stoked about indexed shifting.

This is where you

Mongoose MGX that I bought from Costco. Refitted with a Judy XLC dual-crown and a Fox Alps5 shock and other assorted bits. I surprised quite
a few people and landed my first sponsorship with the modest successes I racked up on it.



This is what got me hooked on racing on two wheels waaaaayyyy back in the day:

2002? Banshee Scream w/ an 02 Marzocchi Monster T! I think it weighed somewhere around 50lbs +... It was my roommates, but I rode it most of the time... on XC trails and messing around the streets and schools at night... fun to pedal!

Then the rest of the bikes over the next 3-4 years... each one gets nicer and nicer!

This was my first ever mountain bike. I had a Specialized P.2, setup for Urban/Commuting to school, pretty fun/worthless bike. I had a friend who used to race DH back in the early 2000's, and he convinced me to get a FR bike, over an XC/AM bike. SO GLAD he talked me out of a 5" bike.




Bought it on ebay about a year and a half ago, turns out it was a hunk of junk (I knew nothing, and my friend based his review on the last bike he rode circa 2004), parts started breaking, had to replace the brakes, fork, and a lot of other parts. About 3 months after I bought it, it looked a little like this (missing from the picture are brakes, cranks, guide, X0 kit, saddle



Fast forward another 3 months, and the bike was moved by a worker at my parent's house, and was run over by a car backing into the driveway to unload kitchen appliances. So I had to buy a new frame.



Fast forward a little less than a year, and 4 months off the bike due to multiple injuries, the V10 cracked, and SC had no more replacement parts. This is where I stand today.

1990 Schwinn Impact: 40# steel rigid, 7sp beast circa 1992
1998 GT XCR-2000 with marzocchi qr20 fork
2000 Yeti DH-8: Marla Streb's backup frame, best picture I have is attached.
Then a series of giant dh bikes, a few yeti dh-9 frames, bunch of other assorted Yeti's.

Giant ATX 990. It was a DH bike back in the day...

1996 Schwinn S-20 though I never actually raced it, did my first race on a 2000 Santa Cruz Bullit....... Good times!

This was the first break away from XC hard tails for me.

(except I didn't have the Spin wheels)


Then I had one of these


I got that Yeti for cheap-ish when Schwinn bought Yeti and the Durango facility shut down. It was built up with leftover parts from the factory with the 4 hole 54 tooth XTR chainring and all. Those rear shocks were hard to keep the rebound running. I often times had no rebound and water bars were very scary.

I bought it in 07 its an 04. Converted to SS now, i will ride it till the frame breaks. Nothing fancy to see here.

giant yukon in 2007
got a bit more into it so got a dh hardtail, a 08 norco rampage in early 2008
moved on to a gt-dhi in mid 2008
not getting a yeti 303r

cool thread!
first DH race I ever did about '97 or 98 was on a K2 animal with the tiger paint, a home made chain guide(oak roller!), v brakes, and a rock shox judy XL with elastomers and very little damper. ruined a couple rear shocks on it(horrible noleen thing) and sh1t canned it. my dad kept it as a loaner bike for bringing friends on rides.

next('99ish?) was my first "real" dh bike an iron horse supposedly ex factory race bike SGS DH, you know, the one with the american flag paint and AC components guide. after I was done with it, the frame was ovalized at the main swingarm bearing. final straw was blowing the vanilla RC on the drop towards the end of 'clown shoes' at whistler upon which I got bucked hard and tore up my shoulder. had a risse trixxxy(LOL), the first hayes 8" brakes, etc. I have an awesome pic of this bike from a race about 2000 or so at snoqualmie, WA if i can find it. I put a 180mm manitou X vert carbon on it at some point.lots of good memories from riding that bike and horrible memories of wrenching on it. DH bikes in that era were a mechanical nightmare and REQUIRED some macguyvering. a non biking friend rides it now with the aforementioned judy XL on it, complete with no rear damping from the blown Fox RC!

My 01 Azonic Eliminator.
This was after I had it anno'ed by BullCrew for a buddy as a gift for helping us get out of New Orleans, but this is what it started me on pointing it down the hill

Couldn't found any bigger photos and I don't have ones of mine.


It's a rockmachine adrenaline 7000 (sounded fast at that time ). I've got the frame from my father in my teens and had no idea this was comming. Used to ride xc/en before that and dreamt about dh but never felt it was possible for me to try it. A year later my old man fallowed and got himself a banshee scream with a monster
The frame itself was very nice. Confidence inspirint yet a tank at 22.5kg. It came stock with a dmn shock that overheated on loger rides and turned the bike into a hardtail. Ended my time on this frame with a broken arm in 2 places (yet the beast still lives but I unfortunately had to sell it to get something more modern). If I could get one of those things I'd rebuild my old bike just for screwing around.

'99 GT I-drive. When XC bikes had 3-3.5" travel this had 4.6" (and 5.4" with the longer Stratos shock).

My first post with my first, ahem, freeride bike...

K2 Animal



not my bike, but the best picture I could find


I remember watching the Kranked movies on VHS and wanting one so bad...

I dont even know what year it was, but it im pretty sure it was a late 90's GT ricochet hard tail. I suped it up and did mad drops off stairs on it and rode any trial I could find. Finally I got a 2003 Norco VPS drop that I spent all my money doing up, boxxers, Lrp Guide, Intense Tires etc, etc. Then the older model SC V-10 in the first stages of VPP. IT was a large and it was a serious hog, Its when I first started racing DH and now that I think of it that bike was a piece of crap.
Anyway I sold that and got a 2005 DHR and it was amazing, and now im riding a Socom.
Its fun to think back of all the frames, components and all that youve owned over the years.

an 83 Stumpjumper that my dad sold a few years back. Alas, no pictures.

My first real non-kids mountainbike that I raced DH on was an old Rocky Mountain Cirrus (maybe a 92 or 93?). Hardtail with the e-stays.

Girvin Vector 2 up front. Maybe an 1 1/2" of travel once the elastomir sat in the sun for a while and got warm...

Putting a Marz Z1 on the front in 97 was godlike.

My intro to DH was identical to BM Carter's...After some department store bike in the late 90's, I got a Klein Attitude, then a GF Sugar (which broke, constantly), and finally "stepped up" to a 2003 Bullit...



After many years of hucking to flat, I sold it to a friend (who still rides it) and got this:


Given the market of older DH frames, I suppose I will have to ride this until it cracks as well...Then I'm going to buy the Bullit back

Mine (1996):



Had toeclips and fully rigid for my first couple of races - I spent more time trying to get back into my clips than I spent riding!

My first real DH bike, a 2001 Bullit. raced my 1st DH race on it at the Big Bear nationals in 01.

bastardized GT XCR 1000

Ironjunk said:

I bought it in 07 its an 04. Converted to SS now, i will ride it till the frame breaks. Nothing fancy to see here.

Click to expand...

Iron Horse SGS Pro was the bike that got me started.

Rode some trails on a $200 hardtail twice. Then went and bought a used SGS the week after. That was 4 years ago, and other than an engagement ring, I haven't spent quite the chunk of change on anything but bikes since that day.

Bought my first FS bike in '01 (I was 18). GT i-Drive 3.0 !!! It was hot. I XC'd for a bit, broke the frame, had it warrantied.

While I was waiting the 7 months to get the re-engineered warranty frame, I bought a Giant Rainier just to get on two wheels. Broke that frame XCing.

Got a pretty sweet discount on a Giant AC1 and put an '03 Super T on it. Rode the piss out of it. Snapped the swing arm on a stair gap.

Got the warranty frame, traded it for a Brodie 8-ball and went to my first DH race ever mid '04. Put a crack in that frame, blew up the fork twice.

Grabbed an '02 Rotec. Rode the crap outta that bike for 2 years till some douchebag stole it and my Cove G-spot.

First true to life DH rig I owned:



And FR rig:




Now, here are my rides for the last 2.5 years (The ones to replace the stolen ones):

I did my first DH races on my '92 Cannondale Delta V hardtail... F/S bikes were still uncommon back then.. I still have the frame... some day I'll rebuild it... maybe... probably not...

The first F/S bike I bought was a Manitou FS-DH... that was too big for me... remember those? Had what amounted to Manitou fork legs for rear suspension... previous owner put speed springs in the rear... no damping... I had this bike for maybe a month or two before parting it out (still have the XTR/231 wheel floating around as well as the Magura rim brakes it came with)... Never raced on this bike, although it was raced by the previous ownr, John Moore (local Philly pro at the time).

Next up: '96 Foes Weasel... size small... first built with a '97 Z-1... and then built with a White Bros. UD150. Unfortunately, the bike was stolen off my car in 3/98... I did one DH race on this bike - a snow race at Big Boulder/PA... the day it was stolen...

With the insurance money from the above, I bought another Weasel. This time a medium... I rode/raced this bike for a maybe half a season... including Mt Snow in '98 (sport class). I kept this frame around for awhile in various configurations as a back-up DH bike...

Next up: a '98 Yeti Lawwill... purchased new in 11/98 when I heard they were blowing them out... I still have this bike (it's my FS-XC/DH bike), although little of it is original... I bought it because it was a good 6" travel frame that could run a front derailluer (a theme of my bikes up until I uilt the first M-1)... which is how it's usually set up. I still have that 54t 4-bolt ring it came with... Hanging on my wall like art... never actually ran it. I replaced it with a 48t Shimano DH ring (still too big for most E.C. courses)

Then a couple of M-1's I rode for the bulk of my DH expert racing career from mid '99 thru '03 when I stopped racing.

dont have any pics scanned of it, but my first bike was a Schwinn S20 w/ a Z2 Bam....yay to URT's!!

this is the bike i built in 07 and rode all 08
a moto xts with a jt swinger 6 way azonic outlaw rims magura louise with the venti rotors. i do kinda miss it because it was my first dh bike and all. i sold it and got a mongoose black diamond triple no pics yet waiting on parts to finish a fork swap