Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Joe Pozer
05-28-01, 10:39 PM
What' a great weekend of riding. The weather was beautiful and the riding was incredible and the hippies where out in full force.
On Sunday I met up with a group of friends in Marin County, the birth place of modern mountain biking. Of course, we all know that people have been riding off-road for many decades and no one really knows who really invented mountain biking. But most people will agree that it was the hippies of San Francisco who succesfully marketed mountain biking. Hence why many consider them the grandfathers of mountain biking.
The ride took us to the top of Pine Mountain where many hippies where known to camp and light up. After doing many steep climbs we made it to the famous Repack downhill. Repack is a double track decent that is very steep, rutted, and loose. As I was struggling to maintain control of my bike on the descent I was thinking back to the days when people used to fly down Repack on the old Klunkers. I had a hard enough time going down on a full-suspension bike with disc brakes, I can't imagine what it would've been going down on an old Schwinn Excelsior (sp?) single speed with coaster brakes. From what I was told, the name Repack came from the fact that the heat of the descent would burn up the grease so they had to constantly repack their hubs. It was a great day of riding through some historic trails.
One of the best things about mountain biking in the Bay Area is the opportunity to ride some of the same trails that such pioneers as Gary Fisher, Joe Murray, Breezer, Tom Ritchey, Keith Bontrager, etc., rode and still ride to this day.
On Sunday I met up with a group of friends in Marin County, the birth place of modern mountain biking. Of course, we all know that people have been riding off-road for many decades and no one really knows who really invented mountain biking. But most people will agree that it was the hippies of San Francisco who succesfully marketed mountain biking. Hence why many consider them the grandfathers of mountain biking.
The ride took us to the top of Pine Mountain where many hippies where known to camp and light up. After doing many steep climbs we made it to the famous Repack downhill. Repack is a double track decent that is very steep, rutted, and loose. As I was struggling to maintain control of my bike on the descent I was thinking back to the days when people used to fly down Repack on the old Klunkers. I had a hard enough time going down on a full-suspension bike with disc brakes, I can't imagine what it would've been going down on an old Schwinn Excelsior (sp?) single speed with coaster brakes. From what I was told, the name Repack came from the fact that the heat of the descent would burn up the grease so they had to constantly repack their hubs. It was a great day of riding through some historic trails.
One of the best things about mountain biking in the Bay Area is the opportunity to ride some of the same trails that such pioneers as Gary Fisher, Joe Murray, Breezer, Tom Ritchey, Keith Bontrager, etc., rode and still ride to this day.