On The Pedals

By Jason Giacchino

A Brief Lesson In History.

To the uniformed, I suppose, mountain biking must appear to have spawned from our road-riding cousins. Who hasn’t, as a child first discovering the thrill of two-wheeling, ventured free of the confines of the road or sidewalk? Surely this is how it must have all begun, right? After all, definitions of the word mountain bike even in this day and age are vague: A bicycle designed to withstand the additional stress associated with off-road use. Careful research however points to an interesting piece of information that is likely overlooked by most. The bicycle predates the advent of the road.

That’s right- believe it or not; the first bicycles ever to roam this planet were by all facts and circumstances off-road vehicles. This, of course, isn’t to insinuate that the designs were particularly effective at handling the stresses of the off-road environment, in fact quite contrary. It was due in no small part to the complaints of the cycling communities in the late 1800's that politicians began to seriously consider means of fixing up the mud laden paths that connected townships. The rutted mud trails were eventually updated with cobblestone then brick and followed shortly after the turn of the century with asphalt. By the mid 1930's, asphalt roads had become the standard of Unites States highway surfacing.

Somewhere between the early part of the 1900's and today, after successfully campaigning for clear, smooth lanes for bicycles (and automobiles) to travel, the desire to head off the beaten path resurfaced. By the early 1970's manufacturers took notice of said potential and began designing bikes with beefier gussets and wider tires to handle the adverse conditions of the un-paved unknown. Long story condensed; here we are today, a separate breed of bicycle enthusiasts who spend our time putting as much distance between the highways and ourselves as possible.

The irony of course if that we find pleasure traveling along the very surfaces that prompted early bicycle adopters to band together and be heard. While some may consider our taste for picking up where the pavement ends coming full circle, I prefer to think that our story has a bit more to do with our unique reasoning than anything else. Let’s face it, had early cyclists solved the bad roads problem by engineering their bikes rather than voicing complaint- would we all still be driving on trails?

What I find most interesting is that mountain bikers have the luxury of riding the roads if we so desire, but for one reason or another, choose not to. We find ourselves oddly attracted to remote areas, difficult terrain, mud, water, and dust whereas early bicyclists had no choice but to endure such factors and viewed it as a torturous endeavor. My how the times have changed.

One of the clear benefits of dedicated off-road bicycle designs coming about so recently is that many of us have witnessed first hand the technological evolution that separates today’s mountain bikes from those of yesteryear. Rigid (suspension-less) frames gave way to hardtails that are now almost all replaced by dual suspension setups. Manual V brakes transformed into manual discs before hydraulic discs became the rage. 10 speed transmissions became 18, 21, 24 to 27 gear combo rings. The list is endless but with each passing development the mountain bike became less of a modified road model and more of a unique entity. Perhaps early on it was the road bike’s influence that causes many to believe mountain biking as simply a spin-off of the roadie culture but then again it was the challenge and difficulty of navigating the trails that sparked the development of the road in the first place. So who was here first? That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. The truth is that the bicycle was here first and thanks to its ability to adapt, the bicycle will remain regardless of the surface beneath its tires.