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Addiscombe have had mountain bikers as members as long as mountain bikes have been around. Many years ago Phil O'Connor had one and set the Three Peaks cyclo cross race ATB (as it was called then) record with a time of about 5 hours. This was probably by virtue of the fact that nobody had ever attempted to ride that far on one of these new bikes in those days. As you can see from the photos you can still take part no matter how old or crappy your steed is...

Pete got into mountain biking by accident. He was at a windsurfing fair in 1988 when he stumbled across his first mountain bike. There was quite a cross over in those days between the two sports (think luminous) and names like Tushingham, Lester Knoble and subsequently Orange were involved in both. Our boy Pete is seen riding here in the first ever Grundig race to be held in the UK. While latter events were held in Aviemore and have now become the UCI series this one was held in the rugged surroundings of Crystal Palace Park. Pete rides a 1988 Saracen Trekker with U-brakes front and rear with a very safety conscious Brancale helmet to keep him nicely protected and overheated. For info he was racing against the likes of Paul Hinton, Mike Kloser, Tim Gould , Dave Hemmings and David Baker. He was not last.

At the same Grundig event is smartly dressed Phil Ligget of Channel 4 Tour de France fame interviewing Women's race winner Sian Roberts for a programme the next day. Men's winner David Baker is behind answering questions from journalists. Our boy Pete is off-camera  being kept away from his chance of fame by burly security guards.

Around 1989 the Addiscombe off-roaders decided to turn their hand to cyclo-cross. Here is Glen May riding in one of our own promotions in Westerham. He had already wrecked two bikes at this point so I'm not sure on what borrowed kit he is riding here.

A few Saracen Trekkers existed in the club over 10 years ago. Here is Bolts riding a club 10 mile time trial on his complete with plastic luminous wheel disk and bright orange Converse basketball boots. It was one of his first ever times racing on the road and he still beat 'evens'. The bike weighed 31.5 lbs

Glen May racing on his Raleigh Ozark at Shirley Hills circa 1991. He was a lucky sod as he had a pair of Gore-Tex mountain bike boots which kept his feet warm as toast on our epic all day off road rides through the winter. Contrast this with Bolts' paper thin basketball boots above and sympathise with the pain he must have endured on those icy winter days.

The first time we successfully rode he South Downs Way was in August 1992 and it was our introduction to Youth Hostelling and epic rides. I can't remember why I am on my back when this particular photo was taken but I'm sure there was good reason for it. 

On the same South Downs Way ride screaming down one of the descents near Devil's Dyke. I judder to think how Bolts completed this ride as his bike was missing its front brake for the whole weekend.

All that mountain biking gave us the enthusiasm to do almost anything on a bike. Here from left to right is Marco, Ian Joseph, Glen May and Shaking Steve Thompson at the start of the Clarencourt 4 up team time trial in 1989. This team was made up of two mtbers and two roadies. It is fairly easy to see which are which. As the start was ridiculously  early in the morning at least one member of the team never went to bed the night before but instead stayed up watching videos and eating wagon wheels.

We hurtled  off at a tremendous pace and had visions of winning the event until my deraillieur exploded sending jockey wheels and chain everywhere leaving my bike skidding to a standstill. That in itself would not have been that bad as you only need three people to finish except Ian flew into the back of me as I went out of control and he came down hard. He remounted and continued bravely with a unique one legged pedalling motion all the way to the finish. We did not win and never entered another 4 up. Here endeth the lesson of the Clarencourt Team Time Trial. Amen.

Thanks to Bolts for hunting through all the old photos and always having a camera on hand in the old days!