Repack Rider
01-19-2019, 12:29 PM
Actually the anniversary is tomorrow. This is the very first video of the sport that would eventually be named "mountain biking," filmed on January 20, 1979. This is hardly the first time this has been posted here, but because it's a nice round numbered anniversary, I thought I would give it another mention.
You may have seen a few frames of this in the film "Klunkerz."
In late 1978 producer from a local TV station had heard about this crazy downhill race involving a bunch of hippies in Fairfax. He tracked me down and asked if I would put on a race for the TV cameras.
Of course.
When the gang heard that it would be filmed, turnout was huge. The video was broadcast on the local CBS affiliate on a program called "Evening Magazine." Later it was shown again on the national broadcast of the same program, the first time the public was exposed to this new sport which the participants called "klunking.""
Gary Fisher gets off a great line when asked how long this had been going on. "It's been going on as long as people have been riding bikes. For us it's been just the last five years or so, and in that time it's come a long way, and it's GOING a long way."
If you're attentive, you can see a quick shot of Tom Ritichey on Wende Cragg's Schwinn klunker. He was there at the invitation of Joe Breeze. Later that year Gary Fisher would ask Tom to build a couple of these new bikes.
Here is the YouTube link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWP6VaLtvw&t=&fbclid=IwAR0LK-t1bXxKVMp8kqmTmYG-nHQNS4JJPt5IKUU5k-QjctH9Fo9Zpk9TwiQ)
You may have seen a few frames of this in the film "Klunkerz."
In late 1978 producer from a local TV station had heard about this crazy downhill race involving a bunch of hippies in Fairfax. He tracked me down and asked if I would put on a race for the TV cameras.
Of course.
When the gang heard that it would be filmed, turnout was huge. The video was broadcast on the local CBS affiliate on a program called "Evening Magazine." Later it was shown again on the national broadcast of the same program, the first time the public was exposed to this new sport which the participants called "klunking.""
Gary Fisher gets off a great line when asked how long this had been going on. "It's been going on as long as people have been riding bikes. For us it's been just the last five years or so, and in that time it's come a long way, and it's GOING a long way."
If you're attentive, you can see a quick shot of Tom Ritichey on Wende Cragg's Schwinn klunker. He was there at the invitation of Joe Breeze. Later that year Gary Fisher would ask Tom to build a couple of these new bikes.
Here is the YouTube link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWP6VaLtvw&t=&fbclid=IwAR0LK-t1bXxKVMp8kqmTmYG-nHQNS4JJPt5IKUU5k-QjctH9Fo9Zpk9TwiQ)