Throwback Thursday: More Old School Rides & the Bikes that Started Pinkbike
I had to stop and make sure I was seeing the number correctly, photo 27? If you've ever uploaded photos onto Pinkbike or formatted a blog post, you know that the number of the photo is part of that script, or part of any photo link you send. The above photo that Radek Burkat (who founded Pinkbike) sent me is simply number 27. For reference, we're now well past 20,000,000 (20 million) photos uploaded to the site, with more being added every minute.
Now, while these photos were uploaded in 2004, they were old photos then. Pinkbike was actually started in 1998. Here are a few of the bikes that started things along with some more throwback staff bikes, plus a trip down memory lane with Taj Mihelich as he reminisces about the days of BMX in the 80's.
Radek Burkat - Founder of Pinkbike
According to Radek, he once did own an XC bike, prior to the days of 50 lb freeride bikes of the early 2000's. The Marin Nail Trail was the bike he rode when he started Pinkbike.
My handle bar snapped landing this drop and the next day I walked into Calgary Cycle and bought my first Santa Cruz.
Then came the Santa Cruz Bullit. It took on the North Shore with plenty of skinny riding as well as a little urban freeride.
The Bullit in action in Calgary.
Following the Bullit was a Santa Cruz Super 8.
And finally, the original V10 with a Marzocchi Monster T
Alan Crisp - Head of Sales
 | The year was 2002 and I was at Thredbo, Australia. Notice on my helmet that my uncle got me a Subway sticker I thought it was pretty cool. I’d twisted my Boxxer and cracked the lowers the week prior to this race so a friend gave me a set of less cracked lowers to use. On the drive down to this race my lowers were rubbing on the bike rack and wore a hole in a leg and were leaking. Nothing a bit of tape couldn’t fix. I ended up using these for the rest of the season as my lawn mowing job wasn’t paying enough. |
Tom Richards - Videographer/Photographer
| The picture in the snow was my first ever proper mountain bike, a Scott Voltage YZ35 hardtail. I got that bike when I was 15 years old, must have been around 2006. I saved up about 1/3rd of the cost then my parents paid for the rest for my 15th birthday. It was ultra basic spec, came with elastomer RST forks which I rode for about a year, warrantied twice before swapping out for a set of 100-130mm travel adjust Rockshox Tora’s. I still have this bike, it's at my parent's house and my mum uses it as her bike now. The stair set huck shot and the red t-shirt shot are of my first ever full-suspension bike, a 2005 Kona Stinky I bought cheap off eBay for around 400 pounds. I loved that bike! At that point, I was really getting into riding but I lived in Lincolnshire, the flattest part of the UK. There was a tiny local forest with a hill about 40-50m in elevation where some friends and I built a 20-second trail with a few jumps and drops, but we had to resort to stair sets for anything bigger. My go to riding gear back then was baggy jeans, a hoody, 661 white stormtrooper knee/shin pads, and of course skate shoes. My third bike, an Astrix Havoc R. I bought it whilst at university with part of my student loan as my Kona was falling apart. The guy I bought it from was on a small UK race team, so the bike had a partial vinyl wrap with all the team's sponsors on it, which I kept on when I bought it because back then having stickers plastered over everything was cool! I had that bike for two years, in which time it did two full summer seasons in the French Alps plus racing in the BUCS student champs. The entire suspension linkage and rear pivots ran on bushings that wore out within one week of riding and I was lazy about swapping them, so the frame almost always had massive amounts of play in it! |
Alan Golds - Head of Brand
| This is the 2007 Cove Shocker which I raced in the Phat Wednesday series and rode in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. |
Ollie Lammas - Account Executive
| Riding back in the day for me centered around Swinley Forest which has a max vert of about 50 meters. Obviously, a downhill bike was necessary. I mostly rode with my little brother, Seb, who would always guinea pig the drop, gap or, jump first. We thought we were U.K. freeride pioneers copying features we saw being built on 'The Shore' in movies. |
Taj Mihelich
| I started working as a dishwasher at 14 to save money for a new bike. After a year of greasy scrubbing, I ended up with this absolute dream bike, the 1987-ish Robinson Pro. It was lavishly decked out with Redline Flight Cranks and Forklifter handlebars and an all-in-one Uni plastic seat/ post combo. Sadly, the family garage was burgled a month later, and the bike was gone. |
| The 1990, POS. This started it all for me and landed me an Airwalk sponsor. My first dirt jump comp and my first picture in a magazine (by John Kerr in BMX Plus!). Like all BMX bikes from the era, this one lasted only a few weeks. Some random race frame I found in the back of a bike shop. Mismatched pedals and tires, ODI penis-shaped grips, and very bent kneesaver bars. Parts were hard to find, and absolutely anything that could keep my bike rolling was just fine. |
| Then was a 1994, S&M Holmes. In late 1993 I realized the only thing I wanted to do was ride bikes, and so I threw my bike into my car and drove south until it got warm. I ended up in Austin, TX, with $5 in my wallet and a jar of peanut butter. Somehow I made it work. I started riding with James Shepard, who had a video camera, and he sent the clips to Dave Parrick, who put them in his Dirty Deeds BMX video. Importantly, this bike had the Hoffman Superfork on it. A crude and extremely heavy clamp-on stem design (still with a threaded headset) that finally moved BMX beyond dangerously weak quill stems. The fear of forks breaking at any moment was finally over! |
You can check out the first round of Pinkbike staff throwback rides here.
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@Tajlucas
www.pinkbike.com/photo/5526
www.pinkbike.com/photo/4748
My first full susser was a Kona DuDu, and I loved it. Frame's on the wall...
In fact, that video inspired me to film our own version, the "Whitehorse (Yukon) Freeride Championships" which sadly is no longer available but at least the original page remains www.pinkbike.com/news/article290.html
Still have my original Support Your Local Freerider t-shirt too. It's just, um ahem a little tighter now.
Thanks @radek for starting something and sticking to it, no doubt through some challenging times. I can't believe it's been 23 years. Congratulations.
I would love to know the history of Pinkbike, I know Radek is one of the founders, is he still an owner? Who owns it now? The two Mikes? A hedge fund?
They were the best back then. Had that set up a couple of times. Remember putting a set of Hope Sports on some Mk2 bombers and the fork leg snapped clean off above the disc mount. Great times.
Watching your frame or forks bend every time you applied the brakes
I forget which article I read it in (or, which comment section for a particular article) but someone mentioned it would be nice if wheel size was dictated by frame size. Extra small/Small having 24- 26" wheels (probably with 27.5 options) and Medium/Large XtraLarge having 26/27.5/29" wheel sizes. I hope this takes off.
Take a Hint, Oh mighty Specialized! before Trek beats you to it!!
On the other hand, I am in the process of converting my hardtails to mullet and that seems to be the direction some bike models are going.
Also remember the old HB Taj, then Deebo and finally the T1 Barcode, 3 of the best bikes I ever owned, Taj was god in my house!
I owned two cameras back then: a bulky film one the size of a large hamburger, and a Polaroid instant film one that was even bigger... neither of which I would even contemplate bringing on a ride. Even getting the pics developed was a pain.
Was that 24hrs of adrenaline in Canmore too? What ridiculous stuff we used to think was fun.
I miss CGY, but admittedly, the shore is a smidge better.
Thanks for this.
Last time I saw @radek was at C.O.P. sometime around 2003 or 2004. His day ended with a dislocated/jammed finger. He seemed pretty relaxed about the fact that his digit was no longer pointing the right way.
I'll bet no one here remembers riding any bike with reverse pedal brakes that weighed a minimum of fifty lbs down fire trails in marin county PRIOR to , cunningham, ritchie, fisher, joe breeze etc.
Now THATS old school . so fucing old that my old double top tube cruiser was recently found at a California Archeological site along with some dinosaur bones .
Alan Crisp's pic: pretty typical old school Boxxer - cheese lowers with a pinch bolt missing! Don't think I ever had one with all 4 working bolts.
Meanwhile, 20 years later the Monster T is still shrugging off light knocks, like a 30 foot huck to flat...
@radek can't wait to get out for a lap with you here in Squamish sometime!
I still have that same Bomber on my early '90s Marin, scavenged from a rider who's Trek Y frame cracked.
@tajlucas
Yes, Mihelch comes from Mihelič/Mihelić. It's very common surname here in Slovenia or Croatia (we are neighbours
Thanks Taj
m.pinkbike.com/photo/1