Stumpjumper

The Stumpjumper was the first commercially made mountain bike, and in the twenty-five years since its appearance, the bicycling world has been revolutionized. A whole new culture has sprung up—the fat-tire, dirt-loving mountain bike adventurers, rejecting the orthodoxy of the road, bringing their countercultural attitude and look to the American masses.

This full-color history of the mountain bike celebrates all aspects of off-road -cycling, from the early experimental “clunkers” to the first Stumpjumper to the modern technological marvels replete with carbon-fiber frames, front and rear shock absorbers, and twenty-one (or more) speeds; from the scruffy daredevil pioneers of the sport to today’s well-sponsored professional riders. Nowadays every kid rides a mountain bike. And there’s a Stumpjumper on display at the Smithsonian. It is all here in this well-researched, smartly written, photo-rich coffee table book.

Mark Reidy is a cycling journalist with over a dozen years of writing for various national magazines.