Select Your Bicycle Seats Wisely
By Adam Peters.
The three chief factors that led to the popularity and acceptance of mountain biking as a form of sport are the passion of dedicated people, the type of geographical features, and modification of bike equipment from ordinary mechanisms to modern high-tech gear.

No one can contest the saying that necessity is the mother of invention. When looking at the history of mountain biking this necessity becomes the chief inspiration for making the sport competitive, fun and popular.

The three factors that inform the history of mountain biking are the people passionate enough to pursue the sport, the geographical terrain, and the invention of the mountain bike.

The People:

It was in the late 1960s when a couple from San Francisco grew tired of the grinding life they were leading. Their departure from urban life took them to Marin County where life was calmer and less hectic with a rustic escapade.

Over time, their passion for together with the mountainous prospect landed them up with competitive bike races which were organized through a 3 mile fire trail track in the city of Fairfax. Other bikers soon joined the race with the hope for creating new records. There was a downward slope of 1600 feet that was included in the race. Thus began mountain bike racing.

Soon the word spread around but in the face of possible threats the sports manifested it had to be canceled. This was because the racers failed to meet insurance requirements. This was how the race came to an end.

The Geographical Area

However, the popularity did not die. The official birthplace of mountain biking was accorded to Mount Tamalpais in California.

In the beginning, bicyclists would race down Mount Tam and take the bikes to the top of the mount by other means of conveyance. Later, they not only came down but also explored uphill trails too. This was a good thing because it stretched the scope of the mountain biking race - not only

Schlecks to quit Saxo Bank team
Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck and brother Frank are to leave the Saxo Bank team and plan to join a new Luxembourg-based outfit.
BBC Radio 5 live Cycling on Twitter
The latest Tour gossip (external site)
Rebellin loses drug case appeal
Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin loses his appeal against being stripped of the silver medal he won in the road race at Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Cyclist impressed by Olympic Park
Cornish-based cyclist Wendy Houvenaghel says visiting the Olympic velodrome in London has given her extra motivation to ahead of the 2012 Games.
Contador & Astana to part company
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will leave Astana at the end of this season after turning down the offer of a new deal.
Sky's Downing triumphs in Belgium
Team Sky's Russell Downing sprints to victory in the final stage of the Tour de Wallonie to secure overall victory.
Wiggins to end his season early
Bradley Wiggins will not ride for England at the Commonwealth Games after deciding to end his season in September.
Killeen aims to peak at 2012 Games
Malvern mountain biking medal hopeful Liam Killeen is happy with his current form and believes he is on track to peak at the 2012 London Olympics.
Contador relief over Tour victory
Alberto Contador expresses relief at clinching his third Tour de France victory despite not finding his best form.
Armstrong retires for second time
Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is to retire from cycling for a second time.
Contador seals third Tour de France victory
Alberto Contador seals his third Tour de France title in four years as Mark Cavendish sprints to victory on the final stage in Paris for the second successive year.
Tour de France

Tour of Britain

Team Sky

Team HTC-Columbia

racing down but racing up as well.

The Equipment

The bike also went through a metamorphosis. Modifications began to take place on the mountain bike like tires, seat, safety arrangements. One of the changes included the replacement of typical braking system in an ordinary bike with cantilever brakes. This gave the bike the strength to pause quickly to brave extreme terrains. If you are an avid mountain biker you must agree that a mountain bike does need to brave it out on severely dangerous terrains.

Another modification included more gears for the biker to enable scaling of higher mountains and hills. Because all bikers do not use their mountain bikes for scaling mountains of the same height. A competent enough bike, therefore, needs to be tough enough for all kinds of heights. When you are ready to purchase a bike, if you are like most bikers, you start reading mountain bike reviews.

Article Source: http://www.articlemap.com

Adam Peters is a syndicated columnist on different resources like www.bikecyclingreviews.com .Keep reading about bike reviews and cool bikes at his web.