Came across this review of “The Ritchey Mountain Bike” from 1980 – a bit before my time.

I particularly like the opening quote:
“This month’s 26-inch test bike is called a Mountain Bike. Chances are you’ve never heard of it before, but believe me you’ll be hearing a lot about this revolutionary bicycle in the future.”

http://www.oldmountainbikes.com/catalogs/ritchey/articles/bmx_feb-80/index.html

I remember when they became readily & visibly available in the UK – mid/late 80s, I was over the moon when I finally got my 1st in 1987.

I have got the “bicycle buyers bible” from 1985/6 from a chap at work. It has a section on mountain bikes which I quite liked,
“It’s tempting to not even discuss rims because they fail so rarely…………Those that do appear to fail are Champion 650B’s”

ho ho

Ace that.

28 lbs is pretty impressive weightwise.
I like the idea that they found 18 gears “more than ample”.