May 18th, 2006
Raiding the Memory Banks
From Guitar Ted’s blog I followed this link to MTBR about the history of 29ers. Interesting stuff. Even Ross Shafer pops up to deny any involvement ;-)
I remember reading a review of Bruce Gordon’s Rock N Road in an American magazine (Bicycling?) way back in the early 1990s. Although it used 700c wheels and “fat” 45c tyres no-one called it a 29er back then. It inspired me to set up a pair of drop bars and bar/end shifters on my mountain bike and I’d regularly swap between flats/drops and knobblies/Tioga City Slickers. Or even just between tyres. I have some prints (remember them?) somewhere of a weekend in the Lake District including the Skiddaw circuit and an ascent of High Street* all done on the drops.
Eventually, tiring of swapping bars/tyres for road/off-road duties I just bought myself a CX bike, which could tackle on and off road with a simple change of wheels.
Back to the thread and I had to chuckle at the pot/kettle comment on revisionism under the influence of “ignorance, idiology and religion.” And they completely forgot the important influence of the Raleigh hybrids.
The name of the magazine that carried the review is going to bug me now.
* Note to those outside the UK. This is a hill in the Lake District, not just the main street through the local town centre.
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