The olympic mountain biking event is tomorrow, i thought i'd cast my mind back to Atlanta 1996. I've found very little spec information about the bikes used on this day.
Mountain biking was a little known sport to the mainstream before it made it's olympic debut at the 1996 summer olympics. High end equipment was hard to find and in my case usually acquired through mail order as there were few bike shops near me! I remember looking at some of the setups on the bikes used by the competitors that day, simple yet unique and much of the gear seemed difficult to obtain then as it does now.
Which brings me to London 2012 where it seems the riders have opted for 29 inch wheels, a two front gear ratio, carbon frame and forks quite athe trend on the trails these days probably why my older bike turns more heads.
Mountain biking was a little known sport to the mainstream before it made it's olympic debut at the 1996 summer olympics. High end equipment was hard to find and in my case usually acquired through mail order as there were few bike shops near me! I remember looking at some of the setups on the bikes used by the competitors that day, simple yet unique and much of the gear seemed difficult to obtain then as it does now.
Which brings me to London 2012 where it seems the riders have opted for 29 inch wheels, a two front gear ratio, carbon frame and forks quite athe trend on the trails these days probably why my older bike turns more heads.