Thanksgiving weekend 2007 on Observatory Hill in Charlottesville, Virginia, will someday be spoken of with the same reverence now reserved for those early days of clunkers flying down the hills of Marin County. That weekend will be remembered for one of those spontaneous bursts of brilliance that inevitably lead to a brief golden age of DIY culture, followed by a good twenty year of profitable marketing by the cycling industry.
So what is it? Nothing less than the invention of something even more niche-y and downright terrifying than tandem mountain biking--it's Mountain Trailer Biking! (Or MTTBing, for those in a hurry for the inevitable acronym.) That's right, riding rocky, slippery singletrack while towing a child on a trailer bike meant for smooth paths and quiet streets.
What you need:
1) An early-eighties mountain bike converted to commuter use, complete with rack and fenders. Do NOT remove any commuting gear. Just let that mudflap drag. Single-wall rims and only slightly-knobby 1.75" tires that are overinflated for the purpose tend to increase the excitement. 28x34 gearing is essential for getting to the top of the hill while dragging the kid.
2) A child's trailer bike. No brands mentioned--warranties are at stake here.
3) An adult to ride (1). Demonstrable lack of sense is a plus.
4) A child to ride (2). The grip of a limpet and a propensity to occasionally yell "woohoo!" (thus proving both that they are enjoying the ride, and are still on the bike) are helpful.
5) A wooded hill with piles of wet, slippery oak leaves hiding the roots and rocks of (a) narrow singletrack trails, or (b) an old dirt road eroded down to a layer of ragged, football-sized rocks.
Somehow all these elements came together at once, and a new niche was born. There's nothing quite like the excitement of yanking an already overlong, twitchy bike around downhill trail bends when you've got an extra bike length of heavy-duty steel and a 50-pound kid attached out back.
On the other hand, climbs can be unexpectedly exciting, too. Sometimes there's a sense of implausible momentum carrying you forward as you coast uphill and look for a route around some huge rock or root. At first you blame it on the sheer momentum of the vehicle. But then you realize that the copilot is...pedalling!!!
Now all we need is somebody with a video camera to post a snippet on YouTube, and we'll be off. Someday, somebody else is gonna get really rich off of this.