They say you never forget your first, and that is indeed true. Needless to say, I’m talking about my first ever mountain bike, a 1987 Raleigh Elkhorn, of course! Time is a strange old thing – it drags like a concrete weight when times are tough, and rushes by at warp speed when things are good. It’s hard for me to really believe that it’s been almost 40 years since I first straddled that ‘Bianchi-like’ celeste coloured iron beast, a relatively cheap and cheerless thing that would, in part, forever change the direction of my life – such is the power of the humble bicycle.
Back in 1987, we were still two years away from the fall of the Berlin Wall, and were living in an analogue era where the sport of cycling was dominated by dropped bars and skinny-tyred racing bikes. I’d been chasing bicycle racing dreams around Europe for many years before the flat bar trail beasts that we now know and love landed on our shores, and I had been away from serious riding for a little while. Somehow, I heard tell of these strange new bikes, although at that time they were still a rarity, and decided they might be just the ticket for me.
Just to note, the bike in the headline picture isn’t that Elkhorn, I know… unfortunately, I don’t have any images of that very bike.
Love at first ride
Eventually, a visit to the local Halfords got me hooked up with this strange-looking (to me) gate of a bike named the Raleigh Elkhorn (though I only just found out the name). I can’t fully remember the spec and details, but it had a chromoly lugged frame and fork and alloy wheels – the rear being bolt-on and with a plastic spoke guard. Fronting it out was a super high-rise stem and big bars (I think I swapped to a lower stem and cut the bars down), a Shimano 6/7-speed drivetrain with a triple SunTour crankset, a Dia Compe cantilever front brake, and an evil bottom stay-mounted U-Brake.
In all, I think I paid around £350 for the bike, which was considered mid-range back then. At that time, Raleigh only had a handful of ATBs in its range – the brand didn’t relent to calling them mountain bikes for a year or two later.
With not knowing quite what to make of this strange old bike, I figured I’d throw myself in at the deep end – and took it for its maiden outing up the Snowdon Ranger Path. I can’t remember all of the details of that ride-bike push, but I had a mate with me (on foot), and I spent more time trying to ride up and down the steps than anything – a kind of cruel and fun baptism of fire; the best way.
Despite not much liking the actual bike, I fell hook, line, and sinker for mountain biking immediately. Over the next few months and years, I rode that thing obsessively, and got back into fighting shape along the way – and even raced on it (possibly the cheapest bike in the bunch).
New horizons
The sport was growing rapidly at that time; everything was fresh and exciting. The possibilities of what could be done, the places you could go, and the adventures you could have seemed limitless – and that’s what drew me in.
Despite knowing every single local paved road like the back of my hand, venturing off-road into the great unknown (to me) took me to places I’d never been before. Suddenly, a whole world of riding and adventure potential opened up – and to think, it was already there behind those hedgerows and farm gates I’d ridden past daily for years.
Drive-to rides were not a thing for me before this, and so I put in some huge rides by linking up local and not so local trails spots. As the scene and sport grew, so I began drive out to what were to later become legendary mountain biking hotspots.
Sure, the old guys always say that the old days were better – but that’s not what this is about in any way (even if they quite possibly were). This is just a random flashback to the pioneering era of UK mountain biking, and a wink to a gangly old pale green machine that was to impact so much on my own life, much as bikes and riding them have done to many of us.
I can’t remember what happened to the bike, and I was happy to move on to a better bike a year or so in, by which time bike tech had already moved on a whole lot. Searching online, I found a few of these old fellas still living large, and they appear to have become something of a nostalgic classic, too.
Comparing an old Elkhorn to a modern day mountain bike would be a bit like comparing a retro Amstrad computer to a Macbook Pro. Either way, it matters not. That bike was very much of its time, and what a time that was to discover mountain biking. Or was that ATB riding?
5 thoughts on “You never forget your first mountain bike – memories of my 1987 Raleigh Elkhorn”
I’ve still got my 1989 Ridgeback MTB. It’s changed a bit over the years with several new chainsets, numerous tyres, three sets of forks, three saddles, new wheels, three sets of bars and I think it’s on its third rear mech. The only original bits are the frame, carrier, front mech and bottle holder TBH. It’s a bit like Trigger’s broom I suppose. It’s a lot heavier than my much newer Cannondale MTB but it still rides ok and it’s a useful and scruffy old clunker I can leave locked at the railway station or shops, safe in the knowledge that there are much shinier bikes that’ll be much more attractive to thieves.
My first bike as a child was a Raleigh Tricycle with caliper brakes. My first proper bike was a Raleigh Pavemaster. My Dad taught me to ride it by holding onto it and running then giving it a good push and telling me to get peddling.
Lovely little read, this!
My first mountain bike was a Saracen Eiger in ’89. Bright blue, a bit too big (a you’ll grow into it bike). But I bloody loved it. At 12 I was too young to appreciate how it opened the world up to me, but it did. We’d ride miles. And we were asked to go out for rides that took us further than our parents would normally be comfortable with. So the independence it gave me was incredible!
One of my biggest regrets was letting my parents get rid of it when I left home for uni. But I’d not ridden for a while, and has nowhere to keep it, so I wasn’t really able to do anything. Now I’m properly back into riding, it does hurt a little that I made that call, especially as my mother is a bit of a sentimental hoarder 🙄
A wonderful 1988 John Tomac signature model Mongoose. Our club had an American serviceman based at Greenham Common who joined our club. He very kindly did me an amazing deal and it was a fantastic bike. Super light either way a road geometry that made me the envy at many races. You never forget your first:)
Specialized Rockhopper Comp, 88, was nicked a few years later, got it back burnt and missing some parts, it then ended up going into Raleigh Special Products for a respray and rebuild.