Designated trails work best, but improvise your own routes over bare ground. Ride only on open trails, yield to other trail users and keep a clear field of view. As you move off-road, keep your arms flexed, hold the handlebar firmly but not too tightly, and use both sets of brakes. That was the last of that. But before the decade was out, mountain biking was firmly established as an outdoor sport of the first order.
Great minds think alike.
The more active ones build industries around their thoughts. Heck, these days, everyone who buys and rides a bike rides a mountain bike, even if the only mountain they bike is a curb outside the mall. After all this time, I have yet to ride a mountain bike down a mountain trail. I was heartened about my chances of surviving a late entry to this sport after talking with a friend who now calls Tucson, Ariz., home. Mark Flint and I are contemporaries.