You could say that they were the "mountain bike antecessor". Well, meanwhile, Tom Ritchey, who at 24 years old was an excellent racer on country bikes (off-road bikes), continued dedicating himself to assembling frames for bikes with fat wheels. Gary Fisher, who already knew how handy Ritchey was (and didn't want to buy a Breezer), asked him to make a replica of the one he was riding. Ritchey, who had plenty of ingenuity, made three paintings, one for himself, one for Fisher and one to sell. The thing was successful, and with more paintings acquired from Ritchey, Fisher began selling them in Marin County with his friend Charly Kelly. They quickly went into business together, and called the bike brand MountainBikes.
Tom Ritchey was, therefore, the first artisan manufacturer of mountain bikes in history, and Gary Fisher was in charge of the commercial issue when it came to selling them. In the year 80 the business was already up and running, and Charly Kelly launched the first publication dedicated to BTT: Fat Tire Flyer, a kind of completely handmade fanzine with comics, racing advertisements, etc.
Fisher and Kelly could not prevent the term "mountain bike" from beginning to be used more and more and becoming more commercial. They were unable to register the name as a trademark, and in 1981 the cycling magazine Bicycling held a contest to name the new fat wheel bikes. The name was "All Terrain Bike", but in the end it has remained for posterity as "mountain bike".
With the bikes already labeled as mountain bikes, the next step was to increase production, since more and more people were interested in these new devices that they could go any way. Even Japanese manufacturers, always so skillful, began to manufacture 26" wheels that were lighter and adapted to the thickness of an MTB. Ritchey couldn't keep up with building frames, and so did Breeze, but none of them decided to mass produce bikes. , due among other things, to the fact that at that time there were no quality subcontractors that made bikes in the United States.
But a San Jose bike dealer had been making a lot of money since 1976 selling components and tires for road bikes. The distributor was called Specialized Bicycle Imports, and its boss was Mike Sinyard. Sinyard bought a few Ritchey frames in 1981, and one of its designers, Tim Neenan, came up with the idea of making a replica frame but under the Specialized name. Sinyard liked the idea, but to top it off, he took the frame to be mass-produced in his factory in Japan. That model was the first Specialized Stumpjumper, "officially" considered the first mountain bike in history. It went on the market in 1982 for $750. Within a couple of years, thousands of Stumpjumpers were sold.
Starting with the Stumpjumpers, mountain bikes began their rise. In the following years, sales tripled each year. In 1985 and 1986, more mountain bikes were sold than road bikes in the United States, and soon that fever reached Europe as well. Suddenly, the Americans found thousands of fat-wheeled bikes flooding the mountains, and so they began to close access to the roads. In 1983 several Marin County riders founded NORBA (National Off-Road Bicycle Association). In addition to maintaining the trails, NORBA was born with the purpose of being the "flagship" association for mountain bike competition. Why has it never occurred to us in Europe to do something like this?
Then came the IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association), created in 1998 just to help maintain the roads inside and outside the US.
From then until today, mountain biking has become an Olympic sport, 11 world championships have been held (plus one unofficial one), 11 world cups, specialties have been created within the sport such as cross country, downhill and dual, and increasingly specializes in a specific discipline (with the famous freeride, dirt bikes, dual, enduro, rally, etc.).
Technology has made mountain bikes evolve very quickly for their short life. We must not forget that until very recently bicycles had cantilever brakes, slatted pedals, rigid forks, frames of constant thickness, etc. In a few years, various elements have been incorporated, mostly taken from the world of downhill, which, as we have seen, was the first purpose of those that They began to mount bikes with wheels and wide handlebars. Suspension forks, V brakes, automatic pedals, double plate forks, and finally, rear suspensions.
With this, we complete the history of mountain biking, an incredible vehicle with which we enjoy an exciting adventure sport. And if you want to know how you have to take care of it, we leave you an article about mountain bike maintenance following this link.
