Stumbled upon this Facebook group yesterday, UK MTB Golden Era 1989-99 appreciation group, and have wasted a great deal of time down memory lane.

It’s dedicated to the golden age of UK mountain biking and is full of pics and reminiscences about really ‘cool’ things like this:

There’s even a pic of the results sheet from the 1989 Grundig World Cup race at Aviemore, my first competition, a cold, wet, muddy-as-fuck battle the skinny wee runt I was somehow survived (the proof’s below – a glorious 33rd).

And these lights. My mates Jamie, Glennie, Gav and I used to blast down the local fire-road and single-track descents at 20mph-plus peering into the piss-yellow letterbox shape of light the Never Readies delivered, relying more on memory and luck to see the way.

Things aren’t as good as they used to be – actually, they’re way better, but boy, did we have a lot of fun.