Ep 122 Charlie Kelly Mountain Bike Pioneer and Author

This was a special one, getting the chance to chat with one of the original creators of what would eventually turn into the first mountain bike.  Charlie grew up in Marin County and started riding dirt trails on old beach cruisers with some of his friends, Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, Alan Bonds, and Tom Ritchey to name a few. The beach cruisers would go thru some heavy modifications to make them work on a local trail that they affectionately referred to as Repack. (Named that because after descending the mountain you would have to repack your rear coaster brake hub with grease as it all got smoked out while trying to descend the trail.) The modified beach cruisers were called Klunkers. The Klunkers were 30's and 40's Schwinn, Excelsior, Colson, etc. cruiser frames that were stretched wide to accommodate gears and drum brakes, forks were reenforced with truss rods, and of course they were stuffing knobby tires on the bikes. We cover some of this and many other elements to Charlie Kelly's prolific career that included starting the first timed Downhill Mountain Bike race, he would later go on to publish the Fat Tire Flyer magazine and help to establish Norba (National Off Road Bike Association) but Perhaps most significantly he authored the book the Fat Tire Flyer. The full history of the evolution of the mountain bike. If you have not read this book yet, I strongly recommend it! It is a fantastic tale of how we got to where we are today with the mountain bike. Charlie truly has the magic touch. Hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.