Re: Rewriting Mountain Bike History
It has been two years since it was first announced that Tom Ritchey made this 650b mountain bike in 1977. However, there is still no evidence whatsoever to corroborate the claim. Non of the other Marin mountain bike pioneers have said that they recall such a bike and Pioneer Charlie Kelly has said "If there was a 650B version of our bikes prior to 1979, I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it.
"http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=226245&start=20
It has also been noted that most of the parts fitted to the bike date from the 1980s and that the frame/fork details match Tom's 1980s bikes and not his first 26" wheeled bikes made in 1979.
No one is disputing that Tom Ritchey made some of the first ever 650b mountain bikes in the early 1980s, in fact this is well documented. But the 1977 date is important as October 1977 is the date of Joe Breeze's Breezer number 1, widely accepted to have been the first mountain bike with a custom built frame.
It is quite likely that the confusion could be caused by Tom making an English style 'Roughstuff' touring bike in 1977, as a few other US frame-builders definitely made such 650b wheeled bikes between 1965 and 1979 including at least one made for professor John Finley Scott. American bike shops also imported a few Jack Taylor 'Roughstuff' bikes from England. But unlike the bike shown at InterBike 2012, these bikes had narrow tires and drop handlebars and are not usually considered to be a type of mountain bike.
But for a pioneering mountain bike frame-builder like Ritchey to claim that a 650b 'Roughstuff' bike he made in 1977 was one of the first mountain bikes, would also infer that the mountain bike concept came from Britain.