Wilderness Trail Bikes

Wilderness Trail Bikes (usually shortened to WTB) is a privately owned company based in Marin County, California, USA. Founded in 1982 as a company that specialized in mountain bike parts, today WTB sources and sells its product worldwide supplying bike manufacturers and bike shops with components including tires, saddles, rims and grips.

Most photos of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco are taken with the photographer standing in Marin County. In the Pacific Ocean, just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, is the San Andreas Fault, separating the Pacific and North American Plates of the earth’s crust, creating the Coastal Range of mountains and Mount Tamalpais (Mt. Tam,) rising 2,574 feet a stone’s throw north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Marin County, just north of San Francisco, is split by the San Andreas Fault and has unique history that gave birth to the sport of mountain biking. WTB has been mountain biking from the beginning of the mountain bike.

The post-World War II economic expansion in the United States included paving the nation with highways. Automobile production soared as less expensive, mass-produced cars took to the streets. As new automobiles peppered driveways, steamrollers flattened tarmac in an effort to keep the economic surge alive. In a heroic tale of epic proportions, local Marin residents bonded together and defeated major transportation and development initiatives slated to carve freeways and new cities into Marin’s still raw and mountainous environment. Even today, over 70% of Marin County is still open space, protected from development.

As the oil embargo of 1973 took hold of American’s wallets, gas prices skyrocketed and motorists began to question the validity of petroleum-based transportation. Bicycle sales surged. More cyclists took to the streets.

Marin County is different in that for such close proximity to San Francisco and a large urban area, a huge swath of protected land exists, punctuated by 2,574’ Mt. Tam and folds of ridges rippling the sparsely populated landscape. With its varying inhabitants tying their roots to ranching, the peace and love movement of hippies, and a resistance rock and roll foundation, it was only a matter of time before unique, creative and different thinkers found another way to escape the confines of pavement. Mt Tam was the perfect incubator for creating the mountain bike. The mountain and its protected surroundings were a safe place to ride a bicycle.

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Wikipedia