From the moment Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Charlie Kelly and the rest of the founding fathers started turning fat tired Schwinn cruisers into proto mountain bikes, the touchpaper of MTB progression was lit. Mountain biking evolution has continued at an extremely rapid pace for over 50 years and despite going down a few blind alleys, has mostly moved in the right direction.
Most recently, that continued drive for better has seen bikes being festooned with electronic technology. But along with the astounding wonders of wireless shifting, electronically controlled suspension, auto-shifting gears and e-MTBs, the many problems that plague modern technology have started to infect mountain bikes too. So is that a price worth paying for the ease, convenience and new freedoms of the latest riding tech?
