I started my adventures in 2007 with my first mountain bike, my Trek 4500 WSD (or Mr Trekadee, as he was otherwise known). He served me well, taking me from being an extremely nervous rider with very little biking experience, either on or off-road, to someone who can get around the red routes at trail centres without the aid of an ambulance.
He was followed by my first full-susser, a 2009 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Elite (or Professor Von Stumpy).
This was my main and much loved bike for years, before being replaced by a new Stumpy, a 2016 Stumpjumper FSR 650b. In keeping with my tradition of twee names, this one is named Devastator, as he shares a green and purple colour scheme with the Transformer of the same name.
In 2016 I had my son, and that naturally led to a reduction in my riding. My knees were in a bit of a state too, so I acquired my first ebike – a Lapierre Overvolt 700 HT – or Voltron. The idea that I’d use this bike to build up my fitness and get the miles in, and still use Devastator for trail centre stuff. And so it was for a little while, before I realised that finishing rides without days of pain was actually quite pleasing. Voltron became my main bike.
However, Voltron was a little on the large side, and a bit cumbersome on tighter bits of the the trail. So, my next ride was a Liv Intrigue E+1. This is now, unquestionably, my main bike. I still have my Stumpy though, just on the off chance I make a miracle recovery in the knee department (or want to race an event with no ebike category…).
I’ve also had two hardtails – Cletus the On-One Inbred, and Ten Ton Tessa the Scott Contessa.