The Best Hard Tail Ever Made?

This has to be my favorite bike of all time. Since buying the bike in 1998, I've put many miles on it both on and off-road, and continue riding it regularly.

The bike as of January, 2004.

I'd always admired Bontrager mountain bikes, but could never afford one. Framesets were well out of my price range, and bikes cost even more. In the summer of 1998 I returned to the SF Bay Area after spending about a year and half in Fargo, ND. In early July I moved into an apartment in downtown Palo Alto, CA. The apartment was tiny, and the price was high, but the location was great.

While window shopping in Palo Alto one lazy weekend afternoon with my then girlfriend (and soon to be ex-wife) Shannon, we walked into Palo Alto Bikes. For sale were their last three Bontragers - all in my size: a Privateer, a Race Lite, and a Ti Lite. I really could not afford the Race Lite, but it was marked down to $1500 (from more than $2000), and I knew it was the last of it's kind. Keith Bontrager had stoped making the frames. After a test ride through the streets of Palo Alto I decided to buy the bike.

Unfortunately the next couple of years didn't allow for much riding. Work has a way of invading your private time, and 1998-99 were especially bad for me - lots of work travel and not much riding. By late 1999 I decided it was time to make a change. Shannon was offered a job as a newspaper reporter in Boise, ID, and we decided to move there and give it a go. I'd heard the riding there was great, and as it turned out I'd heard right.

In it's original componentry. Feb, 2000 - Boise, ID

For much of 2000 I rode my Bontrager through the trails of Idaho making maps for a trail-based web site that I creating. During the time that I was in Idaho I managed to get into the best riding shape of my life (to that point). Unfortunately the money ran out, and we moved back to the Bay Area in search of jobs.

Although I have several other bikes now, I still put many miles on my Race Lite each year. I love the way the bike handles, and especially the way it climbs. The bike is not great on super steep downhills, and does not particularly like to be jumped, but for most conditions it is perfect. I've taken the bike to Moab, UT, twice, and have ridden the bike for thousands of miles. All of the components have been swapped out for newer ones; the biggest and best change was removing the original Judy XC and replacing it with a Marzocchi Atom Race. The new fork makes a great frame even better.

If I could own only one bike, this would be it. In 2003 I bought a second Race Lite to have just in case this frame ever fails me. I don't want to have a time where I don't own a Bontrager.

- el