Mountain Biking
About:
History of Mountain Biking
The history of Mountain Biking begins in the mid 1970's when the sport of bicycling was rapidly developing. During this time a few biking 'freaks' in the state of California didn't just turn a hobby and a number of innovative improvements into a profession with their new 'fat tire' bike. Instead they set in motion a worldwide boom.
A mountain bike is a rugged, performance bicycle used for two different types of racing, downhill and cross-country.
The name seems a bit misleading. "Off road bike" might be more accurate, but the name came about because the bicycle was originally designed for riding down mountain trails and cross-country racing came later. (In fact, the bikes used for the two types of racing are now considerably different from one another.)
As a downhill sport, mountain biking seems to have originated with the Morrow Dirt Club, a loose organization of 10 cyclists who began riding their bikes down fire trails in Cupertino, California, in 1974.
At the time, the bicycle typically used for off-road racing was a so-called "klunker," a one-speed bike with fat, balloon tires. But the Morrow Dirt Club riders, led by Russ Mahon, had put together bikes with fat tires, thumbshift-operated 10-speed derailleurs, and drum brakes on the front and rear wheels.
Mountain bikes used for downhill riding are usually full-suspension bicycles, with front and rear shock absorbers and disc brakes. The cross-country bikes are lighter in weight and they usually have a front shock absorber, but none in the rear, although full-suspension bikes that are light enough for cross-country riding have recently been developed. Another recent development is a hybrid bike on which shock absorbers can be individually locked out.