My Weekend ride through Modern Mountain Biking History
 

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.

A welcome account, Joe. I hope that area remains (relatively) unspoiled for many years to come--for mountain-bikers, for hippies, and for everyone to enjoy! :)

Makes me want to take up mountain biking!

Joe my wife and I will be in SF in the middle of June. Maybe you could show us around the trails in Marin? Or atleast give us some good directions and trail info.

Hieloazul, I think you should add a mountain bike to your stable. It's such a great time and you can't beat the experience of being in the woods.

Jon,
The scenery in that part of the Bay is amazing. I also hope that those trails we'll be accessible to us for years to come. Many of the old singletrack trails are close to mountain bikes which I don't mind too much because the double track trails are steep and the scenery is unbelievable. I just hope we don't get shut out of these beautiful trails in the future.

Mick,
Let me know when you and your wife are in the Bay Area. I would be more than happy to show you around the trails. Marin county is not singletrack heaven but the rides are very panoramic. Just make sure you bring your climbing legs because there is lots of that.

Hey Badger...how was the weekend?

There is still lots of great rides in Marin but they are tougher to find. Much of the singletrack is now illegal and there is much trail conflict. That's the down side of the Bay Area, all the trail conflict. There are many groups who want to see Mountain bikes banned from the trails. I tend to view these groups as elitist which want to horde the trails all to themselves. This is the reason we have to be very vigilant and ride responsibly. It only takes one bad experience to close a trail.

Still, the riding is great and views are hard to beat.

If I had a bike when I lived in San Francisco, things would be a lot different today. (I probably would have been paralyzed!)