People use bicycles for many different reasons. They are a great means of transport for getting to and from work, you can fit your shopping into the baskets available to attach to the front, and they provide a wonderful way to travel when on holiday and exploring different areas. People have always ridden off road as well as on it, but the history of mountain biking really begins more than thirty years ago, in the 1970's. Modern bike designs have made the sport more accessible to more people, and the history of mountain biking certainly shows it is now even more popular than ever.

But although mountain biking is now enjoyed all over the world, it began life in California, America. A group of cycle enthusiasts decided to try out some downhill runs on bikes that would now seem antiquated to many of us. The dirt tracks were much the same as many mountain bike race courses today, but the bikes have changed considerably over the intervening years. Those races became famous, and before long similar races were taking place along tracks at locations in many different countries.

As new materials and ways of building bikes have come into existence, it has become easier to build a bike that is capable of withstanding everything a rough off road terrain has to throw at it. Stronger lighter frames and better gears have made mountain biking easier for more people to attempt. The history of mountain biking shows that the earliest riders began to adapt their bikes to get the best from those downhill runs and routes, and so the mountain bikes that we know today began to evolve.

At the time, the only type of bicycle you could buy was intended to be ridden on the road. Although people did ride off road it wasn't popular enough to warrant a bike designed specifically for that use. But the bikers in California changed all that. The history of mountain biking began with them, and they began to rethink the way that bicycles were made in order to create a design that could handle all the obstacles and conditions the off road trails could throw at it. So the next time you grab hold of your own mountain bike and go for a ride ? perhaps across a muddy field, or down a steep slippery slope on those knobbly tires ? you should think of the pioneers of the 1970's.

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