I have been uploading a lot of pics here because it means I don't have to pay for the bandwidth. I have spent the last few years working on a personal website that covers my mountain bike activities from the '70s to around 1990 when I stopped making my living from the bike industry. If you are into "retro" mountain biking, you can't go any firther upstream than what is on my site.
Gary Fisher and I were roommates from 1971 to about 1976, and in 1979 we partnered up with Tom Ritchey to start a business which we called "Mountain Bikes." That was our brand name for our single product and the name of our company, since then co-opted to describe all modern off-road bikes.
Here is the link to my site. Because I have so much material I have spread it out over a lot of other pages, so you should follow the links on this page to see the rest of it.
Last edited by Repack Rider; 10-27-2005 at 04:22 PM.
Reason: The photos are not attached
I love your website Charlie. I actually found it a while back by googling. I dig all the old repack posters and stuff. The ride pics are cool too? Thanks for starting all this.
Scotty
CK, great web site. I have spent many hours reading on your site. I'm glad that you've documented so much of the history, and written down your recollection of events. For those of us that love learning the history of the sport, sites like yours and books like the one by Frank Berto, are great insights into events where we wish we had been present.
I have been uploading a lot of pics here because it means I don't have to pay for the bandwidth. I have spent the last few years working on a personal website that covers my mountain bike activities from the '70s to around 1990 when I stopped making my living from the bike industry. If you are into "retro" mountain biking, you can't go any firther upstream than what is on my site.
Gary Fisher and I were roommates from 1971 to about 1976, and in 1979 we partnered up with Tom Ritchey to start a business which we called "Mountain Bikes." That was our brand name for our single product and the name of our company, since then co-opted to describe all modern off-road bikes.
Here is the link to my site. Because I have so much material I have spread it out over a lot of other pages, so you should follow the links on this page to see the rest of it.
Here are a couple of samples. The "Mountain Bikes" ad is our first ever, and ran in a BMX magazine in February, 1980.
Very, very cool. Nice job and thanks for all you've done!
A man must have enemies and places he is not welcome. In the end we are not only defined by our friends but those against us.
CK, great web site. I have spent many hours reading on your site. I'm glad that you've documented so much of the history, and written down your recollection of events. For those of us that love learning the history of the sport, sites like yours and books like the one by Frank Berto, are great insights into events where we wish we had been present.
CK, your site has been on my favorites list for a long time. It was great to see you with the old gang at the Davis bicycle conference. You guys had lots of cool stories and insight on the birth of this sport, I hope they do it again next year
I bungled the upload that was supposed to accompany the first post in this thread. I'll try again. These are photos from my archives.
The first is our first printed ad, which ran in a BMX magazine in February 1980.
Who's the kid? Gary Fisher, racing cyclocross in 1967.
The three gentlemen posed with their bikes are Monte Ward, Jim Sullivan and Tim Rysdale, the "Ritchey Wrecking Crew" taking the first three places in the 1981Coyote Derby. In 1981 The Ritchey Mountain Bike was by far the most advanced off-roader on the market and it was unlikely you could beat the owner of one on anything else. The mass-produced Stumpjumper was six months away from its first appearance on the market. For the first five years of mountain biking every bike that came onto the market was as nearly an exact copy of this one that anyone else could build. Even though competitive mountain biking has moved past it, this simple design is now the workhorse bike of the world.
And last, Cindy, the most awesome mountain bike babe who ever turned a pedal.
I bungled the upload that was supposed to accompany the first post in this thread. I'll try again. These are photos from my archives.
The first is our first printed ad, which ran in a BMX magazine in February 1980.
Who's the kid? Gary Fisher, racing cyclocross in 1967.
The three gentlemen posed with their bikes are Monte Ward, Jim Sullivan and Tim Rysdale, the "Ritchey Wrecking Crew" taking the first three places in the 1981Coyote Derby. In 1981 The Ritchey Mountain Bike was by far the most advanced off-roader on the market and it was unlikely you could beat the owner of one on anything else. The mass-produced Stumpjumper was six months away from its first appearance on the market. For the first five years of mountain biking every bike that came onto the market was as nearly an exact copy of this one that anyone else could build. Even though competitive mountain biking has moved past it, this simple design is now the workhorse bike of the world.
And last, Cindy, the most awesome mountain bike babe who ever turned a pedal.
Your bike looks to me like 1982 or early 1983. The fork is Tange and the gruppo is an actual gruppo. The Mitsuboshi "Cruiser Mit" tires were the first light tires on the market, but by the time this bike came out there were good dirt tires available, starting with the original StumpJumper tire.
I must say that web site takes me back, love it.
On another note, your sister-I think, Casey, was in the shop, Absolute Bikes in Salida Colorado, a few months ago. She moved to Alma/Fairplay about 1+ hours away. We got talking about the early days and she was surprised that Joe Murray is still looking like he did back in 1984.
Scoty
Originally Posted by mikesee
Better suited to non-aggressive 125# gals named Russell.
Since I'm posting, here's a pic. The guy on the left is Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. The guy in the middle is me. The other three people are Deadheads that we ran into on a ride and they had to get a picture because their friends were never going to believe them.
Yes, excellent site! I spent a lot of time there a while back, when I stumbled across it. It's great to see all the history there.
Beers are on me if you're ever in cajun country (Lafayette, LA)!.
Serge
Originally Posted by Repack Rider
I have been uploading a lot of pics here because it means I don't have to pay for the bandwidth. I have spent the last few years working on a personal website that covers my mountain bike activities from the '70s to around 1990 when I stopped making my living from the bike industry. If you are into "retro" mountain biking, you can't go any firther upstream than what is on my site.
Gary Fisher and I were roommates from 1971 to about 1976, and in 1979 we partnered up with Tom Ritchey to start a business which we called "Mountain Bikes." That was our brand name for our single product and the name of our company, since then co-opted to describe all modern off-road bikes.
Here is the link to my site. Because I have so much material I have spread it out over a lot of other pages, so you should follow the links on this page to see the rest of it.
I have been uploading a lot of pics here because it means I don't have to pay for the bandwidth. I have spent the last few years working on a personal website that covers my mountain bike activities from the '70s to around 1990 when I stopped making my living from the bike industry. If you are into "retro" mountain biking, you can't go any firther upstream than what is on my site.
Gary Fisher and I were roommates from 1971 to about 1976, and in 1979 we partnered up with Tom Ritchey to start a business which we called "Mountain Bikes." That was our brand name for our single product and the name of our company, since then co-opted to describe all modern off-road bikes.
Here is the link to my site. Because I have so much material I have spread it out over a lot of other pages, so you should follow the links on this page to see the rest of it.
Hi CK. Yep, you've long had the best site on the net for vintage mtb content. Now I'll have to find another secret source to glean all my info from so I sound like I know what I'm talking about... Keep up the good work. I think it's safe to say you've found your audience. I love seeing all those photos you took. Glad someone had a sense of preservation!
Pete
I too have had your site maked for quite some time. Very cool stuff - thanks! That photo of Jim Sullivan sure also looks an awful lot like Bob Hadley. But my mind may be playing tricks on me. I remember Sully (maybe there are two Jim Sullivans) having sandy colored hair.
I too have had your site maked for quite some time. Very cool stuff - thanks! That photo of Jim Sullivan sure also looks an awful lot like Bob Hadley. But my mind may be playing tricks on me. I remember Sully (maybe there are two Jim Sullivans) having sandy colored hair.
My big bad. The guy in the photo is Jim SAMUELSON. Sully's name just came to my fingertips when I wrote it. Glad you guys caught it.
I have a story about Sully the porcine valve guy. When he became National vet champ in 1990 I introduced myself, because I was getting paid by Bicycling to write about the event. He told me that we had met, when he was 16 years old and walking his bike past a stage at Stanford University where a rock band was playing. The roadie seemed to know a lot about bikes, and they talked for a while. Later on we both turned out to be the same people. Much later, like 20 years. He remembered the incident. I didn't.
I enlarged and cropped the Fat Tire Flyer Tomac pic that is the earliest known photo of him in a mountain bike race. I enlarged his bike so you guys could inspect it. I'll do a higher res scan next time I visit the archives (which are not kept in my house).
Here are some photos I took in Crested Butte in the mid eighties. The bikes are hand made, each is one of a kind, built by a couple of guys from somewhere in Colorado. I don't know who they were or what happened to them, but I got the photos.
Notice that the chainstay has been moved to prevent chainsuck, like the "Alien" bike.
...I enlarged and cropped the Fat Tire Flyer Tomac pic that is the earliest known photo of him in a mountain bike race. I enlarged his bike so you guys could inspect it. I'll do a higher res scan next time I visit the archives (which are not kept in my house).
Dang Seekay, He converted a BMX bike! Could that have been at the first/early Sea Otter?
mtbtires.com
The trouble with common sense is it is no longer common
Dang Seekay, He converted a BMX bike! Could that have been at the first/early Sea Otter?
The first "Sea Otter" was in 1991, and at that time it wasnt even called that, it was the Laguna Seca Challenge where the top pros battled in a stage race that had road and mtn stages. Lance Armstrong won. I htink the next year or maybe 93 it got the name Sea Otter.
Heres what Tomac said about that shot:
"That's one of my first mountain bikes that I built up from a 24 bmxer and it's also one of the first X-C races I raced in. That would put it at..I believe the winter of 85-86 and
the race was the Tour of Tampa Land in the SanFernando Valley foothills of
So.Cal.. "
My big bad. The guy in the photo is Jim SAMUELSON. Sully's name just came to my fingertips when I wrote it. Glad you guys caught it.
I have a story about Sully the porcine valve guy. When he became National vet champ in 1990 I introduced myself, because I was getting paid by Bicycling to write about the event. He told me that we had met, when he was 16 years old and walking his bike past a stage at Stanford University where a rock band was playing. The roadie seemed to know a lot about bikes, and they talked for a while. Later on we both turned out to be the same people. Much later, like 20 years. He remembered the incident. I didn't.
I enlarged and cropped the Fat Tire Flyer Tomac pic that is the earliest known photo of him in a mountain bike race. I enlarged his bike so you guys could inspect it. I'll do a higher res scan next time I visit the archives (which are not kept in my house).
Tell us about this picture CK, was he pretty much a complete nobody at this point or was his name already getting around in the mtb world? Do you remember how he did by chance? He said it was his first mtb race, quite a historic/neat shot.
He said it was his first mtb race, quite a historic/neat shot.
There's so many cool things about that picture.
In no particular order:
The bum bag! (Fanny pack)
The HUGE seatpost.
The cables taped to the frame.
The Mt.Zefal pump mount.
The Suntour(?) shifters.
The Rivat Cyclocross shoes.
No granny ring.
Sidepull brakes!
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Originally Posted by Repack Rider
thx eric
Originally Posted by mikesee
