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Show TV -- Tnoune Stat Photos by Od'9 Mans. Clunkers Hit T rail Craig Hansell Tribune Sports Writer If you have hiked a mountain trail recently and discovered what you thought were bicycle-tir- e prints, you have witnessed the tracks of a newly evolving sport. Mountain biking or cruiser biking or clunker biking has evolved from two directions. There are the bikers, looking for new experiences, and then there are the hikers, looking for faster transportation, file sport is new enough that equipment suppliers are having a tough time meeting demand. And some, like Ken Gronseth of Salt Lake, have taken the equipment problem into their own hands "A bunch of us owned regular bicycles and did a lot of touring. We did Guardsmans Pass; we walked and pushed a lot, Gronseth said about the factors leading up to his evolution into mountain biking. Mountain biking is a takeoff of cyclocross, which is an y bicycle competition held in Europe. "Clunker biking is a fringe offshoot of bicycling. Much of it started in California. where guys would go to the d Salvation Army and buy old bikes," Gronseth connewspaper-botinued. They would ride the cheap bikes into disintegration and then get another By (ten-spee- cross-countr- one-spee- y one commented local bicycle dealer Sid Uyetake about the new mountain bikes. "Ive sold about 15 already this year. They are sort of a big boys BMX The sport is so new most regulatory agencies have not had time to form guidelines for managing the sport within their jurisdiction Most trails exclude wheeled vehicles. commented Joy Horton, speaking for the National Park Service. They (bicycles) are permitted in most recreational areas unless prohibited with signs or on a map, she said after reading from the Code of Federal Regulations. In the Wasatch National Forest, where Gronseth enjoys riding the Big Water Trail in Millcreek Canyon, there is no prohibition to riding mountain bicycles on the trails as there is for motorbikes. But, according to Ken Bronson of the Salt Lake Ranger District, bicycles are not allowed in the Lone Peak Wilderness as part of the National Wilderness Act Bronson did, however, question the suitability of bicycles for transportation on many of the Wasatchs steeper trails from a safety standpoint. Even Gronseth has not ventured on any of the trails in Little Cottonwood Canyon because of their steepness. Coming down the trails can lie the key to a successful trip. A riders ability to safely handle the descent is important The big, balloon-tirebikes are heavier and generally more durable than the lightweight, But their bulk adds more mass to the descents and handling a gravity-febicycle on a narrow mountain trail dosen't leave much room for error. There arc also natural obstacles to surmount. Gronseth has been able to jump some deadfall logs on the trail. But the larger J. v. V' it ..i S: A ' 'v I," " A ,VA j- - d Gronseth also compares them with beach cruisers used in the balloon-tireCalifornia and Florida. The state-of-th- e art mount aui bike e has 10 or 15 speed gears and knobby tires. They are generally geared much lower than the typical racing bicycle and the cost ranges from about $200 to as much as $1,500 for the custom built models. "They are an d coming thing, d old-styl- road-ridin- d See up-nn- Page C-- 7 Ken bicycle evolved touring his custom with riding bike. 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