If you thought mountain biking began in California in the 1970s, think again.  It was born 100 years ago in North Wales when Walter MacGregor Robinson, aka the ‘Wayfarer’, decided to mark the end of the ‘off-season’ with a weekend ride.   On 30 March 1918 Robinson and a group of friends rode from Birmingham to Liverpool.  Not ones for taking the easy option, although they did very sensibly decide to “dispose of Wrexham” they embarked on a route that took them over one of the highest passes in Wales.  In a snowstorm.  Robinson never refers to Nant Rhyd Wilym as such.  He prefers to call it ‘Over the Top’ and that was the title of the article he wrote for ‘Cycling’ magazine a year after his adventure the popularity of which spawned a new interest in off-road cycling and the mountain bike boom was born*.

This wonderfully evocative article is written in Robinson’s eloquent, rhetorical and often humorous style.  It is also strangely prescient

“The road up the Glyn Valley for the first few miles has been “repaired” in a manner which suggests that the local authority wishes to discourage cycling and motoring visitors, upon whom the prosperity of the district in a measure depends.”

Robinson was a pioneer, encouraging cyclists to explore using mountain tracks, footpaths and byways as “some of the best of cycling would be missed if one always had to be in the saddle or on a hard road.”

His cycling exploits are all the more remarkable given that he was injured during the First World War and often felt pain in his leg.  He rode a singlespeed Rover Light Roadster.  He advised other cyclists to dispense with mudguards, probably because they would become clogged with mud or on his epic wayfarer adventure, snow.  A perfectionist and fastidious in almost everything he did, he was not however a fan of cleaning his bicycle claiming that “cycles are for riding, not for cleaning”.

Robinson was an insurance clerk by profession but he was a remarkable cyclist and an inspiring writer.  In the words of the great man himself “’twill be an adventure”

Robinson’s full article about his ride is reproduced on cyclingnorthwales.co.uk

Photographs courtesy of CTC / University of Warwick Library from North Wales Mountain Bike Association 

*not entirely true, it did take another seventy odd years, but it makes a good story.