The Mountainbike

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TESTING SIX

A number of MOTHER's staff' members are avid street cyclists, but until the summer of 1983 we were all of road bicycling neophytes. Fortunately (for us), several mountainbike manufacturers and/or distributors were nice enough to lend us machines . . . and we set to work at becoming familiar with this unique mode of transportation. Through the fall of 1983, we put many miles on the cycles and had a tremendous amount of fun doing it. (In fact, as of this writing, four of MOTHER's crew have already bought, or are planning to buy, mountainbikes of their own.)
We all felt particularly lucky to try out a bicycle manufactured by some of the founders of the mountainbike movement: Gary Fisher and Tom Ritchey. The $996 Fisher Mountainbikes Mt. Tam, with a hand-built Tom Ritchey frame, is—surprisingly enough—only the middle of their line, but everyone who's ridden it has been amazed by its handling and quality. The Ritchey frame has been in development longer than any other mountainbike chassis, and that experience shows. Its geometry is similar to that of many others . . . which only proves there's more to building a great-handling frame than simply following the numbers. The Mt. Tam managed to turn quickly under almost any conditions, while showing trustworthy stability. At the same time, the frame felt stiff but cleared bumps with less jolting than did others, suggesting that it flexed in just the right way. One rider commented, "Even if you don't bother to look at the fine workmanship, you can feel quality when you ride it. It's nice to know that excellence is still available."
Trek Bicycle Corporation has a solid reputation for building quality street machines, and their model 850 mountainbike shows that fine heritage in its welding and fabrication. What's more, the machine's components are nearly identical to those found on the Fisher Mt, Tam, but the package costs $327 less. Many of our stay cyclists found its geometry to their liking. The Trek's steep head and seat-tube angles and long chain stays do favor climbing over descents, and they also make the bike one of the best dirt road and pavement combination machines of the bunch we tested.
Marukin's U.S. importer (this Japanese firm has been building bikes for 75 years, but has just begun shipping them here) sent us both of the company's 1984 mountainbikes to try out, and the machines proved to be some of the best buys of the lot. The Marukin Northstar is, at $359.95, the least expensive mountambike of those we tested and has a compromise pavement/dirt geometry that was also to the liking of' riders who get a kick out of fast downhills. Both Marukins come fitted with combination street/dirt tires, which have knobs around the periphery and a central ridge for street riding. At 40 PSI or less, the knobs hook into the dirt adequately, and at higher pressures the ridge reduces rolling friction on the road. The two Marukin cycles share nearly identical chrome-molybdenum steel frames, with the Viking getting upgraded components. Both machines, however, did have handgrips and saddles that received few positive reviews from MOTHER's impromptu panel of critics.
The Specialized Stumpjumper was—its makers attest—designed for all-out, high-speed off-road riding. Its frame is long and the fork is angled well forward (at 67°), making it stable when descending steep, rock-strewn hills. The fit and finish on this $800 cycle are excellent (as you'd hope!), and the machine has some exceptionally nice touches, such as the dustcovers on its brake levers. Unlike the other mountambikes we've ridden, the Stumpjumper features tubular aluminum handlebars, which absorb quite a bit of shock by flexing. On the other hand, the specialized bike is fitted with Sun Tour shifters, which don't work as well as the slightly more expensive Shimano Deore XT levers common to the other over-$500 bicycles.
In addition to the bikes that were lent to us, one of our staff members has had his own Ross Hi-Tech Mt. Whitney for six months now and notes that he wouldn't be willing to trade it for any of the bikes we tried out. In fact, some of us felt that the Ross's all-round handling equaled the Ritchey's, hitting that nice balance between stability and maneuverability. For the price (just over $500), its components are top-notch, and the bike has a chrome-plated frame that's proved to be very easy to maintain. It does, however, come equipped with dual-purpose tires that are marginal in difficult off-road situations.

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