by: Karl Hamilton from Arlington TX USA Posted in MTBR
Like many of you, I grew up in the '70s and early '80s and can remember a time before there were road and mountain bikers. We were all cyclists. My Schwinn Stingray was both a road and mountain bike, as was the Schwinn Varsity I rode during high school. Heck, when I wanted to ride off road I took that Varsity and hit the trails; I hit them hard (ouch) on several occasions.
I remember the first time I heard of a mountain bike. It was 1985 and I was a plebe at West Point. I raced for West Point's cycling club and spent what little leisure time I had riding with a group of locals from Newburg NY. One of my buddies told me about a Schwinn High Sierra that he had just bought and how much fun it was to ride on the trails with a bike specifically designed for that purpose. I thought it sounded pretty neat, and decided to get one for myself.
I found mountain biking to be challenging and fun in similar yet different ways than road racing. I enjoyed the steady pace of road racing and how I could cruise along at 25mph in a smooth rhythmic trance; I also learned to enjoy the peaceful solitude and bike handling skills I developed while cleaning some local trails in upstate NY.
While mountain biking I realized that I was totally relaxed and not subconsciously worrying about getting plastered by a two-ton pickup truck zooming by me on the road. Back in the mid '80s there wasn't a strong sense of what made a road racer or mountain biker. Back then we still just rode bikes and had fun.
It was 1990 at Fort Hood, Tex. before I realized that cyclists had divided themselves into road and mountain bike camps. Road bikers were stereotyped as anal, obnoxious, unfriendly, and generally a pain in the ass. Mountain bikers were considered easy going, friendly, trail maintaining, and all around good guys. Wow, what a revelation! As a roadie (another term that I heard for the first time in 1990), I had instantly changed from what I thought was a good guy into some anal asshole. Interestingly enough, as I competed in road and mountain bike races in various parts of Central Texas, I met many friendly road and mountain bike racers. I also met roadies and knobbies who were the Devil's own.
