Why Mountain Bikes Are Popular In UK Cities

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people I see riding around town on crazily shoddy mountain bike wannabe BSOs. Or probably even worse, the real deal - £2,000 worth of carbon, knobbly tyres and suspension travel to deal with roads that are for the most part smooth as Liv Tyler’s complexion. Well, nearly.

I’ve always wondered . . . "Why?"

Roads are smooth. If your tyres are smooth too, you go faster, or further for the same effort - whichever you want. If you have suspension on the bike, then some of your push-down is soaked up by the boing-de-boing (especially on BSO suspension). If you have flat bars that are lower than the saddle, then you will end up looking like a gorilla riding a bike. That’s fine in a gorilla’s natural forest habitat, but decidedly unflattering when you’re riding past Habitat .

So why does this style of bike persist?

To answer this question, you have to look more closely at the infrastructure provided for bikes in UK cities. Like these examples:

So next time you find yourself riding a mountain bike in town, and come across a car parked in the bike lane, be sure to take the direct route - directly over the top of the obstacle.

Just make sure you’re on a mountain bike though - one that can deal with the rough stuff - one that’s tough enough for a few jumps, is stable at low and high speed, and can take the odd knock. Without such a bike, you could easily get into all sorts of trouble:

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