Eric: Indeed, Mountain Bike WAS an excellent magazine, and (having grown up on a fat-tired Schwinn Typhoon), I remember in 1985 how smitten I became with the whole idea of mountain bikes... WOW, the mere notion of riding bikes in the back-country just blew my mind. For the entire month of June 1985 I was on a business trip in Pueblo Colorado, where I would hang out every day after work at the local bike shop talking mountain biking with the staff. I bought a copy of Mountain Bike mag, and there was a feature article about Crested Butte and the emerging mountain biking scene. I checked the map (hmm, just a few hours away), made hotel reservations for the weekend in Crested Butte, found a local shop to rent me a Rockhopper, and spent 2 glorious days riding the high country above CB (Schofield Pass, etc.)... I was HOOKED for life!
Now 30 years later, while my mountain biking has evolved somewhat, and I followed the industry trends for awhile (dabbling with full-suspension, aluminum, titanium, etc) I've gone back to riding a simple, fully-rigid steel frame/fork (kinda like the original 80s bikes), not because I'm nostalgic, but because it just FEELS right. And as for the original 80s designs, I think the industry absolutely nailed it in designing perfect workhorse all-rounders build to last... And think about it... the frames, shifters, brake levers, derailleurs etc of the 80s are still around (I actually prefer them) because they were built to LAST! It's a shame that most of the industry (starting in the late 80s) seemed to drift away from building these super-high-quality, overbuilt bikes and components in favor of evolving designs, and (IMO) cheaper-quality... I hope we're seeing this trend reversed... On Thursday, November 6, 2014 7:01:52 AM UTC-5, EricP wrote: > > While Fat Tire Flyer was my main influence into riding bikes with wider > tires, the short-lived magazine "Mountain Bike - for the Adventure" put out > by Hank Barlow was more my style. It focused more on touring back roads > and recreational riding, moreso than racing. Although racing did show up > in the magazine. The first issue actually had reviews of small tents for > mountain bike touring. > > Eric Platt > St. Paul, MN > > Eric Platt > St. Paul, MN > > On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 2:15 PM, 'Chris Lampe 2' via RBW Owners Bunch < > [email protected] <javascript:>> wrote: > >> I pre-ordered mine on Amazon back when a first came available and >> devoured it once I got it. You are right, I almost got the Kindle version >> but that would ahve been such a waste on a library quality, coffee table >> sized book full of illustrations and photos. I've watched Klunkerz, read >> Barto's "Birth of Dirt" as well as a lot of articles but I still learned >> some fascinating stuff. I also highly recommend it to anyone interested in >> bike history. >> >> On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 1:31:12 PM UTC-6, [email protected] wrote: >>> >>> Chris, all- >>> >>> Re: the Marin-legacy and it's influence on bike culture, check out >>> Charlie Kelley's new memoir, "Fat Tire Flyer". It's a book of both >>> lavish production quality as well as a compelling storytelling. >>> >>> =- Joe Bunik >>> Walnut Creek, CA >>> >>> On 11/5/14, 'Chris Lampe 2' via RBW Owners Bunch >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > Nice article. So basically we are just going back to the All-Terrain >>> > Bikes that came out of Marin County in the late 70's and early 80's. >>> I've >>> > >>> > done a bit of reading about the history of the MTB (as well as >>> watching >>> > Klunkerz) and those guys (and a couple of girls) were really just >>> doing >>> > exactly what Guitar Ted is talking about........developing bikes that >>> could >>> > >>> > be ridden almost anywhere. The whole downhill/extreme terrain thing >>> came >>> > about when the racers took over. I know that Repack was all about >>> racing >>> > and was a huge influence but it seems those guys were doing a lot of >>> what >>> > would now be called expedition biking. >>> > >>> > I've evolved to prefer just that type of bike and no longer have any >>> > interest in riding anything less than 55mm tires. When I picked up a >>> 1984 >>> > MTB last year, I did some research on bikes from that era and in 1985 >>> > Bicycling put out a book and they were still referring to them as >>> ATB's, >>> > which is actually much more appropriate than "mountain bike". >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > On Wednesday, November 5, 2014 11:21:18 AM UTC-6, Noah Deuce wrote: >>> >> >>> >> Hyperbole, sure, but the drum GP has been beating for decades (better >>> tire >>> >> >>> >> clearance, too much emphasis on racing, etc.) has finally turned into >>> a >>> >> product "category" that may save the industry from itself. >>> >> >>> >> Just see the latest by Guitar Ted: >>> >> http://www.gravelgrindernews.com/less-about-the-rock-and- >>> more-about-the-roll/ >>> >> >>> > >>> > -- >>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups >>> > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >>> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an >>> > email to [email protected]. >>> > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >>> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> > >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> <javascript:>. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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