CHARLIE KELLY Foreword by Joe Breeze Copyright © 2014 by Charlie Kelly
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REPACK AND THE BIRTH OF MOUNTAIN BIKING CHARLIE KELLY Foreword by Joe Breeze Copyright © 2014 by Charlie Kelly All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or photocopy or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews. 3002 Sterling Circle, Suite 100 Boulder, Colorado 80301-2338 USA (303) 440-0601 · Fax (303) 444-6788 · E-mail [email protected] Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-937715-16-8 For information on purchasing VeloPress books, please call (800) 811-4210, ext. 2138, or visit www.velopress.com. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). Cover design by Voltage, Ltd. Cover and author photos by Wende Cragg/Rolling Dinosaur Archive Back cover photo by Jerry Riboli Interior photograph credits on page 252 Photo retouching by Andy Castellano Interior design by Vicki Hopewell Text set in Titillium and Warnock 14 15 16 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 contents ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5 ch6 ch7 ch8 ch9 3 6 14 20 26 32 40 48 56 66 Foreword Epiphany Spidey 21 Singlespeeds Marin Repack A Passion The Most The Dirt Humbolt County for Racing Important Bicycle Klunkers Bicycle Comes of of the 20th Age Century ch10 ch11 ch12 ch13 ch14 ch15 ch16 ch17 ch18 ch19 ch20 74 80 88 96 110 118 129 134 144 152 160 Crested Getting The Word The Ritchey The First Widening Mountain- Fat Tire NORBA The 1982 The Butte Organized Gets Out Mountain- Mountain- the View Bikes Flyer Coors Image Bike Bike Classic ch21 ch22 ch23 ch24 168 172 178 182 189 193 247 251 252 253 The Ride Mammoth Giro After the Postscript: Appendix Coda Acknowledg- Credits Index of a Kamikaze d’Italia Flyer Some ments Lifetime Conclusions chapter 13 n September 1979 I went back to Crested Butte THE RITCHEY with Joe Breeze, Wende Cragg, Gary Fisher, new Ritchey owner James MacWay, and Chris MOUNTAINBIKE McManus, a friend of Joe’s who was mounted Ion a one-speed, coaster brake dinosaur. We trav- eled in two vehicles, a rented station wagon with four people inside and the bikes on top and James’s classic old Porsche with one passenger. Unfortu- nately, within shouting distance of Crested Butte the Porsche blew an oil plug, quickly followed by the engine. James had to leave it in a service station that had never seen a Porsche, and we all crowded into the wagon to finish the drive. In addition to our six riders, another two loads of Marin clunker riders made the trek, including a couple of the Koski brothers with their new bikes made in Mert Lawwill’s shop, for a total of 18 from Marin. When we got to Crested Butte, the change that had taken place in a single year was more than amazing. 97 ch13 Right: The Marin County crew stretches after the long drive to Crested Butte, Colorado, for the Fourth Annual Crested Butte to Aspen Pearl Pass Tour, September 1979. Left to right: Gary Fisher, James MacWay, me, Joe Breeze, Wende Cragg. Bottom: Heading up Paradise Divide out of Crested Butte, September 1979. Left to right: Joe, me, Gary, and James. Wende’s Breezer is over to the right. While the crew that had originated the ride into Aspen had been blue-collar, hard-drinking firefight- ers, the town had another faction, the telemark ski- ers. Telemark skiing is a Nordic technique for skiing downhill that uses only the toe binding from skinny cross-country skis. A cross-country lift ticket was cheaper than a downhill ticket at the Crested Butte ski area; the assumption was that a cross-country skier would not be making a dozen runs in a day. By telemarking, locals saved money with a skinny- ski ticket while getting in just as many runs as the downhillers. In the process, they pioneered that style of telemark skiing in the United States. Mountain biking was a perfect summer sport for the same crowd. After we had introduced it to the town a year earlier, the locals had caught up with us very quickly. The Clunker Tour sponsors at the Grubstake Saloon were ready for us this time, and the crew had more than doubled, although once again half the total riders were from Marin. 99 ch13 Richard Nilsen, who had inspired us to come A few months later the photo appeared on the The start line and banner of the Fourth out a year earlier, was back, and this time he was cover of the April 1980 issue of Bicycling magazine. Annual (but third actual) Pearl Pass Tour, outside the Grubstake Saloon on on real fat-tire equipment to replace his touring Since the Porsche was not ready to return to Elk Avenue in Crested Butte, September 1979. bike. Alan Bonds flew into Aspen with his bike California, the six of us jammed ourselves and our and rode it over the Maroon Bells into Crested bikes into and around the station wagon for the Butte. It was a much more demanding ride to trip home. Camping in Austin, Nevada, we were make in one day than he had expected, and he caught in a rainstorm that forced four big men to rolled into Crested Butte late in the afternoon sleep in a two-man tent along with 3 or 4 inches exhausted and shattered. of water. The situation was so ridiculously uncom- The Koskis had brought with them a crowd of fortable that we couldn’t help laughing hysterically Cove Bike Shop regulars equipped with the latest about it all night. advance in clunker technology since the arrival of A few weeks after we returned from Crested aluminum rims. They had gumwall, 26 × 2.125– Butte, Gary called me up and asked me to come inch, Mitsuboshi Cruiser Mitt tires that were half over to his cottage in Fairfax. He told me that Tom the weight of the old Uniroyal Nobby tires we Ritchey had made some more frames like the one were still using. These gumwall tires were made he was riding, and he wanted to show them to me. for street riding and had minimal knobs, so they When I got there, Gary opened the trunk of his didn’t look suitable for rugged, off-road use. The battered BMW and showed me the frames. There Cove riders used the new tires to ride the relatively were nine of them nestled in there, and they were good road to the overnight campsite and then, as beautifully made as my Colnago. Gary explained before the climb to the summit, swapped them for that Tom had become very interested in this new Uniroyal tires like ours, which they had stashed in kind of bike and had made a few more. the gear trucked up to the camp. Although there was an avid crew of off-road rid- Rick Verplank, whose spontaneous adventure ers down in Tom’s area near Palo Alto, led by legend- three years earlier had led to this point, fired a ary local Jobst Brandt, they hit their trails either on shotgun to send us off. At the top of Pearl Pass, we road bikes or similarly set up rugged bikes equipped posed once again for the obligatory group photo. with 650B tires and drop handlebars. Tom hadn’t 100 ch13 been able to sell any of the new style of flat-han- in quality to our road bikes. They could hardly be dlebar, big-tire bikes to anyone in his area. Since he called “clunkers,” but they didn’t yet have a general My first business card, knew Gary had access to riders who wanted bikes name. When I took up cycling, the road bike had designed by Pete Barrett. like Gary’s, he had offered them to Gary on spec to been just “the bike” because there was only one see whether Gary could help get rid of them. kind. Then I had owned a “clunker” as well. Now, Nine bikes were a lot of bikes, and Tom wanted when we had to differentiate in conversations as to about $400 apiece for the frames if Gary was able which we were riding of the two beautiful bikes we to sell them. These frames were not at all cheap, owned, we spoke of our “road bikes” or our “moun- and they only represented a starting point to a tain bikes.” “Mountain Bikes” seemed like a great bike. As we looked at the booty, Gary asked a sim- name for our company. Just to make it clear that it ple question with lifelong consequences. “Do you was a brand name and not just a general term, we want to help me sell these frames?” soon made it one word and used a cute spelling, It was too easy to say yes, and I did. We did MountainBikes. the minimum amount of company organization Gary and I went to Palo Alto so I could meet that was possible and then we were in business. Tom. He had been at my January race and appears We counted the cash that the two of us had on our in photos standing behind me while I was inter- persons at that moment, about $200.