mtb-timeline

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===== Velocitech =====


Alan Carpenter ((Bicycle Magazine mistakenly reports his name as "Allen".)) of Lyons, Colorado founded Velocitech to sell one of the more unique MTBs of the 1980s: The Mountain Machine.`
Designed as an "uphill" machine, it had super low gearing, small wheels, "a bottom brackets pitched high enough to hang laundry on."
(([[http://mombatbicycles.com/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/MountainMachine.html|April 1985 Bicycling Magazine]], page 200.  Actually, the BB is at a normal height - it's compensating for the tiny rear wheel.)), cross braces, gussets and perhaps the world's longest chainstays.


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Some people get hiccups just looking at the thing...  Cornering and maneuvering on descents was complicated by a whiplashing rear end...   The Mountain Machine may not be the last word in [MTB design] but it sure seems to have a lot to say.
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[[http://mombatbicycles.com/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/MountainMachine.html|Bicycling Magazine, April 1985]]
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Yes, it's easy to make fun of, but the mtb trend then and now has to make mtb's more and more suited to downhill racing without regard to getting up the hill in the first place.  Why not a light weight, low geared mtb?

Alan has two bicycle related patents: https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Alan+E.+Carpenter


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{{cyclo.jpg?400|Alan E. Carpenter}}
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Alan E. Carpenter riding in his earlier Human Powered Vehicle effort (1982-84): the Cyclodyne.
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===== 1985 Mountain Machine =====
24" front, 20" rear, Cook Bros forks, bottle cage behind the seat tube, brazed on chain guide, 29" BMX bars, no seat quick release, straight gauge bronze-brazed 4130 CroMo tubing, SunTour Mountech derailleur, Shimano XT shifter, gussets and a dropped top tube.

One of the owners of this specific example described the Mountain Machine as "a wacky and useless machine."
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{{1985.jpg?300|1985 Mountain Machine }}
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1985 Mountain Machine
[[ https://www.theproscloset.com/blogs/mtn-bikes/1985-velocitech-mountain-machine|theproscloset]]
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===== 1986 Mountain Machine =====
SunTour MounTech II (1985-87), higher top tube, stronger handlebars, now with a seat quick release, more bottle cages, and a large custom cargo rack (rated to 100 pounds, according to Velocitech,) which does double duty in stabilizing the rear end.  The owner thinks this is later than 1986.  Certainly, these options were not available in early 1985, when the
[[http://mombatbicycles.com/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/MountainMachine.html|Bicycling Magazine]] review came out.
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{{1986.jpg?300|1986 Mountain Machine }}
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1986 Mountain Machine
[[ https://www.facebook.com/vintagemtbworkshop/posts/pfbid0nrXDcXGJdhT8cuvzobngFwJWEorqAJuzmDTLf5CQgP5ucgN2rwMMH7RsWrmHYMwhl|facebook]]
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