When was the Mountain Bike Invented? And who by?

[GrahamJohnWallace]

And of course, who can forget the Highparths etc, true off road go anywhere machines, not just downhill clunkers, that can trace their lineage back to the 70's. Indeed, I'd give my left nut for a Highpath, though i should think they cost a few quid these days. In terms of true off roading they were perhaps the first, but like the Neanderthals, their lineage died out and a different branch of Homo-Offroadus came to the fore.

For me, the interesting question is not when the mountain bike was invented? but why the Clelands and Highpath designs effectively died out when they were far more suited to UK conditions than even the best of the US designs.

In fact Geoff Apps' 1979 Cleland prototypes were an independent invention from the US mountain bikes. Apps did not know of the existence of the mountain bikes until he read about them in BMX Plus magazine in 1981. And though there are many similarities between Clelands and US derived mountain bikes there are several key differences that make it difficult, or even impossible to modify US bikes so that they handle and ride like a Cleland.

The features of the Clelands and Highpaths were derived from tried and tested trials motorbike designs. Despite the roadster looks they are highly effective machines that can still hold there own against the performance of modern mountain bikes. They are more forgiving, very stable, exceptionally nimble and are exceptionally good climbers. They have free rolling 650b or 700c wheels and certainly require less maintenance than modern machines.

However the US mountain bikes evolved from the Schwinn Excelsior designs which were in fact imitation road going motorbikes, intended for those who were to young or couldn't afford a real motorbike. Some models even came with with imitation fuel tanks. They were chosen for their strength and not their off-road abilities and it took decades of tweaking to produce designs that behaved well off-road.

Cleland/Highpaths and mountain bikes are different in terms of their handling characteristics and underlying dynamics. One design is not necessarily better than the other but they are two fundamentally different solutions to the problems of riding off-road. But whilst you can buy 1,000s of variations of the mountain bike design you cannot buy a Cleland style bike at all.

Unlike the Neanderthals however, Clelands are not completely extinct as there are still a few of us who know how to make a Cleland style bike from some small framed mountain bikes or who restore and use old Clelands and Highpaths.

Spiritually, modern fat-bike riders share a very similar ethos to that of both Geoff Apps and other Highpath/Cleland owners. But a mountain bike fitted with over-sized low-pressure fat tyres is a long way off what Geoff Apps had in mind when Geoff designed the first Clelands.

In a nutshell, moving the riders weight rearwards and upwards has a number of advantages and fundamentally changes the physics involved in stability, traction, steering, torque-reaction etc. It's just a shame that people can't test ride a Cleland at their local bike shop in order to experience this difference for themselves,

http://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/philosophy/

 

[Rich Aitch]

HJ Lawson, 1876. Born London.
He was the first to make a small wheeled -that is not Penny Farthing sized- "Safety bicycle" . It meant that people could put both feet onto the ground together and due to the lower centre of gravity were less likely to be lauched into orbit when the front wheel hit a pothole. In towns this was not massively significant but in rural areas it made roads reasonably navigable by bicycle for the first time. In those days country highways were, at best, the equivalent of gravel fire roads, while heavy use made them muddy and deplorable. In the United Kingdom it was pressure from the Cyclists Touring Club rather than the A.A or R.A.C that led to roads being "Tar-Macadamised" after the Great War and roads as we know them today came into being. Finances were not available to surface all roads and I believe that some roads left out of the scheme became Byways Open to All Traffic, although I am not certain about this last point.

Now, many people believe that John Kemp Starley of Coventry, Warwickshire created the first safety bike with his "Rover Safety Bicycle" of 1885. However this was merely the first commercially successful one, proving that it is virtuous to be first but more profitable to be second [Appropriately the Rover safety bike begat a long line of Rover vehicles right up to the present day Land-Rover Defender off road vehicle as well as recent licensing deals to produce "Land-Rover" mountain bikes].

Although the descendents of the safety bicycle became more and more tarmac oriented machinery like Highpaths stuck to the spirit of the original.

This has been a bit detailed but history shouldn't be written by he who shouts loudest. In 1979 Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly founded a bicycle business in the United States called "Mountain Bikes". They tried to trade mark the name but this attempt to annexe an entire branch of cycling failed.

Henry Lawson 1886. Great Britain. All the rest is noise.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Loving that Cleland so much a bit of sex wee just leaked out! Always wanted one since I read an interview with Apps he gave on his 40th Birthday, c.1988. Alas, I've never seven seen one in the flesh

 

[electronicaeric]

For years,I considered my Raleigh Bomber as the first MTB.Here it is just a couple of months old

Everyone took the Micky at the time,big wheels on a racer type frame but just a few years later.......

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

When it first appeared in 1981 the Raleigh Bomber really was a glimpse of things to come.

It wasn't quite a mountain bike though, more of a beach cruiser copy designed for children who were outgrowing their BMX bikes.

*It wasn't very strongly constructed

* The seatpost length was child sized and so too short for most adults

* It originally only had three speed Sturmey Archer gears

*Ineffective side pull brakes and chrome plated steel rims

 

[Mahoney1978]

I invented the Mountain Bike in 1973.............I rang my mate Gray Fisher in the US and told him all about what I'd done, but he didn't seem interested.

You should of rang Gary Fisher instead, I here he was into bikes

This just made me giggle out loud. Had to (try and) explain to the wife and grandmother why I was laughing. 3 attempts and I gave up.

 

[gerryattrick]

To be fair to the Marin County lads, I'm not sure that they ever claimed to have "invented" mountain bikes. What they did was use their enterprise, skills and enthusiasm to help move off-road or mountain biking forward very quickly, making it more popular and easier for people to get into.

Cycling has always evolved and the "mountain bike" as it started out was just a variation on what went on before, two wheels, a frame, gears, brakes etc., adapted to suit rougher terrain. It is possibly more accurate to say that the invention started when suspension came in, although even this idea was pinched from motor bikes, and I'm sure that someone can point out examples of suspension being used on bikes in the 50s or 60s, or even earlier.

So a good pub/internet argument that will never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, but that's the attraction of it.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

.... I'm sure that someone can point out examples of suspension being used on bikes in the 50s or 60s, or even earlier.

How about this Linley and Biggs' Whippet...
Full suspension interconnected with adjustable sag and anti bob geometry.
Made in England circa 1888.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

There are some questions whose answers could help unpick the complex subject of mountain bike invention:

*Who made the key inventions that made the mountain bike possible?
(Safety bicycle, pneumatic tyres, etc).

*Who was first to build a bike that featured all these key inventions?

*Who first made mountain bikes to sell to others?

*Who first brought the mountain bike concept to the attention of the companies that mass produced and promoted mountain bikes?
(conversely, why were Geoff Apps designs rejected by British manufacturers who years later readily jumped onto the mountain bike bandwagon?)

*Who first organised mountain bike rides, races or events that kick started the sport of mountain biking?

For every event that led onto the sport of mountain biking there were many more dead ends where potentially significant developments simply happened at the wrong time or place.

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

Please define the phrase Mountain bike.