Every bike in a store today exists within a lineage of other bikes. The changes in frame geometry, for example, are often to address new niches and needs within the audience of riders.
In this video, we are looking at the history of dirt drops -- drop bar handles on mountain bikes -- and how they relate to two seemingly dissimilar bikes, the Surly Grappler and Marin Gestalt XR. Owen will guide you through the history of mountain biking, the reasoning behind the choices made when bringing drop bars onto mountain bike setups, road bars on off-road bikes, and how exactly these two bikes share so much DNA, while seeming so different at a glance.
Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:13 - Surly Grappler and Marin Gestalt XR
00:48 - Why these bikes?
01:58 - How Marin describes the Gestalt XR
02:53 - How Surly describes the Grappler
03:49 - History of drop bars on mountain bikes
04:02 - Marin County, California & WTB
05:09 - Hand positions and setup
05:40 - John Tomac
06:01 - "The Dark Era"
06:50 - The Salsa Fargo and dirt drops in the 2000s and onwards
07:32 - Off-road bikes today
08:32 - The Grappler and Gestalt XR in the dirt drop lineage
09:20 - Conclusion
10:02 - Owen makes a dog angry
Get your own:
Surly Grappler: [ Ссылка ]
Marin Gestalt XR: [ Ссылка ]
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Big thanks as always to Leland Whitty for the tunes!
Images used:
WTB photos from their own archives,
RM2 bars photo from unknown magazine,
John Tomac Big Bear photo c/o Patty Mooney on Wikimedia Commons,
John Tomac racing photo c/o Joe Papp on Wikimedia Commons,
Salsa Fargo image from their own archives,
Velo Orange Cigne Stem from Velo Orange,
Salsa Woodchipper Bars from Salsa,
Steve Potts custom bike c/o Nick from vintagemountainbikes.com ([ Ссылка ])
