The First Mountain Bikes : Fat-Tyres and Clunkers

Mark Pawlak    mountainbikingholidays     mountain bike holidays, Mountain bikes, mountain biking, MTB, MTB gear

Mountain bikes are about as technical as bikes come. Frankly, in terms of innovation, some look light years ahead of road bikes.

The MTB Today

But don’t think they just turned up. The first mountain bikes are as old as the hills – well not that old – but let’s take a look back over the last 40 years and see how they developed.

There are a few familiar names here, so you’ll get to see that some MTB manufacturers really are old skool.

History

Before the MTB was the ‘fat-tyre’. These were bikes from as early as the 1930s that had tyres fatter than 2 inches (cross section). The first of these to try out the rough stuff may have been from Europe and possibly German. Arnold, Schwinn & Co took the fat tire idea back to the US from German in 1932.

John Finley Scott may have invented what became the mountain bike in 1953 with his knobbly-tyred and geared up ‘Woodsie’.

Rus Mahon of California raced a ‘balloon tire’ bike with a derailleur back in 1973, which may have got his cotemporaries thinking…

Gary Fisher had a bike built by Schwinn in 1974 which took these bigger tyres and united them with an older frame. Up to this point, the bikes were pieced together and known as ‘Clunkers’.

And Bob Crispin was riding what he called a ‘Tankagnolo’ (hybrid of tank – because of its weight – and Campagnolo, the component manufacturer).

The Breezer 1 and the end of the Clunkers

Breezer1, where it all began

Credited as being the first ever mountain bike, the Breezer1 is a legend – as is Joe Breezer who built them in 1977 and 1978 in Marin County, after local riders pushed for something better suited to the terrain.

He only made 10, built from the ground up. In a video interview to Bicycling.com he said, “it’s the first time you had a shiny new bike and up until that time we were calling them ‘Clunkers’, and it’s kinda hard to call a shiny new bike a Clunker and so we had to come up with a new name, and that came a little bit later: Mountain Bikes”.

Tom Ritchey was also building dedicated fat-tyre frames for Gary Fisher – with money invested by Scott -some of which were assembled into complete bikes and they were sold by Fisher for as much as US$2,000.

The first production MTBs didn’t appear till 1978 when the Lawwill Pro Cruiser hit the streets, and mountain biking in the United States began to slowly increase in popularity.

And it wasn’t long before bike manufactures outside the US started getting involved. There was the Specialized Stumpjumper (a name the brand still uses today) and Univega with its Alpine Sport.

Old Specialized Stumpjumper - v.cool

And from here it’s all been downhill – well it’s actually the sport has evolved into separate mountain biking disciplines, with technology such as full frame suspension evolving to suit.

Mountain bikes have spread from a handful of pioneers in the US to be used by a massive base of riders and enthusiasts. And their use has not been restricted to the off-road community: Mountain bikes are big business, and their extra ruggedness is much loved by commuters and general cyclists, too.

Styles may have changed and technology may have improved, but it’s still a strong frame, fat tyres and low gears that will help you ride off road. And now with incredibly forgiving suspension, these bikes are taking on cavernous drops and more radical terrain.

(And such is their role in modern culture Breezer 1 will become part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC)

Thanks to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and the Mountain Bike Pre-History Blog

About the author

Mark Pawlak wrote 192 articles on this blog.

Editor at Adventure Sports Holidays, Mark's love affair with travel and the challenges of adventure sports continues... "You could save all year for a two-week, all-inclusive, doss by the pool, booze and buffet binge. Or, with a little planning and some good equipment, get off your arse and plan an adventure!"

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