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[[{“value”:”Gary Fisher: from Northern California counterculture to the fire roads of Marin and the birth of mountain biking.
Before mountain biking was a sport, it was a bunch of outsiders riding old bikes where bikes weren’t supposed to go.
Gary Fisher was one of them.
He grew up racing bikes when cycling in America was deeply fringe. He was part of the scene with the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey and the wild creative culture of the Bay Area in the ’60s. Then he found himself in Marin County as bikes, open space, counterculture, competition and a handful of restless riders collided.
Something new started happening, riding on the dirt of Mount Tamalpais.
The bikes were old. The brakes got so hot they had to be repacked. The rides became races. Repack became a local obsession. And Gary remembers having a thought that turned out to be right:
“I think this might be popular worldwide.”
It was.
In this episode, Gary sits down with Ben to tell the story through the eyes of someone who was there: the Larkspur Canyon Gang, Charlie Kelly, Repack, Tom Ritchey, the company called Mountain Bikes and the early machines built specifically for this new way of riding.
But the story doesn’t end with the birth of the mountain bike.
Gary takes us through decades of questioning what a bike could be, from suspension and geometry to bigger wheels, and explains why being an outsider made it easier to challenge ideas everyone else took for granted.
Most importantly, Gary comes back to the reason any of it mattered.
The mountain bike didn’t become a worldwide movement because one person invented it. It grew because people rode it, loved it, shared it and made it their own.
This is the story of a few outsiders, a particular place and moment, and a new way of riding that changed cycling forever.
This episode covers:
• Gary’s first rides and races in Northern California
• Growing up as a cyclist when cyclists were outsiders
• LSD, The Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey and the Bay Area counterculture
• Witnessing the assasination attempt on Mick Jagger at Altamont and returning to the bike
• Marin County before mountain biking existed
• The Larkspur Canyon Gang and riding dirt before there was a sport for it
• The pre-war bikes that became the original clunkers
• Repack and the moment Gary realized this thing could become huge
• The creation of Mountain Bikes, the brand and business Gary started with Charlie Kelly that coined the term “Mountain Bike”
• The first purpose-built mountain bikes
• How a community of riders turned an experiment into a movement
• Challenging convention with suspension, geometry and bigger wheels
• Why Gary still believes bikes are about “health and happiness”
• What it feels like to see mountain biking spread around the world
• Why riding “helps you forget” and “helps you remember”
Guest: Gary Fisher
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