Oldest mountain bike in UK?

[Duxuk]

It's interesting that Diamondback are adamant that they made the ridge rider from 1982. See.....http://www.diamondback.co.uk/MTB/History/
It differs from other early MTBs in it's lugged frame construction.
I bought a DB Sorrento in 1992. It was a typical oversize welded frame with 1 1/8" fork.

 

[drcarlos]

Re:

They probably did but only sold it in the US, making the ridgeback the first UK produced mtb, followed by the muddyfoxes and then the Evans Saracens. This is of course bikes in the style of the US trend and not the clelands.

Carl

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re:

In order to clarify that from the time the Dunlop produced pneumatic tyres safety-bikes fitted with fat tyres were to be seen in Britain. Not at all surprising in a time before there were many decent roads and those that did exist in towns were often cobbled.

As time went on the roads of Britain improved and indigenous tyres got narrower. However the UK, as the world's leading manufacturer of bicycles, carried on making fat tyre bicycles for other countries Including the USA. The future birthplace of the term 'mountain bike'.

 

[Mr Panda]

Re:

And of course just to muddy the waters, Dunlop simply put into production an idea patented by one of Stonehaven's finest decades before - RW Thomson, inventor of the pneumatic tyre in 1845

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_William_Thomson

:xmas-big-grin:

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: Re:

And of course just to muddy the waters, Dunlop simply put into production an idea patented by one of Stonehaven's finest decades before - RW Thomson, inventor of the pneumatic tyre in 1845

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_William_Thomson

:xmas-big-grin:

That is the same issue as we have here. Who do we celebrate?

1/ The people who first had the idea
2/ The people who turned the idea into a reality
3/ The people who brought the product to the market so that we can buy it?

Sometimes all three areas are connected to one individual as was the case with John Kemp Starley the inventer of the safety bicycle and founder of the 'Rover' bicycle company.

More commonly as is the case with the development of the mountain-bikes in America the various roles were split:

1/ US roughstuff rider John Finley-Scott developed a bicycle with the look and features of the later mountain-bikes around 1953 but not take the idea further. In 1979 he financed the start-up of Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly's MountainBikes company.
2/ Joe Breeze made a lightweight custom framed mountain-bike in 1977 but did not produce them for sale.
3/ Tom Ritchey made some versions of the first Joe Breeze's frame in 1979 and passed them onto Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly to build up and sell.
4/ In 1981 Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly displayed one of their first Ritchey framed production prototypes at the Long Beach cycle show attracting a great deal of interest from Japanese bicycle manufacturers.
5/The BMX boom was over and Japanese bicycle manufacturers, looking for the 'next big thing' raced to clone and market their own versions of the Ritchey design.

All of the above played their role in the development of what we now call mountain biking. However, there where some who's contribution was crucial and without which mountain bikes would not have developed as and when they did.

 

[M-Power]

Re:

^^ Got schooled on points 1,4 & 5, very interesting.

 

[mk one]

Some great posts.

Love seeing some of the older designs.

That chain is a bit slack on Vernon Blakes bike

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re: Re:

4/ In 1981 Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly displayed one of their first Ritchey framed production prototypes at the Long Beach cycle show attracting a great deal of interest from Japanese bicycle manufacturers.

Interestingly the earliest record of a US style mountain-bike being displayed at UK bicycle show was also 1981 at York. The bike was made by an nuclear physicist and amateur frame builder called Tony Oliver.

If the Japanese bike industry had attended York instead of Long Beach that year, then they might have thought that the design originated here. In a report the reaction of the UK cycle trade to this lone mountain-bike appearing at York is described as "incredulous".

That chain is a bit slack on Vernon Blakes bike

Notice the triple chainwheel. Apparently the loose chain was deliberate, an early form of derailleur were you change gear by hand.

 

[doctor-bond]

Re:

https://www.amazon.com/Roads-Were-Not-B ... 1610916891


So - it goes something like this:

Bikes became; they were good - on rough roads, they were better with fat tyres. Bikes became popular; therefore, roads improved; so bikes with fat tyres weren't needed by most; some retro grouches kept building them anyway, because they could (and their roads were not that good and didn't go where they wanted to anyway).

[Some wars happened and people focussed on things other than bikes]

Bikes prevailed. Bikes got people around.

A few people tried to sell the bikes that they were building with fat tyres because they loved their bikes and wanted others to love their bikes, and still make money to eat.

People liked bikes with fat tyres because the bikes were comfortable and could go places. And now that life was easier, they had time to do shit that didn't involve fighting wars or getting food.

Many bikes with fat tyres were made, and bought: some were ridden.

Some guys with memories and beer habits tried to remember why they liked bikes with fat tyres. Some said it was because of the fantastic sport; others remembered riding through puddles or down a hill, maybe up one. A few had pictures of themselves and a fat-tyred bike in a strange place. All were convinced that bikes with fat tyres defined the limits of civilisation.

They can't all be wrong: bikes with fat tyres define the limits of civilisation. And while civilisation prevails, there can be no need to define what makes a fat-tyred bike.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re:

Yes, but you forgot to mention about the cars stealing the roads that the fat-tyre cyclists had campaigned to be built in the blind hope that they could one day ride on skinny tyres. So with all the roads full of noisy, dangerous, pollution belching cars, the fat-tyre cyclists had little option but to go back to riding off-road.

However, It turned out that cycling over bumps was actually more fun than riding on smooth tarmac.
The same thing also applied to driving cars so speed bumps and pot holes were invented.

In order to differentiate this new fashion for avoiding roads from bicycling done before roads existed, they called this style of riding 'mountain-biking'. Not that it necessarily involved mountains, though it could in theory and did when pictured in the adverts and features of specialist magazines.

And so that people wouldn't think that these 'mountain bikers' only cycled because they couldn't afford a car, the mountain-bike makers kindly sold their bikes at car like prices.