Discussion of some of the many ways in which people were riding off-road long before the invention of the mountain bike, from the Tour de France to exploring the wilds
Where and when did mountain biking begin? The usual story is that it began in California in the 1970s. In terms of the direct line of descent of today’s mountain bike scene, that’s probably true, but off-road biking goes back a lot further than that.
In fact, pioneering cyclists did not have masses of smooth blacktop to glide along. In 19th-century Europe, where cycling began, most city streets were surfaced with cobbles or stone setts, while many country roads of the time would look more like dirt tracks to us today. In out of the way areas, more adventurous riders frequently had to contend with steep, stony tracks, sometimes riding or pushing over terrain that would look pretty challenging to most mountain bikers even today. In many parts of the world, of course, unmade roads are still the norm today.
The Tour de France first ventured over the high passes of the Pyrenees in 1910, and the Alps a year later. The climbs were just as high as today but the roads were a lot worse; on these surfaces, with the primitive gearing of the time, it’s hardly surprising that riders were frequently reduced to walking: only one made it over the Col de l’Aubisque - the very first mountain pass to be crossed by the Tour - without putting a foot to the ground.
By this time, and also in France, cyclo-cross was already developing, though the first international race wasn’t held until 1924. Cyclo-cross shares many features with mountain biking but the bikes used originally were much the same as those used by road racers and even today a cyclo-cross bike superficially resembles a road bike, with a conventional ‘diamond’ frame design, dropped handlebars and lightweight wheels. These light bikes are relatively easy to pick up and carry, and unlike mountain-biking, running is an integral part of cyclo-cross, with unrideable obstacles being a feature of many courses. Traditionally many road riders used cyclo-cross racing as a way to keep fit during the winter off-season.
In Britain the Rough Stuff Fellowship was founded in 1955, but many of its members had been cycling on byways and rough tracks long before that. In many cases, apart from beefier tyres, the bikes used were standard touring bikes.
To this day, the Paris-Roubaix race remains one of the most famous one-day races in the European professional calendar. It was traditionally run over rough roads of cobbles or setts (known in French as pavé) and the organisers still seek out surviving stretches of these to maintain the unique flavour of the race, which is often called The Hell of the North. In a nod to mountain biking developments, there have been a few experiments with the use of front suspension for this race.
These are just a few examples of recorded history of off-road riding. There are no doubt even more instances that have gone unrecorded, of adventurous young (and sometimes not so young) people throwing themselves and their bikes at all manner of terrain. What’s unique about California in the 1970s is not the riders or what they were doing, but the fact that some of them went on to develop a new type of bicycle specifically for rough trails.
