Columbia's Rugged Bike

How long can the boom last? So far, Columbia Mountain Bike manufacturers have broadened the market with variations, such as kids' mini mountain bikes and ''hybrid'' models. These have narrower tires and a lighter frame but are still more rugged and more comfortable than a racer. ''Eighty percent of mountain bikes never see dirt,'' notes Peter Anthony Maniscalco, director of U. S. advertising and promotions for Italy's Bianchi. Adds Harry A. Shaw III, Huffy's chairman: ''The more we can develop permutations on the Columbia Mountain Bike, the better off we are.'' Still, Ash Jaising, president of Bicycle Market Research Institute (BMRI), a Boston market researcher, predicts U. S. sales will level off.

To compensate, U. S. companies are pushing Columbia Mountain Bike in Europe, where sales could reach U. S. levels. At the moment, that strategy is working. ''People are asking for U. S. flags on their bikes,'' says Charles S. Wilke, president of Derby Cycle Corp., the U. S. arm of Derby International PLC. But European leaders such as Bianchi and France's Peugeot have introduced mountain bikes, too, and vow to hold on to their markets.

Bicycle people call them klunkers, which certainly seems fair and accurate enough. These strange bikes do look pretty klunky at first glance: They've got fat, knobby tires and upright, straight handlebars. It's only at second or third glance that a kind of hidden beauty starts to shine through, and after a few moments of riding, one begins to experience some gentle stirrings just behind the rib cage. This condition is known as love at first flight.

These critters are properly called mountain bikes or off-road bikes, though neither name does them justice. They might just as well be called gravel-road bikes, or grassy-meadow bikes, or muddy-pothole-riddled-street bikes -- and it's gradually becoming known that, in low gear, one could pedal a klunker up the north face of the Chrysler Building.

It isn't quite as well known that the bikes also can be ridden up and down stairways. One model, built by Specialized Bicycles of California, is called the StumpJumper, and that just about says it all. One manufacturer sees the klunkers as city bikes of the future, suitable for rattling across subway gratings, manhole covers and streetcar tracks. And as more performance reports roll in, it's possible to see a national craze taking shape.

Mountain Biking