Although your will always find beach bikes for sale, you will never suspect that it is actually beach bikes that inspired mountain bikes.
There was a time when bicycles weren’t selling like hotcakes anymore. They were considered luxury items and were rather expensive. In the 1930s, a new kind of bicycle was introduced and this was the beach bike or the beach cruiser. It had balloon tires, a saddle that made the rider sit upright and had a sturdier frame. It was heavy and ideal for riding through flat streets and a lot cheaper too.

Beach bikes or beach cruisers were extremely popular up until the late 1950s. It was during this time that faster and more lightweight bicycles were being imported from Continental Europe and Great Britain.

In the 1970s and 1980s, bicycle riders noticed that their lightweight bikes could not handle rough or mountain terrain. However, they found out that with beach cruiser frames, they could make a bike that would withstand any kind of challenge because of the solid cruiser frame. By just swapping the heavy wheels of a beach cruiser with lighter ones, the first mountains bikes were created.

In the 1990s, cruiser bikes made a comeback and there were more beach bikes for sale. The truth is, they are more comfortable for aging baby boomers and are still pretty much sturdier than the faster and more lightweight bikes that we have today.

Schwinn re