Back in 1976, a small group of Californian biking hippies from Marin County decided it would be a good idea to try racing their Schwinn cruiser bikes down the steepest hill they could find. Their simple pursuit of pleasure was to spawn the invention of the mountain bike.
Downhill Mountain Biking
The first ever downhill “mountain bike” race was held on Mount Tamalpais above San Francisco in Marin County. It was only 1.9km long with a 366m descent but these Californian hippies took it seriously. They stripped down their cumbersome Scwhinn bicycles to the bare minimum and, in an effort to go ever faster, added their own home-tooled bike parts giving birth to the hybrid “klunker.”
These bikes were old and very heavy weighing up to 23kg or 50lb. They had BMX style cowhorn handlebars, as seen in the pictures below, only one speed as there were no gears and only a single brake, which was operated by back-pedalling. Due to the speed of the descent from Mount Tamalpais, the grease inside the wheel hubs would literally burn, forcing the riders to repack their hubs before each descent and thereby giving the event its name, the Repack Descent.
Refining the Klunker
Among the group of riders were Gary Fisher, Jo Breeze and Tom Ritchey and they all looked for ways to adapt their klunkers to make riding easier. Gary Fisher created the first 5-speed gear from his backyard workshop and also added thumbshifter gearlevers. Others added fat tyres, a front brake and quick-release seat posts.
But it was Jo Breeze, the winner of most Repack races who created the first purpose-built frame. With limited frame-building experience, he created the Breezer, a bike with fat tyres and Klunker handlebars, cantilever brakes and, crucially, derailleur gears operated by thumbshifters. These key design features were to form the basis of the modern rigid mountain bike.
From Bike Workshop to Mountain Bike Factory Production
In 1979, Tom Ritchey began building his own bikes based on Jo Breeze’s ideas.
A year later, the man who founded Specialized, now a key mountain bike brand, bought four Ritchey bikes and sent them to Thailand to be copied.
In 1981, the first model came off the production line called the Stumpjumper and this bike name still exists today despite numerous specification changes in line with modern technology.
Who Created the First Mountain Bike?
Whilst the first mass production bike was spawned by Tom Ritchey, the creation of the mountain bike as we know it today was really the product of a bunch of hippies looking for daredevil fun including Gary Fisher, Jo Breeze and the aforementioned Ritchey. Whilst some have disappeared from the world of mountain biking, others like Fisher and Ritchey remain household names.
Find out more by watching the film Klunkerz directed by Billy Savage.
Helen Smeaton - Helen Smeaton runs a cycling and hiking business and is also a freelance writer and web designer. Read her profile for more information
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