First Purpose-Built Mountain Bike with Two Drum Brakes, Derailleurs and a New Frame with All New Parts: And First Mountain Bike East of the Mississippi.

Built by Rodney Rom of Cincinnati, Ohio (“The City of Seven Hills”), in the spring of 1966 by widening the rear of a new 10-speed Schwinn Varsity Tourist frame, then adding special-ordered heavy-duty spokes, S-7 rims and imported German Union drum brakes. The frame was then completely chrome-plated. This bike’s story was published in the August 2003 issue of Mountain Bike magazine, pages 16-17, with a misquoted headline. The bike also traveled to the east coast, Europe and South America as authorized cargo on board the Navy aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CVS-10). Image and text courtesy of Rodney Rom.