A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which makes them heavier, more complex and less efficient on smooth surfaces. These typically include a suspension fork, large knobby tires, more durable wheels, more powerful brakes, straight, extra wide handlebars to improve balance and comfort over rough terrain, and wide-ratio gearing optimised for topography and application. Rear suspension is ubiquitous in heavier-duty bikes and now common even in lighter bikes. Dropper posts can be installed to allow the rider to quickly adjust the seat height.
Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, such as air or coil-sprung shocks used as suspension, larger and wider wheels and tires, stronger frame materials, and mechanically or hydraulically actuated disc brakes. Mountain biking can generally be broken down into five distinct categories: cross country, trail riding, all mountain, downhill, and freeride.
The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (MBHOF) was founded in 1988 to chronicle the history of mountain biking. Formerly located in Crested Butte, Colorado, it relocated to Fairfax, California in 2014 and became part of the Marin Museum of Bicycling.
Edmund ("Ned") Overend is an American former professional cross-country mountain bike racer. He is a six-time NORBA cross-country mountain bike national champion who became the first-ever cross-country world champion by winning the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in 1990. Overend was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2001.
Marin is a bicycle manufacturer in Marin County, California, established in 1986. It specializes in mountain bikes but also has other types. Many of its 68 bicycles are named after locations in and around Marin County.
Melissa 'The Missile' Giove is an American professional downhill mountain biker. Throughout her career she won 14 NORBA downhill titles and 11 world cups. Giove's other accomplishments include three overall NORBA downhill crowns, two World Cup overalls, and the 1994 World Championship title.
The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, located in Davis, California, is a private 501c3 non-profit organization formed to preserve and promote the sport of cycling. The organization was founded in 1986 in Somerville, New Jersey and has inducted cyclists who have "achieved tremendous success in racing or have enhanced the sport" since 1987. It has operated a museum in Davis since 2009.
Tom Ritchey is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport. He is an innovator of bicycle components that have been used in winning some of the biggest cycling competitions in the world including the UCI World Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympics. In 1988, Ritchey was inducted into the inaugural Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado : and 2012, inducted to the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame in Davis, California.
Charlie Cunningham is a mountain biker from Fairfax, California.
Joe Breeze is an American bicycle framebuilder, designer and advocate from Marin County, California. An early participant in the sport of mountain biking, Breeze, along with other pioneers including Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Tom Ritchey, is known for his central role in developing the mountain bike. Breeze is credited with designing and building the first all-new mountain bikes, which riders colloquially called Breezers. He built the prototype, known as Breezer #1, in 1977 and completed nine more Series I Breezers by early 1978. Breezer #1 is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
A cruiser bicycle, also known as a beach cruiser or (formerly) motobike, is a bicycle that usually combines balloon tires, an upright seating posture, a single-speed drivetrain, and straightforward steel construction with expressive styling. Cruisers are popular among casual bicyclists and vacationers because they are very stable and easy to ride, but their heavy weight and balloon tires tend to make them rather slow. Another common feature is their ability to be customized with accessories including fenders, lights and saddle bags. They are designed for use primarily on paved roads, low speeds/distances, and are included in the non-racing/non-touring class and heavyweight or middleweight styles of the road bicycle type.
Russ Mahon is an avid cyclist and founder of a cycling group of about 10 riders known as The Morrow Dirt Club, named after a model of coaster brakes produced by Bendix Corporation. Originally based in Cupertino, California, The Morrow Dirt Club were, arguably, the first to put 10 speeds, drum brakes, and tall handlebars on pre-World War II balloon-tired bicycles for use off-road. These bicycles were the precursor to the modern mountain bike. Russ, along with Tom and Carter Cox, competed in a cyclo-cross race in Mill Valley, California in 1974 on these bikes. It was there that Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Joe Breeze, among others, were inspired by these bikes and developed them into the worldwide phenomenon known as mountain biking. Mahon's bike was considerably more advanced than the largely stock single-speed bikes used by the Larkspur riders. Shortly afterward, most of the Morrow Dirt Club Members moved away and Mahon left the nascent mountain biking scene, not getting reconnected with the other pioneers until a friend brought him into contact with Tom Ritchey in the 1990s. In 2007, Russ Mahon was profiled in the documentary film, Klunkerz: A Film About Mountain Bikes.
Susan DeMattei is an American former professional cross-country mountain bike racer. She became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in mountain biking when she won the Bronze Medal in the inaugural Olympic Cross-Country Mountain Biking competition at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. DeMattei was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1997 and, into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2012.
Mount Tamalpais and the surrounding areas in Marin County, California are recognized as the birthplace of the modern mountain biking industry. Other Northern California hill-adjacent suburban areas had small cohorts.
Wilderness Trail Bikes is a privately owned company based in Marin County, California, USA. Founded in 1982 as a company that specialized in mountain bike parts, today WTB sources and sells its product worldwide supplying bike manufacturers and bike shops with components including tires, saddles, rims and grips.
Mike Sinyard is the founder and chairman of Specialized Bicycle Components, an American manufacturer of bicycles and cycling components. In 2022, he retired as the CEO of Specialized Bicycle Components, a company he had led for 48 years.
Yeti Cycles is an American bicycle manufacturer located in Golden, Colorado.
Nat Ross is an American professional cross-country mountain bike racer. Ross became the first American to win a professional race on a twenty-nine inch mountain bike. Ross was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2008. Ross is a two-time World Champion with multiple National Championship titles. Ross is a pioneer in mountain bike innovation with regards to racing.
Myles Rockwell is an American former professional downhill mountain biker and winner of the 2000 UCI Downhill World Championships. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2019 and into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2004 Rockwell was arrested for growing Marijuana, he was released on $10,000 bail.
