George Newman on Repack, 1976. Photo courtesy Charlie Kelly’s website.

Ok, so the sport of mountain biking doesn’t really have a birthday but if it did, October 21, 1976 would be a pretty good date to start with. That’s the date of the first “Repack” race where Charlie Kelly, Fred Wolf, Bob Burrowes, a just a few others gathered to race their Klunkers down Mt. Tamalpais. At that point the bikes weren’t even called mountain bikes yet but the seeds of the sport as we know it were sown there in Marin County, CA. A few folks still go up to Mt. Tam to celebrate the anniversary of that first Repack race (though ironically mountain biking is off limits there today).

Riding bikes off road has been around pretty much since the bike was invented (there weren’t that many roads back then anyway). Even cyclo-cross, which seems to be gaining more momentum lately, was around well before that Repack race in 1976. But the idea of racing a bicycle downhill in the dirt was an entirely new concept and something that we all enjoy today thanks to those early pioneers.

So happy birthday mountain biking – here’s to another 35 years of adrenaline!

Mountain bike trails can have many different features that draw the rider in and create an enjoyable outdoor experience.  These different features could include challenging, rewarding climbs, rough, technical tread, amazing flow, man-made stunts, or gorgeous views – and the list goes on and on.

Historical trail features are particularly interesting to me and whenever I ride a trail with a bit of history I feel a deeper connection with my surroundings.  While this historic element is not present on every mountain bike ride, many trails go past historic sites containing relics of a time long gone or are themselves pieces of history. Here are just a few examples that come to mind.

Bull Mountain, Georgia

This rusted hulk from a time long past lies just off the Bull Mountain trail outside of Dahlonega, Georgia.  The truck isn’t located anywhere near a road, but the mountain bike trail lies on an old road bed that must have once been passable by trucks like this.  I wish I knew why this truck was parked and abandoned miles up this mountain in the North Georgia forest, and what it had been used for.  The mystery is intriguing, and every time I roll by this truck I at least have to glance at it and wonder what stories it would tell if it could talk.

Johnson Peak, Montana

Based on the large windows on all sides of this building, I’m guessing this dilapidated shack used to be a forest fire lookout post.  There’s no longer a view from this spot, but the trees surrounding the cabin look relatively young in comparison to the rest of the forest, indicating that at one time you probably could have seen for miles from this vantage point.

Canada Creek, Georgia

I imagine these silos once had a barn to go with them and if they did, it’s no longer there.  When I rounded this corner and rode right beneath these looming concrete structures, I couldn’t help thinking: “How cool is this?” The nearby land in this sunken valley along Canada Creek looked like it had been farmed at one time.  Now, the whole area is wild and looks like it’s only used by rednecks mudding in their 4×4′s.

Tsali: Left Loop, North Carolina

photo posted by ositoking.

This chimney from an old homestead on the Tsali trails is really representative of a lot of unsung historic sites all across the nation.  If I had $10 for every old fireplace I’ve seen while riding I’d probably be a rich man.  However, that doesn’t detract from the interest and the history of this particular location.  Where the Left Loop trail now runs used to be someone’s kitchen/living room.  I wonder if it was a sizeable house, or just a small cabin? We’ll probably never know…

These are only a handful of the historical sites that I have noticed along the bike trail.  I’ve stumbled across many old foundations, graves long forgotten, the remains of old bridges, and more. Trails like these are more than just another ride through the woods, another statistic on your training log; they are a ride through history!

What trails have you ridden that pass by a historical site or have their own historical significance?

Greg Heil (singletracks screen name: Goo) has mountain biked trails all across the nation and is currently a member of the Airborne Flight Crew. He writes a mountain bike blog that’s choc-full of useful, objective mountain bike information.

Last week I came across a little piece of mountain bike history at my local library, a book simply titled The Complete Mountain Biker. Written in 1989 by Dennis Coello, this book offers a glimpse into the state of the art in mountain biking more than 20 years ago. The chapters on backcountry touring and riding technique offer many tips that today’s riders can use and the chapter titled “The ATB Controversy – Trail Etiquette and Wilderness Prohibition” could have been written just last week. The accessories chapter, however, offers some photo nuggets too good not to share.

Obviously mountain bike stems have changed a lot in the last 20 years and these pics show two interesting early configurations. The top stem features a triangle shape called a “bull-moose style stem.” The second is a single piece stem that appears to offer exactly zero adjustability.

I can remember the days when the Nike Calderas were the heat and I actually owned a pair of Nike mountain bike shoes at one point. The Nike Zealand, however, looks like a cement worker’s safety boot.

In the days before Camelbaks, apparently people were fond of the fanny pack for mountain biking (the caption says the pack shown is by Nike).

Shimano XT shifters may cost a little more but just look at the quality! Knit mesh gloves offer unmatched ventilation and endless design possibilities.

It’s strange to see a derailleur brand that doesn’t start with ‘S’. (oh wait)

I actually learned a thing or two from the section on mountain bike brakes. The one pictured above is a roller cam brake and there was also something called a “U-brake” that was mounted underneath the bike’s chainstays. Mountain bikers quickly realized a brake mounted down low became a dirt and mud magnet so the U-brake went the way of the Dodo bird.

His technique is mostly right but what happened to his helmet and shirt? (Ironically this photo comes just pages after the section on bike helmets that says “Always wear a helmet.”)

I’m no trials rider but to me this technique for hopping a curb doesn’t look right. Perhaps this should be retitled, “How to taco your front wheel.”

It’s amazing to look back and see how far mountain biking has come in the last 20 years. Believe it or not, you can still purchase one of 40+ copies of the 1989 edition of The Complete Mountain Biker on Amazon.com for as little as $0.01 (plus shipping). Such a small price to pay for a piece of mountain biking history!

Ok, so this is BIG news. For those who don’t know, Marin County is basically where mountain biking was invented but for the last decade or so mountain bikers have been kicked off just about every trail in the area. Mount Tamalpais (Mt. Tam) in particular hosted many of the first (informal) mountain bike races and has been off limits to mountain bikes for years.

Now the California State Parks department is proposing opening 4 miles of trail in the foothills of Mt. Tam to mountain bikes and is soliciting public input. That’s where we come in.

Take a minute or two and fill out this comment form letting California State Parks know you support mountain biking in Marin County. Read more details below (from IMBA) so ya know what you’re talking about (also note the part about hiking and equestrian groups vowing to fight the proposal).

California State Parks has announced a proposal to open singletrack for mountain biking in Marin County, on the shoulders of Mt. Tamalpais. The agency plans to permit bicycle use on the 4-mile Bill’s Trail segment and is soliciting public commentary on the project.

This landmark opportunity is the direct result of more than three years of partnership building with the parks department by IMBA California, Access4Bikes and the Bicycle Trails Council of Marin. A successful opening of Bill’s Trail will set the stage for bicycle access to several other singletrack trails in Marin, which is widely considered to be one of the birthplaces of modern mountain biking. Despite its historic role, Marin has seen precious few opportunities for mountain biking open to the public in recent years.

Take Action! Tell California State Parks you support their decision to open Bill’s Trail to bicycles. The commentary period ends on June 26.

Located within the Mt. Tamaplais watershed in Samuel Taylor State Park, Bill’s Trail winds through native ferns, wildflowers and hazelnut trees. It averages a reasonable 7-percent grade, and its six switchbacks provide riders with multiple views of the surrounding landscapes. While it is expected that bike access on Bill’s Trail will be limited to alternate days at first, the parks department states that this stipulation will be open to further review.

California State Parks is expected to announce opportunities for bicycling on other nearby routes in upcoming months. The Diaz Ridge Trail, which runs through Mt. Tamalpais State Park and Golden Gate National Recreation Area property, is scheduled to receive a major reroute this summer. This project could produce shared-use singletrack joining State Parks and National Park Service properties.

A small number of local hiking and equestrian groups have vowed to fight against any new access for mountain biking in Marin County, despite plentiful evidence that well-designed trails can be successfully shared by various user groups, and that mountain biking is a sustainable, low-impact form of recreation. “I think that, broadly speaking, the community of trail users in Marin is ready for this,” says IMBA California Policy Advisor Tom Ward. “We have seen great success with our volunteer mountain bike patrol program there. Mountain bikers care deeply about protecting the gorgeous trails and natural areas in Marin, and we will continue working with like-minded groups.”

To say Klunkerz is “a film about mountain bikes” is a bit of an understatement, especially given that it’s racking up awards at film festivals all over the country (including “2009 Cycling Film of the Year” at the Endurance Sports Awards and the “Make Your Own Legends” award at the Boulder Adventure Film Festival). Klunkerz is THE film about mountain bikes and mountain biking, a visual history of the sport we’re all so addicted to and it really should be required viewing for anyone who calls themselves a mountain biker. I had the chance to watch the film this week for the first time and despite riding mountain bikes for the last 15 years, I still had a lot to learn…

The amazing thing about Klunkerz is the amount of footage director Billy Savage was able to dig up from the early days on Mount Tam (the birthplace of mountain biking). Consider this: the original group of guys (less than a dozen or so) were really just messing around on modified World War II era bikes on fireroads and trails in the early 1970s and had no idea they were launching a worldwide phenomenon – yet someone had the prescience to film their exploits! Savage puts the vintage film to good use and splices in commentary from the guys who were at the center of all the action – Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, and Charlie Kelly. Watching those guys fly down Mount Tam, kicking up dust and having a great time almost makes you feel like you were there.

Klunkerz also makes great use of photographs taken by Wende Cragg during the early days of mountain biking in Marin County, CA. Wende was a part of the first group that rode Mount Tam and as the first female mountain biker she has a pretty special place in history. Wende was also a photographer and we can thank her for documenting mountain bikers’ early exploits out on the trails. These days it’s fairly common for folks to take their tiny digital cameras out on the trail but Wende was way ahead of her time, lugging around her bullky SLR to get the great (and now historic) shots.

Watching Klunkerz made me realize how little I really know about mountain biking. For example, I always thought that downhill mountain biking was a relatively new development but it turns out guys were shuttling mountain bikes up to the top of Mount Tam and racing to the bottom in 1974 (the legendary Repack races). Mountain bikes were being produced in Asia fairly early on (Specialized started doing so around 1983) and by 1986 mountain bikes outsold road bikes in the US. And check this out: cyclocross was started WAY before mountain biking – yet no one thought to build or modify bikes for riding downhill.

Klunkerz also gives us wonderful insight into some of the trends we’re seeing in mountain biking today. From the film we see that some of the early mountain bikers like Gary Fisher were also pretty serious road riders but they made it a point to dress more casually on the trail than the road (jeans instead of spandex, work boots instead of flat shoes, etc.). In the late 1980s and 1990s mountain bikers started wearing road cycling clothes for the trail but today MTB fashions seem to be moving back to our roots (flanels, denim, baggy shorts & jerseys, etc.). The MTB pioneers interviewed for Klunkerz also say the original scene was very laid back and was just as much about socializing as it was about getting out and exploring the great outdoors – kinda like a cross between freeriding a ultra cross-country mountain biking.

If you’re a gear head you’ll also appreciate the detail director Savage includes about the evolution of early mountain bike hardware. From re-purposed Schwinn Excelsior bikes to custom built frames, mountain bikes quickly evolved from hack jobs to highly tuned machines and Klunkerz shows you what the early mountain bikes looked like and how they performed.

Klunkerz is one of those films you just have to see to get a full appreciation for where mountain biking has been and where it might be heading. If you’re not fortunate enough to make it out to a film festival screening you can purchase the DVD online from Amazon.com for under $23. An important addition to any mountain biker’s DVD collection – you’ll be watching this movie for years to come!