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Cross country racing came later.
How A Wild Downhill Race In 1970S Marin County Launched National Mountain Biking Trend
How A Wild Downhill Race In 1970S Marin County Launched National Mountain Biking Trend
It all started with downhill racing
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Unless, of course, it all started with ‘gravel grinding’ the dirt roads and pathways in the Alps and other places in the 1920’s and such. All the way down to lower gearing, derailluers, fatter tires, and slacker geometry, drifting/counter steering on loose surfaces...TdF had all of that.
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Hey, CK, good to hear from you! Don't be such a stranger.
Hope you are doing well.
Which it did ...
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I will argue that point. When did those guys make balloon tire bikes that you could buy?
In 1970 I was living on a gravel road a few miles outside of Boulder, CO. I had the bike shop put the heaviest tires that would fit on the wheels of my Peugeot 10-speed. I didn't call it a gravel bike then, but you would now. It didn't break any new ground, because there had to be other people buying and using those thick tires for the same reason I did.
In 1970 I was living on a gravel road a few miles outside of Boulder, CO. I had the bike shop put the heaviest tires that would fit on the wheels of my Peugeot 10-speed. I didn't call it a gravel bike then, but you would now. It didn't break any new ground, because there had to be other people buying and using those thick tires for the same reason I did.
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rideit said:
Correct. If the Europeans had invented downhill racing, we would not have had to.
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Charlie is stable, but he has had to give up most of what he enjoyed. He can only go bicycling on the back of a tandem, because he gets lost easily. Mostly he hikes a route where he knows that turning right at every juncture will bring him back home.
He no longer works in his machine shop.
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Lots of people were riding pneumatic tired bikes on dirt eons before a handfulla dirtbags in CA thought it would be a good idea.
I'm glad y'all did what you did, when you did. Sorry that you feel the need to overstate the import.
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I don't know why you would have to state the obvious for ME. I wrote a book about that stuff, in which I acknowledge that my friends and I were hardly the first people to take old bikes out on dirt trails.
Who are the "handfulla dirtbags" in CA? Anyone I might know?
26 x 2.125 tires were not available in Europe before the 1980s, which is one of the reasons the downhill TT was invented here. In 1979 balloon tire bikes were less than 1% of the bicycle market. Six years later balloon tire bikes were the majority of the market.
I would be interested in your theory of what the Europeans did to make that happen.
I am also interested in all those off-road downhill time trials that you believe took place before the ones in Marin County. Please elaborate.
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I'm sorry if I've gotten in the way of your indoctrination of the 14 year olds around here.
Pro tip: the people that actually read articles and think about what they state and/or imply are likely to be slightly more up on the history, and thus not as easily indoctrinated as the teenagers whom read part of the headlines -- and none of the article -- before moving on.
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Help me out. What am I wrong about, and how do you know?
What am I wrong about, and how do you know?
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