Originally Posted by
Trakhak
The earliest MTB's were long-wheelbase Schwinn Excelsior single-speed cruisers with 26" wheels. All the subsequent moutain bike designs were developed based on those original bikes. As someone who sold Schwinn, Bianchi, Cannondale, Specialized, and Trek mountain bikes beginning in the early 1980s (from the first year that each company hopped on the MTB bandwagon), I can confirm that the issue of potential toe overlap never crossed anyone's mind in those days. Why would it?
Perhaps because those early designers were smart enough to use 26" sizes to avoid the issue?
Of the five bikes I've got here currently three of them have 700C wheels. Two of them have geometry that can cause me to toe strike if my foot is in the wrong place and the bars are over quite strongly like they would be during a tight low speed turn. The other is a cyclocross bike which seems to have more room between the bottom bracket and the front axle and thus narrowly avoids the toe strike issue. But not by much.