The landlord was clearly a vintage motorbike enthusiast and there were several framed photos of meets adorning the pub’s walls. This slightly fuzzy close up is of one of the bikes. This photo got me thinking. Assuming this motorbike was produced sometime in the early 1900’s, why did our first mountain bikes look like this or this? Even my first mountain bike followed this type of design, which was clearly based on their road using cousins. We have since come to realise that there were several limitations to this design. The upright position, high top-tube and straight handlebars did not give the bikes the most stable, confidence inspiring ride. Especially when compared with their low slung, rock loving siblings. The P7 is my bike of choice and looking at this photo, with the motorbike's low, sloping top-tube and, frankly brilliantly, wide riser bars with red grips, was like looking at my bike's long lost grandfather.
Is it possible that if the early mountain biking pioneers had looked to motorbikes that had already been designed for off-road use, rather than converting existing road bikes, we could have spared ourselves a great deal of numb rears and shuddered arms?
R
No comments:
Post a Comment