# Murray Baja ?



## MOJO K (Jan 26, 2007)

A question for you guys who are in the know. I usually tell people that my first mtbike was a '86 Diamond Back Accent, but I actually had a Baja back in the day. I remember my folks getting it for me when I was a kid because I kept breaking other bikes and the Murray at least looked more sturdy ( breaking bikes is in my genes).What year was the first Murray Baja, was it before the Stumpy? Thanks for your input. peace Ken


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## Guest (Jun 3, 2007)

*I had one too......*

...it was no later than 1981 but I'll have to check through some records to see what year exactly. Mine was blue, 10 speed with gold rims. It ruled.

Steven Shand
http://www.shandycles.com


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## Fatmikeynyc (Jun 20, 2005)

I also had a 1981 Murray Baja that was chrome and had gold wheels, it was my first "Mountain Bike" and it rocked! Everyone in NYC used to stare at it and ask me questions like "is that one of those new 10-speed dirt bikes that I 've read about?" 
I broke almost every part on that bike and eventually sold to a handyman in my apartment building and never saw it again. I had seen a Stumjumper in the Sharper Image Catalog which was the first mountain bike I really knew of and wanted one but my next bike was a 1984 Rockhopper, because the Stumpjumper was "too expensive" for me as a 15 year old with a history of destroying bikes...I rode the heck out of the Rockhopper and upgraded the stock parts to Suntour XC stuff to sell it and used part of the $ earned that summer working in a bike shop to fund my first high end bike, which was a used 1984 Fat Chance Team Comp, unfortunately I have no photos at all of that bike and I sold that one after I bent the Prestige box crown fork so slightly that the Roller Cam brakes would not center any longer...I replaced that one with another brand new Fat Chance and kept going with Fat City from then on...Does anyone know if Murray still in business?

Here's a primo example on the First Flight site:

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cach...ja.htm+"Murray+Baja"&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

I'd stick to telling people your first bike was an 86 DB.


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## Fatmikeynyc (Jun 20, 2005)

Oh Snap!

Rumpfy, what were you doing in 1981 while we were getting rad off-road on our Murray Bajas?


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## MOJO K (Jan 26, 2007)

Thanks guys, I thought it must have been '80 or '81 but childhood is a blur. Stike that, my life is a blur. As a point of fact I did ride that Baja on the same trails that I eventually rode the DB on, places that probably still get ridden by very expensive mtbikes now. I guess it just proves again that the sport was an evolution, not an invention.


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## shastaou812 (Jan 15, 2004)

Man stumbling accross this thread brought back some memories! My first mountain bike was a Baja. Bought it from my sister's boyfriend for $50. Rode it all over LA. Got the offer to actualy go mountain biking and spanked all the guys who were riding the new stumpys as we climbed the rocky fireroad. Then I remember comming back down scared as **** with those brakes.

I took it to college where I continued to ride it off road in the desert of Las Cruces. I entered my first race which ended at the top of A Mountain. When i reached the top pushing of course since the ten speed did not have a gear I could climb the steepest part with. The bike shops guys running the race said to come in and they would help me get into a real mountain bike. I ended up on a pink Peugout(sp?) Oh the 80's.


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

Fatmikeynyc said:


> Oh Snap!
> 
> Rumpfy, what were you doing in 1981 while we were getting rad off-road on our Murray Bajas?


1981...I was 4.


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## timbercomp (Jan 16, 2004)

Rumpfy said:


> 1981...I was 4.


Thats better than me, I was being born.....moving along, I remember there was a kinda big discusion about the BAJA on the VATB list quite a few years ago, funny to hear everyone that had them and their stories.


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## Repack Rider (Oct 22, 2005)

Somebody gave Gary a Baja for Chrismas or his birthday around 1981, because they only cost $80-90 and it was worth it for the humor element . It was such a joke next to a Ritchey that we gave it to a guy who was broke but loved bikes and he rode it into the ground, which wasn't hard, because it was really heavy and a strong rider would tear the frame apart in short order.

Some of the cheapest bikes of that era were made in the USA, Murray and Huffy


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## djmuff (Sep 8, 2004)

Rumpfy said:


> I'd stick to telling people your first bike was an 86 DB.


that was funny. thanks for the laugh.

And wow, a Murray at First Flight. I had no idea.


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## First Flight (Jan 25, 2004)

djmuff said:


> And wow, a Murray at First Flight. I had no idea.


At least we can never be accused of being elitists!


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

djmuff said:


> that was funny. thanks for the laugh.
> 
> And wow, a Murray at First Flight. I had no idea.


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## Boaterbob1972 (Feb 11, 2018)

*Murray Baja 80's MTB !*

Ohh the memories you just unearthed. I too had a Murray Baja just as you described. I had horrible memories with mine. I was the 1st in our town to have a mountain bike and as I remember at 1st people were not so excepting of its grandeur. I was also 12 and had a difficult time peddling the very heavy set up. I found myself walking the bike upwind quite often.........I would love to know how much it weighed for comparison curiosity.Any guess? BH



Fatmikeynyc said:


> I also had a 1981 Murray Baja that was chrome and had gold wheels, it was my first "Mountain Bike" and it rocked! Everyone in NYC used to stare at it and ask me questions like "is that one of those new 10-speed dirt bikes that I 've read about?"
> I broke almost every part on that bike and eventually sold to a handyman in my apartment building and never saw it again. I had seen a Stumjumper in the Sharper Image Catalog which was the first mountain bike I really knew of and wanted one but my next bike was a 1984 Rockhopper, because the Stumpjumper was "too expensive" for me as a 15 year old with a history of destroying bikes...I rode the heck out of the Rockhopper and upgraded the stock parts to Suntour XC stuff to sell it and used part of the $ earned that summer working in a bike shop to fund my first high end bike, which was a used 1984 Fat Chance Team Comp, unfortunately I have no photos at all of that bike and I sold that one after I bent the Prestige box crown fork so slightly that the Roller Cam brakes would not center any longer...I replaced that one with another brand new Fat Chance and kept going with Fat City from then on...Does anyone know if Murray still in business?
> 
> Here's a primo example on the First Flight site:
> ...


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## Hurricane Jeff (Jan 1, 2006)

A friend of mine's brother had two of them around 1981, and I remember thinking soon after getting finished riding bmx of how cool it would be to ride bikes again, which really wasn't to cool at that time and age.
We would ride places that I only knew about, have seen from my house( the foothills and big mountains were only a couple off miles away) and trails that we would hike and play in.
Although the Baja was a piece of crap, I really didn't know better. The Baja got me into the sport that has created two bike related businesses, I have countless friends from biking and have traveled the world because of mountain biking.


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## sbsbiker (Dec 1, 2007)

Hurricane Jeff said:


> A friend of mine's brother had two of them around 1981, and I remember thinking soon after getting finished riding bmx of how cool it would be to ride bikes again, which really wasn't to cool at that time and age.
> We would ride places that I only knew about, have seen from my house( the foothills and big mountains were only a couple off miles away) and trails that we would hike and play in.
> Although the Baja was a piece of crap, I really didn't now better. The Baja got me into the sport that has created two bike related businesses, I have countless friends from biking and have traveled the world.


This sums it up, it's not the quality of your first mtbike, but the activity that hooks you.

My first mtbike was also a Murray Baja, my friends made fun of my bmx bike with gears. But as a 13 year old kid in Oklahoma, a Ritchey, Specalized or Moots were more than a years pay. Sears delivered my Murray, and it lit the fire that still burns in my soul.


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## Weinerts (Feb 3, 2011)

I rode my Huffy pro thunder 3 like a mountain bike - and in 1984 got my first MTB Schwinn High Sierra (which my dad bought a few years earlier but did not like the wide bars). My riding buddy had a Baja! When we went riding we stuck to dirt roads (Vermont has a few). Good times. (BTW I was 14 at the time). 
Then to Cannondale - to Nishiki - GT- and now Surly. (I did have a SC Heckler but outgrew it mentally).


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## BansheeRune (Nov 27, 2011)

Weinerts said:


> I rode my Huffy pro thunder 3 like a mountain bike - and in 1984 got my first MTB Schwinn High Sierra (which my dad bought a few years earlier but did not like the wide bars). My riding buddy had a Baja! When we went riding we stuck to dirt roads (Vermont has a few). Good times. (BTW I was 14 at the time).
> Then to Cannondale - to Nishiki - GT- and now Surly. (I did have a SC Heckler but outgrew it mentally).


At the time, 1981, I was rolling a Cook Brothers, my brother bought two Murray Baja's, one for himself and one for his then gf. Damn, they coulda been used for a ship's anchor!


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## milehi (Nov 2, 1997)

BansheeRune said:


> At the time, 1981, I was rolling a Cook Brothers, my brother bought two Murray Baja's, one for himself and one for his then gf. Damn, they coulda been used for a ship's anchor!


I'd really like to see that Cook. In 82 I salvaged parts and a Schwinn Varsity from the swap meet and single speeded it. Oakley grips, newsboy bars, some BMX back brake and I think a Tuff Neck stem. And Snakebelly tires. I rode the crap out of that thing in rural Riverside. The guys at the LBS (Riverside Redlands Schwinn, RRS from BMX legendary fame) would heckle me but at 12 years old, I didn't care. Three years later I worked all summer for a Schwinn High Sierra. Two years later I bought another which baffled my parents. They didn't understand upgradeitis.


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## BansheeRune (Nov 27, 2011)

milehi said:


> I'd really like to see that Cook. In 82 I salvaged parts and a Schwinn Varsity from the swap meet and single speeded it. Oakley grips, newsboy bars, some BMX back brake and I think a Tuff Neck stem. And Snakebelly tires. I rode the crap out of that thing in rural Riverside. The guys at the LBS (Riverside Redlands Schwinn, RRS from BMX legendary fame) would heckle me but at 12 years old, I didn't care. Three years later I worked all summer for a Schwinn High Sierra. Two years later I bought another which baffled my parents. They didn't understand upgradeitis.


The Regime never could get their heads around upgradeitis... Annnnnnnd, do I evar miss the best grips ever on the market. That was before Oakley went all Gucci n chit.
Riverside? As in Cali?


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