[PaulE]

First DH race was actually a dual descender, in 1995. Did it on a rigid cindercone, but at least I took the bar-ends off and lowered the seat. scared sh*tless by racing down a boulderfield, trying to overtake another guy on a similarly unsuitable bike!

I remember spotting a guy on a Zaskar, with one of the first Judy DH forks (3" travel!) and everyone was saying how it must be unridable with that much up front on a hardtail......

That cindercone got snapped, re-welded, snapped again and then traded in for a new one in '97. in '98 got one of the first batch of DMR trailstars (with a Judy XL on the front) as my XC bike was taking too much damage.

After doing a few scottish races, I went out and bought an ex-team Sunn radical which I rode for 4 years until it got stolen Luckily, the insurance company replaced it with a second hand straight-8, which I'm still riding now.

 

[- seb]

Raleigh M-Trax 1000 - fully rigid, £400, toe-clips, 1996.

 

[tartosuc]

My fisrt downhill run was at mont st anne in 1985, the race was actually an uphill/downhill race i Was riding a rocky mountain sherpa, full rigid!

My first downhill only race was at vernon new york in '88 it was a norba race. i was riding a kuwahara sierra xt xc bike(full rigid) with the seat up!

my first full suspension bike that got me more seriopusly into downhilling was a '97mongoose vrs1 with zzyzx fork...

 

[SuspectDevice]

Originally posted by narlus
same elevation drop too, i suppose. i know that the Grouse track was short, what was the other one?

i wonder what time the pros would turn in on the FLA course.

Mt St Anne was something like 2:15 in 2003...

There were actually pros in attendance at the FL races bitd. I vividly remember Todd Tanner and Eric Lemaire battling it out at Gatorback in ~95. Yes, the Gatorback of MX fame. Central Fl is full of old quarries. If you race from the top of the trailings to the bottom of the pit you can often get like 7-800 ft of vertical.

 

[- seb]

Originally posted by SuspectDevice
If you race from the top of the trailings to the bottom of the pit you can often get like 7-800 ft of vertical.

Last race I did had 8000ft vertical drop

 

[Threepointtwo]

Originally posted by tartosuc
My fisrt downhill run was at mont st anne in 1985, the race was actually an uphill/downhill race i Was riding a rocky mountain sherpa, full rigid!

My first downhill only race was at vernon new york in '88 it was a norba race. i was riding a kuwahara sierra xt xc bike(full rigid) with the seat up!

my first full suspension bike that got me more seriopusly into downhilling was a '97mongoose vrs1 with zzyzx fork...

I had one of those uphill/dh bikes except I had the most incredibly plush DH bike known to man - an AMP! It had 3" of plush travel and a RS Mag20 up front. That was sweet. We had an XC race in the morning, then a hill climb competition, then for the DH, we turned around and rode straight back down the hill climb course.

 

[RhinofromWA]

Originally posted by Threepointtwo
I had one of those uphill/dh bikes except I had the most incredibly plush DH bike known to man - an AMP! It had 3" of plush travel and a RS Mag20 up front. That was sweet. We had an XC race in the morning, then a hill climb competition, then for the DH, we turned around and rode straight back down the hill climb course.

Plush?

I think you meant to type, flexy........ So how long before your rear shock blew up?

Rhino

 

[Threepointtwo]

Originally posted by SuspectDevice
Mt St Anne was something like 2:15 in 2003...

There were actually pros in attendance at the FL races bitd. I vividly remember Todd Tanner and Eric Lemaire battling it out at Gatorback in ~95. Yes, the Gatorback of MX fame. Central Fl is full of old quarries. If you race from the top of the trailings to the bottom of the pit you can often get like 7-800 ft of vertical.

Todd Tanner is here in Utah kicking butt in XC these days.

 

[Threepointtwo]

Originally posted by RhinofromWA
Plush?

I think you meant to type, flexy........ So how long before your rear shock blew up?

Rhino

I got a special "factory blown" version. Hell, nobody knew what damping was back then anyway.

 

[RhinofromWA]

Originally posted by Threepointtwo
I got a special "factory blown" version. Hell, nobody knew what damping was back then anyway.

I still lik the AMP linkage fork

It was tops over the Proflex fork in its day.

Ahhhh 1.9" of bump eating travel...... Or even the LT 3" version.

I remember when AMP decided to not try and beef u the stuff that kept breaking but instead praised themselves on how light the frame was....

They had some cool XC FS rigs.....linkage rear end and link fork with cable acuated XC disks.....

 

[-BB-]

1997 Schwinn homegrown HT with a blown Judy fork.
By the next season I had an Ellsworth Dare.:devil:

 

[bizirka]

I rode a scwhinn rocket 88 with 3 inches front and rear, i was faster than alot of guys at whistler.

 

[Bikecrasher]

It was a 96 GT LTS-2, w/ Judy XC forks and canti brakes...and a real long stem.

 

[Zark]

My first bike I DH raced was a '98 Specialized FSR pro with a '99 Marz Z1. V-brakes and no guide Woohoo Damn fun bike, wish I still had it.

My first MTB was a '94 Gary Fisher Aquila that slowly acquired an XTR drivetrain and a sick Manitou 3 fork, I even put in an Englund rebound damper in it

 

[ska todd]

Originally posted by Slugman
at Plattekill on my '97 Kona Lavadone - racelight XC... but I did the stunts anyway!

Ha! A bunch of us were talking about that stupid ladder 2 weekends ago at P'kill. Nothing like hitting that thing in the rain during a race run

-ska todd

 

[Ciaran]

First time really DHing was at Big Bear... it was 1996ish (97?) I was on my 14 inch GT, with the Answer ProForx on them. Mmmm Mmmm! 2-3 inches of COIL sprung plushness. I crashed alot (Doing my Miles Rockwell impression) but luckily I had my super protective black lycra shorts on. (Though I NEVER had any of my parts in that awful "3D Violet" that was so popular) Them was the days!

 

[SlackBoy]

'94, on my '92 GT Pantera, fuly rigid, toe clips.
The spokes on the back wheel all came loose, so much so that at the bottom I thought i had a flat tire, But when running hand around the spokes I found that several had wound out so much they were only sitting in the recessed part of the nipple and would just pop out at a touch

 

[Mallet]

I started at Plattekill in 1999 with a Klein Mantra Comp. It had 6 inches travel in the rear via URT suspension and 5 inches up front via Judy XT. I remember taking the lift up the first tiome and saying to my friends "No way in hell I'm riding down there!" By the end of the day, I had the bug, bombing down all of the P-Kill trails, crashing, getting scarred up and loving it!

 

[gastro]

GT RTS Team with Mag 21 SL Ti (long travel kit = 2.5"). Circa 1993 (?).

I still have the fork, and my friend still has the bike around somewhere.

 

[narlus]

those AMP forks ruled. i always lusted after one. or the lawwill leader/control tech fork too...

 

[dfinn]

last weekend on a '03 giant dh team at Downieville, CA

 

[Ian F]

I did my first DH races on a '92 Cannondale Delta V HT. This was back in '93. It was my only mtn bike for quite a few years and handled all XC and DH racing duties. Granted, back then there was little divide between DH and XC. Often, both were scheduled on the same w/e with the DH race on Saturday and the XC race on Sunday and a lot of riders did both.

I got my first FS bikes in '97 and did my first DH race on one (a Foes Weasel w/ a UD150) in '98 at Mt Snow. That race really opened my eyes as to what was possible. The Beginner/Sport course was basically the lower 2/3's of the Pro/Expert course and was much steeper and more technical than anything I had ever ridden before. It scared the crap out of me, but I've been more or less hooked ever since.

At the end of '98 I bought a leftover Yeti Lawwill DH-6 which served as my DH and FS/XC bike for the first half of '99. I raced Seven Springs (Sport class) and Mt Snow (Expert) on that bike.

After breaking the Yeti twice, I bought a used M-1 w/ Monster T which served until '01 when I bought a used '00 M-1. I raced that bike in various set-ups until last year. Now I'm back to the Yeti for XC and DH work, but the bug is eating at me and I'll hopefully be looking for another used M-1 in a year or so. (Much to my g/f's dismay...)

Injuries have been fortunately few and not terribly bad (advantages of experience and being slow): 14 stitches from a practice crash at Mt Snow in 2000; broken finger from a crash at Mtn Creek in 2000; broken hand from a crash at Skyline Drive in 2002.

I've done a lot of different kinds of cycling, from BMX to road touring to XC racing to "epic" XC rides to road centuries to some of the best DH riding the East Coast has to offer. While I'll never consider myself a "downhiller" more than any other type of cyclist (I'm really a roadie at heart), there is an allure to downhilling that never seems to let you get away from it.

 

[stiksandstones]

My grandma donated $300 towards my cause, a handmade Gary Fisher that I had custom painted by cycleart...spoiled? no, just a kid working at a bikeshop and was able to get smoking deals on everything and I spent every penny I made at the shop. The bike was fluroescent pink with smoke effects, with a pearl white base coat-very very gay-but man it was trick for its time.

I remember I was told that "Gary Fisher" welded it himself, always made the bike seem a little extra special, but years later after I had met and become friends with Gary, I asked if it was possible that he himself welded my 1987 Kamikaze special (my name for the bike, not his)...he said possible, but not likely-oh well! ha. The bike eventually broke at the BB in 92' or so, I had it fixed, then the head tube broke-by then it was a dinosaur so I buried it in the dumpster outside the bike shop.

First suspension bike that was actually mine, would have been a 92' verlicchi bike that Iron Horse was using at the time. Cullinan paid me to be his personal wrench with bikes. That thing was as basic as it gets-I think the new Honda RN-01 has the same suspension design.

I thought of this very topic recently when I was watching some kids ride the local trails, they all had suspension bikes-like I always tell aspiring DH stars..."YOU MUST RIDE A HARDTAIL...at some point in your training" I truly think it builds skills you cant acquire on a FS bike.

Stikman
Team GT/HYUNDAI
DIRT Magazine

 

[syadasti]

My first DH/FR bike was a 1995 Marin Indian Fire Trail with a Manitou EFC DH fork. I had that bike for 6 years. I sold it to my sister's boyfriend who still uses it to this day...

Took it to Mt Snow in June of 1995 for my birthday. The non-race trails haven't changed since then - they really suck by today's standards That trip I bought my first chain tensioner too - the Bullet Brothers as seen in the photo...

 

[Ronny Grady]

man, that auxiliary derailer tentioner is bad ass!

my first dh rig was a mongoose alta, fully rigid. I got some 2.3" mud knobbies for it and thought I had the best performing rig ever.

 

[awholelota]

my first bike after a good ten year layoff from bmx was a really tiny rockhopper. i think it was a 13in bike. i still have it. that was about a year and a half ago. after the rockhopper i bought a 17in hardrock for $50 off my friend. then got a giant ds2. picked up a 2002 specialized enduro, and finally loving my sc bullit. now i'm thinking that my bullit is not enough bike for me. time to upgrade once again. so that's going to be 6 bikes in less then two years.

 

[ghettorigged]

I rode my first 'season' of DH on a 1997 Ross Mt. Rushmore.

The bike was fully rigid chromo with canti brakes and I used a full four fingers in a vain attmept to slow myself down. My first few DH sessions were at Jack Frost Mtn in PA. Yes, I also rode it at Plattekill.... and that's when I knew I was hooked. (it's also when I learned I needed to buy some gear)

Let me just say, when I stepped up to my 1998 C'dale F500 with Vbrakes & 1" of travel, I thought I was in heaven! Those 'gnarly' sections of beginner trails seemed like paved paths on that baby.

It took a while before I moved up to a full suspension bike, but when I did, I was truly thankful I had started out on crap.

 

[Jimmy_Pop]

My first DH bike was a Intense M1. Built it in January 02, my first race ever was a couple months later, April 6th. Crashed in practice, compound fractured of my heel and was out for the better part of 2 years and $70,000. Not a very good intro to DH. Thought this was going to be cheaper than racing cars.

jh