MTB History & Origins | Founding Fathers of Mountain Biking

Saddles Down! & Open your text books. Learn the History of our favorite sport!

Learn more about our favorite Sport below:
Birth of Dirt Book: https://amzn.to/3AYFA5N
Fat Tire Flyer (written by Charley Kelly): https://amzn.to/3XyN0p9

Its taken me 2 years to compile this video.

Meet the amazing people who helped shaped mountain biking as a sport & industry to what it is today.

From UK to USA! Geoff Apps to Charley Kelly, Joe Breeze & Gary Fisher.

Meet the Founding Fathers of Mountain Biking.

Sources & References below!

(Intro)
2 wheels, some suspension, & the desire to explore. Mountain biking has brought me & you some of the best times. So where did all these epic times & bikes in the woods originate from.

Mountain biking as we know it. Off-road biking for adventure started in the 1970s, North of San Francisco in Marin county, California.

They were looked at as crazy. Outlaws. Hippies. These hippies like Joe breeze, Gary Fischer, Charley Kelly & many others started modifying their fat tire paperboy style town bikes for off-road in the trails of mount Tamaipais.

let's not forget the ruff stuff foundation & Geoff apps from the UK in the late60s. Geoff realized the only thing he can do is build the bike that was in his head. A constant development and evolution building upon

Little did these hippies know, that their hobby became the launching pin for the commercial mountain bike industry.

They quickly realized the bicycles weren't suited for the mountain & trails they were riding.

Eventually they started racing down the mountain to see who was the fastest of them all. One of the veteran Klunkerz, Charlie Kelly organized the event. Repacking the grease in their hub after the race of the name repack.

Racing was very hard on the bikes.

Building a bike was a developing process until they found the best type of parts to put on a bike

These bikes were called Klunkerz.

Charlie Kelly asked his buddy Joe breeze to build them a sturdier bike frame from scratch.

Breeze's bike frame set off a revolution in design and usability in the bike for industry.

Everybody wanted in on this crazy new hobby in the woods. They needed their own mountain bikes too. Word started getting out.

Kelly and business partner Gary Fischer started selling Richey built frames, calling them mountain bikes.

This was the inspiration for specialized stumpjumpers. Known as the first mass produced and advertised mountain bikes.

Next, millions took to the streets and trails on these new bikes..

By the late 1980s, Moto designs were starting to find their way into mountain bikes.

From Rockshox suspension fork in 1989.
full suspension frames & disc brakes were right after.

Tension started to build between bikers and hikers of Marin county as well as horseback riders

Which led to the banning of singletrack riding to mountain bikers

Independent Rogue trails were built in response to create a "flow" experience. A network of trails turns and features that easily challenge the rider into an experience of a blissful State of mindless fun

The bikes of today are longer, slacker, stiffer & more gravity oriented, evolving their klunker predecessors.

These trail systems have cropped up in nearly every corner of the United States providing a fun flow experience for just about everybody. It's safe to say, mountain bikes are here to stay.

Stay junkie!

Sources:
British history of Mountain Biking:    • Mountain Biking The untold British st...  
Kluinking:    • Klunking - 1979 - Evening Magazine  
Joe Breeze Interview:    • Origins of mountain biking: Joe Breez...  
Daredevils who invented mountain biking:    • The Daredevils Who Invented Mountain ...  
Who is Gary fisher:    • Who is Gary Fisher  
Klunkerz: a Film about Mountain Bike History:    • Klunkerz: A Film About Mountain Bike ...  
Mountain Bike History:    • Mountain Bike History  
Charley Kelly Interview:    • Godfathers of MTB_Charlie Kelly Inter...  

#MTB #MountainBiking #History