Hello from Cumbria U.K. 97 A2BS
Posted: June 22nd, 2012, 6:43 pm
I want to say what a great site with all the history on Barracuda's, I never knew of the following for them until just over a year ago when I found this site. So a big thanks to Mark and everyone else who uses the site as it has made good reading.
I am in Cumbria in the U.K. and have a lot of off road areas/tracks near by with a lot of Mountains, I am still getting back into mountain biking after 13 years not doing it, one thing I notice now is it hurts a lot more when I come off the bike
A brief story of my first Cuda, I hope I do not bore you and have tried to keep it short.
When I was 15 and on a six week holiday to Florida I wanted to do some mountain biking and went to a small bike shop (Trail Sport near St Pete beach), the whole shop was full of Barracudas and some Norco's. The owner was called Ted a really good guy he offered to take me and a friend up to the Hardrock track the next day, it was brilliant and I went back a few times with them over the 6 weeks holiday. The bike I was given to use was a brand new A2BS 97, I used it for all the trips to Hardrock and then at the end of the holiday I managed to talk my dad into treating me to it, Ted done a pretty good deal on the bike and all the trips to Hardrock I believe I got it for about $650 all in.
The bike was my pride and joy, unfortunately when I was that age the thing to do was to upgrade the bike so the next year when back in Florida I spent a small fortune upgrading the shifters, front derailleur to XT, the crank was replaced for a more beefy looking Sugino one and the wheels replaced with Ricthey logic hubs with Mavic rims. the rear derailleur was replaced under warranty as it had snapped so was given the newer esp 5.0 the only reason why I never bought the XT one at the same time.
I road the bike for nearly three years until I got my first car and sadly it has sat unused in the back of my parents garage, it was only when I took up the cycle 2 work scheme they run here in the U.K. did I look to get a new Barracuda and then found out that they had stopped making them and found this site. I ended up with a Cannondale Trail SL 6 and I am not really happy with it but will do until I get another Barracuda, I am in the process of getting the A2BS back on the road but I think the frame is only a 16" which is too small for me now. I will dig it out of the garage and see what condition it is in but I think it will need a bit of work as its not been used for 13 years, I will put some picture sup when I get round to this.
I am in Cumbria in the U.K. and have a lot of off road areas/tracks near by with a lot of Mountains, I am still getting back into mountain biking after 13 years not doing it, one thing I notice now is it hurts a lot more when I come off the bike
A brief story of my first Cuda, I hope I do not bore you and have tried to keep it short.
When I was 15 and on a six week holiday to Florida I wanted to do some mountain biking and went to a small bike shop (Trail Sport near St Pete beach), the whole shop was full of Barracudas and some Norco's. The owner was called Ted a really good guy he offered to take me and a friend up to the Hardrock track the next day, it was brilliant and I went back a few times with them over the 6 weeks holiday. The bike I was given to use was a brand new A2BS 97, I used it for all the trips to Hardrock and then at the end of the holiday I managed to talk my dad into treating me to it, Ted done a pretty good deal on the bike and all the trips to Hardrock I believe I got it for about $650 all in.
The bike was my pride and joy, unfortunately when I was that age the thing to do was to upgrade the bike so the next year when back in Florida I spent a small fortune upgrading the shifters, front derailleur to XT, the crank was replaced for a more beefy looking Sugino one and the wheels replaced with Ricthey logic hubs with Mavic rims. the rear derailleur was replaced under warranty as it had snapped so was given the newer esp 5.0 the only reason why I never bought the XT one at the same time.
I road the bike for nearly three years until I got my first car and sadly it has sat unused in the back of my parents garage, it was only when I took up the cycle 2 work scheme they run here in the U.K. did I look to get a new Barracuda and then found out that they had stopped making them and found this site. I ended up with a Cannondale Trail SL 6 and I am not really happy with it but will do until I get another Barracuda, I am in the process of getting the A2BS back on the road but I think the frame is only a 16" which is too small for me now. I will dig it out of the garage and see what condition it is in but I think it will need a bit of work as its not been used for 13 years, I will put some picture sup when I get round to this.