What Is A Mountain Bike?

A mountain bike is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling, including jumps, and traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines, either on dirt trails, logging roads, or other unpaved environments. Bicycles typically used for mountain biking need to be able to withstand off-road use and the surmounting of obstacles such as logs and rocks. Most mountain bikes use 26 inch (559 mm) bicycle wheels with wide, knobby tires for extra traction and shock absorption. In the current century, front wheel suspension has become the norm and full front and rear suspension has become increasingly common. Some mountain bikes are also fitted with bar ends on the handlebars to give extra leverage for hill-climbing.

Since the development of the sport in the 1970s, many new subtypes of mountain biking have developed, such as cross-country (XC) biking, all-day endurance biking, Freeride-biking, downhill mountain biking, and a variety of track and slalom competitions. Each of these place different demands on the bike requiring different designs to suit them. MTB development has included an increase in gearing, up to 27 speeds, to facilitate climbing and rapid descents. Other developments have included disc instead of cantilever or V-brakes.