Hi guys n girls, my name's Mark and I'm a mountain bike addict.
It all started in about 1990 when I saved my money from a paper round and bought a MBK bike from Charlie Brown's (kinda like Halfords only crapper!). 200gs and 300lx gruppo. Weighed a tonne but loved it to bits - was a time when everyone was into road bikes - Raleigh Banana springs to mind!
Anyway, that got nicked after a year so my insurance replaced it with a Specialized Hardrock Sport with Allsopp Flex-stem.
Again, this lasted about a year and this got nicked too. My next replacement was a GT Tequesta in yellow, with (dun dun duuuun) Rock Shox Indy S - elastomer based fork that was soft in summer and hard in winter, but at the time was superb for me.
In 1997 I got my ultimate frame, a GT Zaskar. I rode the @ss off it until I found clubbing and other things, and riding took a back burner.
About 3 years ago I was looking at new bikes and I found an 03 S-Works Enduro frame for sale, which was totally mint and £280. What the hell. Took some money out, travelled across country and met this complete stranger in a train station car park, chatted and bought the frame.
I rode this for a year and realised that full sus was doing all the work for me and I felt detatched from the trail. I sold this and bought a Pace RC303 in silver. I built this up with DT wheels, Air Revelations and a mix of X9 and XT kit with Thomson and Avid. Was a great bike. REAL nice to ride and totally up for whatever I threw at it.
In August last year I got married and sadly the Pace had to go to fund wedding stuff (that's love for ya!). So, after a miserable winter of no bike, in Feb this year I bought a frame by a company called Pipedream. It's called a Sirius. 631 steel tubing, with coil Revelations, 08 XT kit and Formula brakes. Honestly it's superb - steel is where it's at for me. Can't see me getting rid of this for ages. I've now got my wife into biking and bought here an 08 Hardrock Comp and we ride over all sorts of places in the UK - Cannock Chase, Coed y Brenin, Llandegla. Anywhere really.
It's not just a love, it's a total passion for me.
So, hello from me, I hope to be of some use to the forum!
(Sorry to waffle!)
It all started in about 1990 when I saved my money from a paper round and bought a MBK bike from Charlie Brown's (kinda like Halfords only crapper!). 200gs and 300lx gruppo. Weighed a tonne but loved it to bits - was a time when everyone was into road bikes - Raleigh Banana springs to mind!
Anyway, that got nicked after a year so my insurance replaced it with a Specialized Hardrock Sport with Allsopp Flex-stem.
Again, this lasted about a year and this got nicked too. My next replacement was a GT Tequesta in yellow, with (dun dun duuuun) Rock Shox Indy S - elastomer based fork that was soft in summer and hard in winter, but at the time was superb for me.
In 1997 I got my ultimate frame, a GT Zaskar. I rode the @ss off it until I found clubbing and other things, and riding took a back burner.
About 3 years ago I was looking at new bikes and I found an 03 S-Works Enduro frame for sale, which was totally mint and £280. What the hell. Took some money out, travelled across country and met this complete stranger in a train station car park, chatted and bought the frame.
I rode this for a year and realised that full sus was doing all the work for me and I felt detatched from the trail. I sold this and bought a Pace RC303 in silver. I built this up with DT wheels, Air Revelations and a mix of X9 and XT kit with Thomson and Avid. Was a great bike. REAL nice to ride and totally up for whatever I threw at it.
In August last year I got married and sadly the Pace had to go to fund wedding stuff (that's love for ya!). So, after a miserable winter of no bike, in Feb this year I bought a frame by a company called Pipedream. It's called a Sirius. 631 steel tubing, with coil Revelations, 08 XT kit and Formula brakes. Honestly it's superb - steel is where it's at for me. Can't see me getting rid of this for ages. I've now got my wife into biking and bought here an 08 Hardrock Comp and we ride over all sorts of places in the UK - Cannock Chase, Coed y Brenin, Llandegla. Anywhere really.
It's not just a love, it's a total passion for me.
So, hello from me, I hope to be of some use to the forum!
(Sorry to waffle!)
