Oldest mountain bike in UK?

[legrandefromage]

A really good write up again, Grahame does it well with information from people who were actually there rather than supposition and guesswork, oh and a picture to keep someone really happy as I know they love the bikes so much that it hurts.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=46418&start=10

 

[legrandefromage]

Heres danson67s' 1986 Overbury's, far ahead of the pack in design with a higher BB and sloping down tube.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=120734

Look at the differences between the Pioneer and the road bike next to it

 

[legrandefromage]

Compare the Overbury's of 1988 to a Marin Palisades of 1988

1988 Brodie Climax

Plus an Off-Road Toad - I remember seeing one of these in 1989, a lot of Americans were at the airbase near me so I managed to see some very nice kit early on. The Canadians had a good take on things!

I dont know what year this one is:

 

[legrandefromage]

and a 1989 Bromwich from G-Whizz cycles - already losing that 'traditional' look of a Dawes or Marin in a year when Kona had barely hit the UK market - notice the difference in BB heights!

I wish I had more magazines from that era - I was too busy playing with my Lego despite having a bullmoose bar MTB

This Kona is very nice though!

 

[legrandefromage]

Personally, I think this still has the claim of the oldest American influenced MTB made in the UK, its a prototype, it predates many things, the Ridgebacks were foreign built so cant really be counted

Something I built paying homage to all this early 1980's madness

And finally settled on a 1985/6 British Eagle, made in Wales and from road tubing, mixing up 531 and cro-mo and built pretty much like my first ever 'mountain bike' back in September 1986 - have never been able to shrug off the mudguard habit

 

[mattr]

TBH, most of what i can see in the Apps timeline and evolution is a continuation of RSF type riding. Exploring the countryside. Sort of rambling on two wheels. (but less red socks)
The US east coast went straight into killthemselvesmode, getting from A to B across (down) mixed terrain as quickly as possible.

There's been so many niches and so much overlap between them since then, that you could probably find any link/timeline/crossfertilization that you wanted to.

 

[jazzibizznizz]

True. The style of riding was different in the UK and this created our different frame styles. It would be unwise to discount any particular strand of bike design and not allow them a place in the evolution of this sport. Just look at the even wider range of bikes on offer today - back then it was just mountain biking, but now there is downhill, XC, enduro, trail and so on. There was more commonality between what Geoff Apps and Tom Ritchey were building in the early 80s then than there is between one of today's downhill machines and a 29er XC bike.

 

[velomaniac]

Before I joined retrobike I had one of Ridgebacks earliest mtb's but as I did not know what it was at the time I got rid :facepalm:

 

[Peachy!]

Now then…. I’ve got a different theory, a long long time ago, in a field far far away, an American watched a game of cycle polo and witnessed a Claud Butler Polo, with 40h front & rear, big steel tubes, loads of mud clearance and great off road capabilities and thought “ker-ching!” :mrgreen:

 

[velomaniac]

Re:

Methinks Kerching might also mean "Have these clowns never heard of horses !!!!"