It was 20 years ago today...First Mtb Ride thread

Do you remember your first time?
With all this "old parts you could live with" and "data geeking/strava" talk, I had to dig up my old ride log (originally done on MS Access which I was learning to use for work, later transferred to Excel). Yes I am a data geek, always have been, and not just bike related. And it's ok if you're not, really, we don't hate you, just don't understand you

So not exactly 20 years ago, but my first Mtb ride was Sep. 24, 1995 at Aliso Woods. Borrowed bike with buddy Dan, went up the canyon to bottom of Cholla and back. Kinda remember I had to take some breaks, it was hard, but I loved coming back down the log said it was 9.5 miles and took 80 minutes. Second ride was Santiago Truck trail, back when you could park on the grade, went to the high point before the drop to the flag and turned around, 7 miles, 90 minutes.

Third ride I remember well, San Juan shuttle from Blue Jay. it was October '95, santa ana wind, 100+degrees, thought I was gonna die on the climb to cocktail rock. Loved it so much I bought my first bike shortly after, GT RTS Team in purple, Mag21 fork, Paul's rear rim brake that was the precursor to Vbrakes but was so finicky to adjustment it often didn't work much at all. ah, the good old days...

 

Good thread idea! Nice details! That's some history, there.

I rode BMX and cruisers in the dirt since around '69. My first MTB I bought at the Fat Chance factory in Sommervile MA when I lived there in 88-92. I put slicks on it right away and never rode it once in the dirt in New England. It was a commuter bike with a future hope. The hope materialized when I relocated to OC in 92 and made it to Aliso Woods. That fully rigid beat me senseless, and I essentially blew off MTB for years after due to back issues. Once I got a FS in 09, it was a new game entirely.

So, my first MTB ride had to have been riding my own to work in 89, or riding same bike a couple years later. At Aliso Woods, yeeaaahhh : )

 

I've told this story before....any discrepancies are due to artistic license!

Cue the way back machine to 1987. I was the proud owner of an ' 85 Stumpjumper, bought from a local dealer after someone reneged on a layaway.
I was working as a bike messenger in DTLA and one of my buddies suggested that since we had mtbs we should go riding.
With minimal trail knowledge gleaned from a local shop, and a 12 pack bribe for a shuttle up, we were off!
We were going to ride the Gabrielino, from Switzers to JPL. Couple things against us: we did t even know what the trail looked like, and none of us had any off road bicycle experience.
The Ranger at Clear Creek took down our names and phone numbers "for safety" and pointed out how to find the trail. Only 13 miles to JPL!
Our heads were full of weed and beer and none of us had a helmet. "3 yards and a cloud of dust" is a football euphemism but it also applied to our riding style.
We crashed our way down the trail. Taking over 6 hours to emerge by JPL. Bloody, bruised, dirty and really hungry and thirsty!
When my brother showed up to bring us back to LA he said we looked like we needed to go to the hospital. I told him it was the single greatest experience of my life!

 

Got one of the first Stumpjumpers that came out in 1981 due to the fact that my best friend was Sinyard's brother in law.
Mostly road it to and around school and in some of the orchards in the Silicon Valley back then.
Took it to UCI when I went to school there and used it around campus.
Sold it off cheap in school to get a 10 speed road bike and a beach cruiser.
Wish I would have kept it.

 

1997 Next steel frame 18-speed hard tail with a double crown 100mm fork from Walmart. It was the women's model with the sloping top tube because I had no idea about anything. I took it through Evey Canyon to the summit of Potato Mountain, having to dismount and hike several times. I remember clearly another rider just spinning away past me as I was hiking, and I had no idea why he was able to pedal while I had to walk up the hill. At that time I didn't burn and thought spending thousands on a bicycle was ridiculous. Things have changed.

 

I honestly do not remember my first mtb ride. Nor my second. Sometime early in my MTB days (1989, I believe), I rode at a park near my house (north of Colorado Springs) called Fox Run. It included singletrack through a pine forest. That's all it took to get me hooked. The ride that sealed my fate was the first time I rode the trail around Rampart Reservoir, west of Colorado Springs - a 12 mile loop including a few technical sections. So much fun - and I loved the micro-challenges.

 

The first mountain bike ride, that was memorable enough that I still think about it, was sometime the late 80’s. It was a ride with my dad, he was riding a Diamond Back and I was riding a Motiv Rockpoint from Price Club (it hadn’t been bought by Costco yet). Both bikes were 7x3 Shimano (his much nicer than mine) and the 26” tires were the only “suspension” we had. We parked at the school at the top of Knoll Ranch and Serrano and dropped into what is now the North end of Santiago Oaks along what would become the Serrano Ave extension to Cannon St. The only other bikers we saw that day were a couple coming down a steep section of (what is now) Weir Canyon Wilderness Park. I probably wouldn’t remember that one of them went OTB on the way down and I remember thinking it was stupid to even try going down a hill that steep (now I do it all the time). I have no idea the miles or feet we did on that day I just remember that we had a real good time.

 

This isn't the actual bike I owned, but it's the same down to the color. Schwinn Stingray. First bike I ever rode in the dirt. The one I managed to snap the right handlebar off of when landing from a jump. Probably shouldn't have been jumping it, but what the hay - the other guys were jumping theirs. About 1973 or so.

 

It was around 1995; bought a Trek. I rode El Moro a couple of times; started getting the hang of it.

Ventured over to Peter's Canyon; had some more fun. Then went over to Santiago Oaks. I remember trying to ride Taco which is now called Grasshopper. I remember telling my husband (at the time), "There's no friggin way people can ride these rock faces on their bikes - I'm doing it today.

I stopped riding soon after that; I started making a family.

I picked up mtbing again in April 2010 for a Andy aka Rut's St. Patrick's Day ride on STT/Luge. I walked most of Luge but was hooked from that day forward.

Amazing how your perspective changes when bikes are advanced and you become a better rider by riding w better people than you.

 

"thought I was gonna die on the climb to cocktail rock. Loved it so much I bought my first bike shortly after, GT. . . . ."

Replace "cocktail rock" with Space Mountain (on the Los Robles trail), and that was me. The GT part is correct. About 20 years ago too.

 

Nov 2004, cheap giant hardtail. At the time I was an avid runner, and i figured I was in great shape and so pedaling uphill for the first time in 15 years or so would be a piece of cake, boy was I wrong. Started at top of the world and down rockit and the climb back up mathis was as if ive never worked my legs before! A year later i was doing big rides in the santa anas. .
I rode my bmx bike on trails in junior high in the early 80's

 

This was mine, bought at National Lumber.....

 

Ahhhh, that Great Murray Styling!

Check out that head tube angle and the fork offset. Not to mention the one-up rear climbing gear. Totally ahead of its time!

 

Hey, I had a Baja as a kid! Never considered it a MTB, but yeah, guess it was. I was an early adopter after all!!!

 

I'm coming up on my 10 year anniversary in November. I'd grown up road biking, but never touched a mountain bike until then.

The irony... my first mountain bike ride was EXACTLY the same route as yours

Here is my first "real" bike that I didn't have to share with my sisters. I think it was around 1976? I loved the yellow/black color. Note the inset pic of the girl with her 10-speed at a campsite I was ahead of my time!

 

Looks like a bash ring too (which was probably needed with that wheelbase). And real flat pedals, not those clip things. Way ahead of it's time for sure!