The Pinkbike Podcast: Our Teenage Fantasy Bikes That We Dreamed of Owning

Feb 1, 2024
by Henry Quinney  
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New art by Taj Mihelich.

We all had different journeys into mountain biking and at different stages in our lives. Here, Matt, Dario, Kaz and I talk through the good, bad, and downright weird bikes we were infatuated with and why.



Featuring a rotating cast of the editorial team and other guests, the Pinkbike podcast is a weekly update on all the latest stories from around the world of mountain biking, as well as some frank discussion about tech, racing, and everything in between.

Subscribe to the podcast via your preferred service (Apple, Spotify, RSS, Megaphone, etc.), or visit the Pinkbike Podcast tag page for the complete list of episodes.

The Bikes

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This one is currently on the BuySell. Kaz's Bow Ti choice.

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Kaz's bonus Kona Kula.

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Dario's rather sensible VP Free.

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I can imagine Matt riding this Kona Stab Primo off rocks in the 40 mph Newfoundland wind to a Limp Bizkit soundtrack.

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I can't tell you what I was thinking, because I honestly don't know. This is the bike I wanted. The Focus First.

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This stem comes up, too. For good and bad.

Which bike is the most worthy choice?




Music Corner

Matt's pick:


Dario's pick:


Henry's pick:


Kaz's pick:



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55 Comments
  • 14 0
 Brooklyn Machine Works Racelink

Lusted over for many many hours!

www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FjjxHqMTUjnW8vyG6QUTEMh1JgTdDYxoCcdGDJDms8DY.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D472246cbeb98130239ff5a26a611767ad4b27d09
  • 2 1
 Drool Drool
theres one with a supermonster up on the buysell for around $18k
  • 1 0
 This is the way
  • 2 0
 Dude at my local trails had one, around ‘09. Always drew a crowd. It was sooo heavy! But reportedly very planted. Think it broke down the earth beneath it to smooth out the ride
  • 3 0
 My late father had one of these. Trying to ride it as a kid, I most fondly remember how heavy it felt to try and throw around.
  • 1 0
 Yes! They peaked for me with the BMW based superco silencer. A size large one with an angle headset and I could happily make one my modern dh bike. Second would be an appalache real. Dang or a canfield fatty fat. I need money to collect old dh bikes.
  • 8 1
 Wade Simmons RM7, I found one for sale on the Pinkbike Buy and Sell, I may have to satisy that tennage fantasy!

www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3404877

I had that Stab Primo and let me tell you that you were not missing anything.
  • 1 0
 Geometry looks the same?
  • 3 0
 That rm7 is so mint. Buy it and get er autographed by Wade
  • 2 0
 beautiful RM7 that is
  • 1 0
 Damn I would have bought that thing in a heartbeat. Brand new!
  • 7 0
 Mountain Cycle San Andreas and the Santa Cruz Tazmon for me. A dude in my hometown had both. He ripped and any time I saw or road with him I felt cool just being around. He's a rad dude to this day.
  • 4 0
 There were some pretty wild bikes back then, but even today I would love to have a Mountain Cycle in the garage. Even the jump bikes they made were cool.
  • 1 0
 @oldschool43: agreed
  • 8 0
 I wanted a DeKerf so bad with matching paint Judy SL's. I used to read the 1994 catalogue before bed every night
  • 3 0
 Aw yis. Kaz we dreamed of the same Kona! I rode 60 miles with a buddy when I was 16 to go to a Kona dealer that had that Kula in stock just so we could look at it! We had no money and ran out of food so stole strawberries from a farmer's field on the way home. Such good times. When I had money a couple of years later I bought an Explosif instead. I still have it and cannot bring myself to part with it even though I never use it...
  • 3 0
 Ha, I ended up with an Explosif a couple years later too - the one with a scandium frame and glow-in-the-dark stickers. It had a SID on it that I quickly swapped for a Z2, since even scrawny little me found that SID as stiff as overcooked spaghetti.
  • 2 0
 I have fond memories of mountain biking around southern Vancouver Island in the early nineties, when it seemed everyone was riding Konas, Brodies, Rocky Mountains, Norcos, etc. And then there was me, on a lugged steel frame Japanese made Bridgestone…
  • 3 0
 Anything in titanium was the dream back when I was first getting into mountain biking in the early 90s. Litespeed and Merlins were lusted after like Ferraris and Lambos, whereas many other brands would reserve ti for their top end crown jewel bikes. That being said, brightly painted aluminum Kleins were guaranteed to turn heads at the trail. Gorgeous bikes. I got pretty close to my own dream bike by buying a Cannondale F700, back when the Volvo-Cannondale team was huge. Although it was specced with only mid tier parts, at least it had the exact same frame as what Alison Sydor was riding at the time. For a young kid who used to cut out pages from all his Mountain Bike Action magazines and post them all over his apartment, that bike made me feel fast.
  • 2 0
 Coolest bike I remember from my youth was in MBA. It was a totally customized Dagger with an Amp rear triangle. Super cool yellow to red fade for the front tri. Polished rear. Yellow Judy SL fork. Yellow Magura raceline hydro rim brakes. Red ano almost everything else including Cook Bros cranks and a Precision Billet (or maybe Paul) cnc rear derailleur. Ti coil for the Amp shock. Maybe AC hubs? And twisted spokes in the front with Ti spokes for the rear. Must’ve been 1997ish? Anyone remember this? @mikekazimer
  • 2 0
 I remember a young kid (probably about 12) that had a Dagger. Being so small and a Dagger it was lighter than the complete Amp B2 and B3 that my friend and I had. His had most of what you mention, but not those boutique US components. His was very light as one leg of his fork had no internals as he was light enough to only need them in one leg.
  • 4 0
 The Yeti ARC with all the fancy Ringle anodized parts on my wall all through high school.
  • 1 0
 Me too. By the time I could actually afford one though, they were no longer that colour scheme. My 1st one was the last of the made in USA ARCs. Still ride Yeti to this day
  • 1 0
 The bikes I lusted after were a Ritchey Pro Comp a 1991 Yeti ARC. These are bikes I have owned since my first MTM in 1988. I was bike rental shop owner from 89-94 and then a mechanic and shop manager from 94-2001.

1988 Diamond Back Apex >1990 Ritchey Ultra > 1992 Merlin >1996 Turner Burner, > 2009 Turner Sultan, 2012 Turner Sultan, 2021 Pivot Switchblade.
  • 3 0
 As a former Marzocchi employee I know the guys in the tech department described the smell of an open bath fork that had gone too long between servicing as dead cat..
  • 1 0
 You guys talked about the Kona Magic Link bike a bit...

The designer of that one went on to create Tantrum Cycles (website is MIA) and called that version the Missing Link:
www.facebook.com/people/Tantrum-Cycles/100062871294621
www.instagram.com/tantrum_cycles

There is some lore about the guy on ridemonkey, somewhere buried. I think he did some other bike industry stuff and maybe race car stuff?
  • 3 0
 Even at the time the stab looked like someone rode it into a wall at 40mph.
  • 1 0
 Cook bros racing twin bar cruiser with Tommasselli brake levers, mafac canti brakes, anodized maxycross cranks....ohhh I wonder how many are buried in the old dump at InterRiver park???
  • 1 0
 That not a Stab Primo, that’s the first Stab Dee Lux, Stab Primo first edition was orange and white and came with Shivers, sick bike.
I had the second year Dee Lux that came in a rank green colour. Rode like a tank.
  • 1 0
 back when I was young, I remember lusting over a bike from telemarketing that was two wheel drive. You could move the handlebars back and forth to drive the front wheel and I was convinced that was the future!
  • 1 0
 Too much to mention,basically anything that was featured on MBA,german Bike Magazine,or Velo Vert was a dream for me. My first nice MTB was a Parkpre Comp Limited. Good times!
  • 3 0
 Kestrel Rubicon Comp with two, TWO, shocks. A dream never realized.
  • 1 0
 @henryquinney Question for the next pod; have you used or considered using telemetry to test bikes climbing and to have data to show if the suspension is moving or not?
  • 3 0
 I'll do my best to answer this one - I always love talking telemetry.
  • 2 1
 Just to be pedantic, it's data logging, not telemetry, unless you really are live streaming the data. #nerd
  • 2 0
 Basically any late 90s/early 2000s Kona was pretty lustworthy. Especially if it had Marzocchis on it.
  • 1 0
 I was into Cove bikes in that part of teenage years when I didn’t quite get their naming convention yet. Also Klein Attitude.
  • 1 0
 This panel is skewing too young now. Levy brought the old-man-yells-at-cloud vibe, but now it's just Kaz speaking for us old people and he's barely 40.
  • 2 0
 Dario win the music corner
  • 2 0
 Independent Fabrications. I wanted a custom single speed so bad.
  • 1 0
 That was actually the prize at one of the SS World Champs once.
  • 1 0
 Orange Patriot for me - I bought a used one a few years later. Loved that thing.
  • 1 0
 I have a BMX background, so my teenage dream build came out to roughly $1,000.00 USD.
  • 2 0
 Hutch Pro Star
  • 1 0
 Are we talking BMX too?? I 100% second this pick. In my BMX days the Hutch Pro Star was the one! This might have been the first thing I ever lusted over, long before girls!
  • 2 0
 GT Lobo carbon
  • 2 0
 Pace RC500
  • 1 0
 Oh, and a Dyna-Tech Quantum.
  • 1 0
 Still dreaming about something from Ancillotti.
  • 1 0
 Pace RC100 or Klein Attitude.
  • 1 0
 I knew a married couple who had matching pink, white, green Attitudes with full XTR. They also had a mate with one the same colour but he was slumming it with only XT. They used to turn up at races with all 3 bikes on the roof of their car. The bikes would have been worth about 10 times the value of the car!
  • 1 0
 @TheTurquoiseWarrior: They had the best colors.
I remember going to mountain bike races in the early 2000’s. In my buddies Volvo 240 wagon, the 4 bikes on the roof were probably worth about $8k. He’d bought the Volvo for $800. Ironically those 240 wagons appreciated a ton so that would probably be worth $8k in 2024 and the 4 bikes maybe $800, lol.
  • 1 0
 Matt's Kona Stab Dee Lux, cause I actually owned and raced one Smile
  • 1 0
 Rocky mountain pipeline, kranked 3. I STILL want one.
  • 1 0
 Where's my Mongoose?







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