Before Gravel Mania, and before Fixed-Gear Fever, there was Mountain Bike Madness:
It seems positively quaint today that riding mountain bikes in an urban environment would warrant a TV news segment, but back then it did:
Then again, we’re talking about Canada, and what else really happens there?
Anyway, at the end one of the interviewees poses an insightful and prescient question:
“When you can buy mountain bikes at Canadian Tire for $99.95 instead of $700 at a specialty bike shop it’ll be interesting to see if the upscale market segment that has to be different, or that has to have its pasta homemade, whether that particular group will continue to stay there or whether they’ll go on and find another specialized leisure commodity.“
Well here we are almost 40 years later, and checking the Canadian Tire website he was only off by two cents:
On one hand the mountain bike did become the default “form factor” (ugh) for the department store bicycle, and the “yuppies” (or their generational successors) did indeed move on–the ’90s saw the road bike boom, then came the fixed-gear craze of the aughts, and eventually gravel, along with concomitant news stories about “the next big thing.” On the other hand, the high-end mountain bike itself continued to evolve, and eventually became something that bore little resemblance to the simple, versatile bikes of yore and instead grew to resemble motocross bikes–so much so that now more and more of them even have motors:
Meanwhile, on yet another hand (that’s three hands if you’re keeping track) the sporty yet rugged town-and-country appeal of the mountain bike soon yielded a new type of all-around bike called the “hybrid:”
[From here.]
Today “hybrid” is synonymous with dull, but for a little while there it was rather exciting:
Obviously these were the forebears of today’s gravel bikes, but just as today’s mountain bikes hardly resemble their ancestors, modern gravel bikes have also evolved into a completely different species:
There’s certainly nothing wrong with that if it’s what you’re into, but if you long for an alternate reality in which those original mountain bikes and hybrids underwent continual refinement yet did not completely throw off their former selves, then you can begin to appreciate something like this:
[Photo: Arlo Weiss]
And while I bristle at the implication that I’m some sort of yuppie eater of homemade pasta, I have nevertheless gratuitiously fancified my ass pedestal situation:
Though I’ve undermined the improved aesthetics somewhat by installing a pair of Ergon grips, which look less like a bicycle component and more like something you’d find in a CVS next to the Dr. Scholl’s:
From this lofty perch yesterday I engaged in some of the avian photography for which I am famous:
And also enjoyed some early evening trail riding:
While some might consider the two-speed drivetrain an affront to the singlespeed ethos, in a way it’s an even bolder statement. See, Big Bicycle has robbed us of all but one chainring in the front and keeps adding more and larger cogs in the rear:
So what could be more anti-establishment than having only one cog in the rear and multiple chainrings in the front? Also, a thread-on singlespeed freewheel is the very antithesis of a 13-speed cassette that costs $600:
Which pairs with a $700 derailleur:
Which you need because apparently gravel has become sentient and is now capable of throwing things at you:
Yes, fortunately after years of finicky indexing systems and fragile derailleur hangers, you can now spend thousands of dollars on a system that’s almost as reliable as a steel bike with a friction drivetrain from 40 years ago…just as long as you remember to charge it:
How far we’ve come.