jay clock said:My housemate got one in 1985 and we were both into cycline - his was the first I had seen. It was a revelation to me to have the gearing to actually go up hills at a spinning cadence
Of course, I invented the MTB in about 1976. I lived in Belgium and had a trad bike with Sturmey Archer 3 speeds gears onto which I added some huge motocross handlebars with twist grip changer.
col said:Remember the cow horn craze in the seventies? Rediculously wide thin handlebars, and if you pulled too hard on them they would bend.
Cubist said:Oh yes, and we ALL converted our Raleigh Olympus into a "Tracker" by swapping the drops for a pair of cowhorns. Trouble was the brake levers from the drops had to be put in the middle of the bars by the bend, else they wouldn't work, so the brake levers were about a mile away from the grips. I once hit a car on a roundabout because I couldn't brake in time. Happy days! Mental maths puts that at around 1978/9!