The all-terrain bike, mountain bike or even ATB (100% Terrain Bicycle) occurs as bicycle designed for off-road riding, either on dirt trails or more unpaved environments; in counterpoint, road bicycles aren't rugged enough for such terrain.

All-terrain bike develop fatten, knobby tyre for more traction. Within recent years front suspension has turn into a norm & to the full front & rearward suspension suspension is becoming increasingly most common. Occasionally all-terrain bike come likewise fitted by using bar ends on the handlebars, but using the recent trprevent within riser handlebars (when opposed to the flat straight handlebar) fewer riders utilise bar end extensions. A bikes unremarkably use at times Xxvi withinside (660 millimeter) wheels although since 2002, a bit of system develop been available using Xxix in (737 millimeter) wheels. A big wheels purportedly roll better in top obstacles however this comes at a expense of less maneuverability & important uptake is stymied per limited choice of tyres & forks on offer.

There are recently All-terrain bike keep close at hand either Twenty-four or even Twenty-seven speed derailleur gears.

Around French the mountain bike is called a VTT (vélo tout-terrain: "all-terrain bicycle").

Designs

All-terrain bike may be classified into trio categories according to suspension: Rigid - there are no suspension Hardtail - front suspension fork, no rearward suspension Dual or even To the full suspension - front suspension fork & tail suspension integrated into a frame

Designs diverge to reflect a challenges of the different disciplines within mountain biking:

Cross United states (90) Off-roader tend to st& just the little total of suspension (ordinarily 80-100mm) on the front & tail, and weigh relatively little. This is achieved through the have of lightweight materials & suspension is occasionally provided by metallic coil or even air shocks. Ninety bikes may weigh when little when Twenty pounds (9 kilogram), as much as in Thirty pounds (Xiv kilogram). Enduro (or even "All-Mountain") Bikes come usually heavily than Ninety bikes at between 30 & 35 pounds (14 to 16 kilo), & own additional suspension travel, between 100 & 150 millimeter of front & rearward travel. It is designed to exist as a cappella to ascend & descend a mountains, desegregation occasionally of a lightweight climbing attributes of cross-united states bikes & the strengths of downhill/freeride bikes. Freeride Mountain Bikes come the step higher once more from either Enduro bikes. It tend to keep around a equivalent Ogdoad around (200 millimetre) of suspension travel of declivitous bikes, & come built from either stronger, heavily materials. It is designed to become an a lot-all arounder, breathe to cross distances (although nin when quickly or even even with efficiency when an Ninety bike) & a cappella to choose on unsafe & technical indicator downward-sloping trails (though non as quickly or profits as a specialist downhill bike). Numbers of freeride bikes additional closely resemble downward-sloping bikes & weigh as much, though it is commonly designed to become more easygoing to pedal than the downward-sloping bike. Freeride bikes zero in weight from either a moo Xxx to upper Fifty pounds. Downhill Mountainside Bikes tend to exist as super heavily at terminated 40-50 pounds (1Eighter to 23 kilogram) & keep around 8 in (200 millimetre) or even further suspension travel. It is super hard & (because of occasionally big, high & yearn, easy travel) come suitable single for riding down dedicated declivitous trails & race courses. Lawsuits Mountain Bikes that come install super specifically for the purpose of bicycle trials. It occasionally own there are no suspension in the least & simply one gear, making them functionally supplementary prefer an outsized BMX bike than a conventional off-roader. a few lawsuits bikes stand there are no seat a least bit, or even a rudimentary pad, when the rider lives everthing of his period away from the saddle. These bikes come significantly lighter than wholly but all more off-roader, ranging from either 15 to 25 pounds. This makes maneuvering a bike very much more leisurely. Dirt Jumping, Urban & Street Mountaaround Bikes lie someplace in between the lawsuits bike, the BMX bike & the freeride bike. It is occasionally super hard bikes, by using Three to Five inside (75 to 125 millimetre) of front suspension, there are no rearward suspension, & typically by owning merely a single devices. Singlespeeds Singlespeeding is when much the lifestyle as these are the nature and severity of all-terrain bike. The singlespeed is good what it sounds rather - the all-terrain bike by having of these devices. Virtually all singlespeed riders buy to ride such bikes away from the love of simplicity, elegance, & passion. the train ratio depends whole on a terrain existence ridden, a nature & severity & skill of the rider, and the size of the bike (a 29er typically takes the different power train than the standard 26er). Typically singlespeeds come fully rigid, steel-framed bikes. One of a additional popular makers of singlespeeds is [http://www.surlybikes.com Surly]. 4X racing occurs as recently format, & there are curently bikes emerging to healthy into that scene. these bikes develop Three to Four inches of travel, & unremarkably keep close at hand quite hard frames. It process the chainguide in front & gears on the back.

History

All-terrain bike began to develop in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At a instance, there was there are no such tool as a off-roader. A earliest ascendant of modern off-roader were depending in the area of frames from either traveling cruisers like people processed by Schwinn. Riders utilized balloon tired beach cruisers & modified the two by owning gears & motocross style handlebars. It would bomb (ride convenient) down mountain fireroads stimulating a hub bearings to burn a grease in, requiring a riders to repack a bearings. These were known as "repack races" & triggered a number 1 innovations around mountain bike technology too when a initial interest of the public. A sport originated around California [http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/history.cfm?page=3].

It wasn't until a late 1970s and early 1980s that road bicycle companies started to manufacture mountain cycle utilizing high-hi-tech lightweight materials. Gary Fisher is normally credited with introducing a 1st purpose-purpose-made off-roader within 1979. the designs were fundamentally traveling bike frames sustaining the wider frame & fork to allow a wider tyre. a handlebars were too different therein it were a straight, transverse-mounted handlebar, like than the dropped, curving handlebars that come generally installed in road racing cycle. As well, a few of a area in early production mountain wheel were taken from either the BMX bicycle. A number one mass-produced off-roader were by Specialized and were configured with 18 gears.

Modern Bikes

Until recently, mountain cycle got itinerant cycle style frames & geometry. All-terrain bike has turn into additional mainstream by owning riding styles becoming supplementary aggressive. Newly frames come better-designed, lightly, & stronger, using the geometry that leave tremendously other spirited riding terminated obstacles prefer logs, rocks, wooden bridges, & human-synthetic ramps. Too, numbers of riders come okay, bestride mountain cycle & ingesting in the supplementary BMX style of riding. Recently off-roader develop either Xxiv or even even Twenty-seven speeds, by owning Threesome gears in a front & Eighter or Nine gears at the rearward wheel.

Numerous recently all-terrain bike have a fully suspension project. It used to be that, off-roader got the rigid frame & the rigid fork. In the early Nineties, off-roader began to use at times front suspension forks. This processed riding in rough in terrain gentler in the rider's arms. A foremost suspension forks experienced astir 1½ to 2 inches (38 to 50 millimeter) of suspension travel. Shortly when, a few frame designers come out sustaining the fully suspension frame which gave riders a smoother ride throughout the ride.

Fresh suspension frame & fork designs stand reduced weight, increased total of suspension travel, & improved sense. Several lock out a rearward suspension when a rider is pedaling tough or even climbing, sequentially to improve pedaling efficiency. Virtually all suspension frames & forks develop at least Four inches (Centred millimeter) of suspension travel. Supplementary aggressive suspension frames & forks bring downward-sloping racing & freeriding keep close at hand up to Octonary or even even Ix inches (200 or 230 millimetre) of suspension travel.

Several riders however like to ride the hardtail frame (cycle sustaining front however forswearing rearward suspension), & about 100% mountain cycle riders apply the suspension fork. Easily-known suspension fork manufacturers come, e.g., Manitou, Marzocchi, Mutt, Rock Shox, Pace & RST.

To the full suspension mountain bike technology has mass produced outstanding advances since foremost appearing in the early Xc's. Early to the full suspension frames were impenetrable & tended to bounce higher & down when the rider pedaled. This movement was known as pedal bob, kickback, or even monkey motion & took power away from the rider's pedal stoke - especially in the period of climbs higher steep hills. Input from either arduous braking efforts (called brake jack) as well negatively affected early to the full suspension designs. Once a rider hit a brakes, these early designs misused occasionally of their ability to take inside bumps - & on the other hand this happened in situations in which the rearward suspension was required virtually all.

A problems of pedal bob & brake jack began to exist as solved in the early Nineties. One of the foremost successful to the full suspension bikes was designed by Mert Lawwill, a previous bike champion. His bike, a Gary Fisher RS-One, was freed within 1990. It adapted a A-arm suspension project from either sports car racing, & was arguably the number 1 4 bar linkage inside all-terrain bike. This project solved a twin problems of unwanted braking & pedaling input to a rearward wheel, however the project wasn't unflawed. Lawwill's project was hindered because it couldn't utilize traditional cantilever brakes & experienced to have disk brake. The lightweight, right disk brake wasn't developed until a mid Nineties, & a disk brake utilized on the RS-One was its downfall.

Inside 1991, patch working for AMP the food & drug administration, (owned & start by the second bike racer known as Horst Leitner) Karl Nicolai designed a bike that used the quaternary bar linkage project and accepted a normal cantilever brake. This bike wwhen at first marketed under a AMP br& and come to a mass market as the Specialized FSR. It became a standard by which altogether more fully suspension designs were estimated for the next decade. Specialised claim to use get owners of many of Leitner's patents inside Can 1998 & more manufacturers (ironically at present including Nicolai himself) must at present pay licence fees to Specialized for the apply of the 'Horst Hyperlink' suspension project.

A total of travel in to the full suspensiin bikes has steadily increased by owning Hundred today considered for even Ninety race & as much as 150mm on trail or enduro bikes. For freeride & downhill possibly additional suspension is the norm. Technical advances st& enabled these machines to become of similar weight and numbers of high prevent hardtails of the mid Nineties. Specialised, yearn an trailblazer in a wheel industry, introduced a Specialized Epic, featuring the Brain(TM) shock. This makes a Quintuplet.Five pound (Two.Cinque kilogram) frame the hardtail until the bump comes from either following. This turns a bike into a fully-active good-suspension bike until a deficiency of extra bumps resets the frame to rigid mode. A Brain shock, by Dog Racing Shocks, has an inertial valve that makes this conceivable. It was this technology that enabled a Specialized Epic to be a super foremost good-suspension bike to ever win the World Ventral suction cup.

A VPP (Virtual Pivot Point) models utilized by Santa Cruz & Incredible, too claims to use reduced a condition of pedal bob. Shortly when a VPP was introduced, a creation of the Progressive Suspension Fifth Element tail shock (according to Currnut's platform damper) touching a beginning of a Millennium allowed riders to adjust well-nigh any frame, irrespective of project, to exist as pedaled forgoing the pedal bob that plagued sooner designs. More corporations keep around followed Progressive's lead (mainly Manitou by using it's SPV patterns according to a Fifth Element & Dodger's ProPedal which utilizes the shim fold like than an air pressurized valve) & the revolution inside suspension project is afoot. All the same, these 'intelligent' shocks universally placed the balance between their trend lines to bob & performance sustaining little bumps. Numerous believe a tried & sure technology of the quatern bar linkage using a relatively elementary shock however offers the better performance. Ironically, when shock manufacturers compete to use at times a latest 'pedal platform' technology 4 bar riders come pushed to a virtually all expensive dampers in which these are conceivable to switch off the pedal platform!

Virtually all high level off-roader nowadays feature hydraulic disk brake. Disk brake offer improved stopping power & modulation across rim brakes. Although disk brake come extra expensive than rim brakes it require less maintenance. A better disk brake come by corporations like Hope, Shimano, Hayes & Magura.

Tire sizes

Virtually all off-roader apply Xxvi inside (559 millimeter) wheels, though a few system offer Xxiv or even 29 in (520 or 622 mm) wheels. Inch-sizes for bicycle wheels are not precise measurements - a 29 inch wheel is actually a 700 mm diameter wheel, which has a 622 mm (24.48 inch) bead seat diameter. Wheels come in a variety of widths, ranging from standard rims suitable for use with tires in the 26 in x 1.90 in to 2.10 in (559 x 48 to 53 mm) size, to 2.35 and 3.00 in (60 and 76 mm) widths popular with freeride and downhill bicycles. Manufacturers produce a wide variety of tread patterns to suit different needs. Among the styles are: slick street tires, street tires with a center ridge and outer tread, fully knobby, front-specific, rear-specific, and snow studded. Tires and rims are available in either tubed or tubeless designs, with tubeless tyres recently (2004) gaining favor for their pinch flat resistance. Tubeless tires can also be run at lower air pressures which some claim to improve traction while decreasing rolling resistance. Popular tire manufacturers include Tioga, Maxxis, Michelin, Panaracer and Nokian.

Latest trends
Some of the latest trends in mountain bikes include long-travel mountain bikes such as the Santa Cruz V10, and the Specialized Demo 9. On the other end of the travel spectrum, rigid singlespeed mountain bikes have appeared on the market, including the Bianchi SASS, the Kona Unit, and to an extent, the KHS Solo-One. These bikes are a celebration of the simplicity of the original mountain bikes of the 1970s at a time in which new innovations in suspension design and implementation are at the forefront of bicycle technology. Many experienced riders own rigid singlespeed bikes, finding the lack of complexity and the light weight to be attractive qualities.

Future bikes
Frame mounted gearboxes (generally hub gears adapted to fit) are starting to make an appearance in ultra high end mountain bikes. With the gearing system protected from the elements and from impacts and the weight of the bike held low and central these offer significant advantages over conventional gear systems, particularly for extreme use. These internally geared bicycles are often also referred to as three-speed bicycles.

[http://www.nicolai.net Nicolai] is currently one of the few the manufacturers of internal gearbox bikes but other companies such as GT and [http://www.alutech-bikes.com Alutech] have bikes near production. Nicolai use a 'standard' mounting for the gearbox called the [http://www.g-boxx.org G-Boxx], which has also appeared on prototypes from Evil Bikes and [http://www.alutech-bikes.com Alutech].

The German company of [http://www.rohloffusa.com Rohloff] also manufacture and supply a range of internal gearboxes (called the 'SpeedHub') to several bicycle manufacturers and initially also supplied Nicolai.

One of the large derailleur manufacturing companies is rumoured to be developing a gearbox designed purely for frame mounted systems due for release sometime in 2007-8.