Klunkerz
A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I invented the mountain bike. I invented it in 1979 as a means of getting from my house up to Reeder Reservoir to go fishing. I was fourteen.
I started out with a three-speed modified to take a wheel with a coaster brake and a double front chainwheel (and derailleur chain tensioner) but I kept burning up the coaster brake on the treacherous ride home, so eventually I advanced to handbrakes and a freewheel on the rear. There were some dicey test-rides.
I was talking to my friend Dave B. a few weeks ago and it turns out he invented the mountain bike, too, right around the same time. He lived in Flagstaff and used it to ride out in the woods on multi-day trips.
I’m thinking the mountain bike light bulb went on in a lot of people’s heads in the late ’70s. But of course it’s Tom Ritchey and Gary Fisher who really got that ball rolling.
–Erik Ryberg
July 21st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
You guys had something to do with a certain something, too? It seems everyone over a certain age had a something to do with a certain something:). And a marvelous certain something it is! Thanks for the plug.
Billy Savage
writer/producer/director
KLUNKERZ
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
A good story from The Tucson Bike Lawyer!
If Ethiopia had a skateboard lawyer, it would be known that Red Star’s older brother introduced the skateboard to Ethiopia in 1963 (by way of SoCal) on Roosevelt Road (now Roosevelt Street, according to Google Maps and Wikimapia). Red Star was barely a thigh-high annoyance back then, but clearly remembers the hubbub an adolescent brother can create.
Some years later, upon return to (suburban) USA, Red Star and associates hacked and tricked Schwinn Sting-Rays and Schwinn Sting-Ray Krates (Sting-Ray, with the hyphen, is the official Schwinn spelling btw/fyi)
Next, it was high school and girls and sports and cars, for Red Star.
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 am
A lot of people “invented” mountain bikes.
Why aren’t you famous?
Click my link.