Mountain Bike Pioneers Visit Tahoe

Mountain biking's pioneers visit Lake Tahoe Bicycle Film Festival. Joe Breeze, Alan Bonds, Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey, Charlie Cunningham and others are featured in the film, Klunkerz, to be featured at the film festival. The combined contribution of these early mountain bike pioneers has revolutionized bicycling and produces over a billion dollars in sales each year.

South Lake Tahoe (PRWEB) September 8, 2007 -- Two of the early mountain biking pioneers will be visiting South Lake Tahoe for the screening of the film, Klunkerz, a documentary film in which they appear as key characters about the beginning of the sport in Marin County, California. The film, Klunkerz, is produced and directed by Billy Savage of Pumelo Pictures. It will be showcased during the upcoming Lake Tahoe Bicycle Film Festival on Saturday, September 8, 2007 at the Horizon's Hotel Casino in Stateline, NV.

Two of the key pioneers are Joe Breeze, founder/president of Breezer Bikes, and Alan Bonds -- both will be attending the film festival with a couple of their early Klunker bikes and to show their support of the efforts being made by the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition to make the region more bicycle friendly.

Brief biographies:
Alan Bonds. Alan came to Marin in the mid 1970s and moved into the Humbolt Avenue house with Gary Fisher (Fisher Mountain Bikes) and Charlie Cunningham (Wilderness Trail Bikes) in 1976. It was here, in the kitchen of this house, that many of the first multi-geared Klunkers were built.

In 1976, he and a friend from larkspur made a trip to the 'Legendary Wocus' bike pile Oregon. They came back with nearly 100 pre-war frames and went about the task of building many of them up into Klunkers. Alan was one of the early practitioners of the 'black art' of building this new breed of machine.

Alan was a hot rod enthusiast and he used his skills honed on building V8s to build Klunkers. He not only built up the bikes, but he meticulously painted them similar to their original Schwinn pre-war color schemes. That's what made his bikes stand out from the other Klunkers on the hill. His bikes were the eye candy that everyone in the Klunking scene wanted.

Alan participated in nearly every one of the 24 Repack races and won several of them, including the very first race. If Alan didn't win, he usually finished in the top 5. He also organized early cross-county style events.

Alan is still riding, fast and loose, down the trails of Marin on modern machinery. He also continues to build and ride his Klunker creations, which meld pre-war Schwinn frames with modern technology. Alan lives with his daughter, just down the street from Charlie Kelly, another member of the Larkspur Canyon Gang.

Joe Breeze, Founder/President, Breezer Bikes, (www.breezerbikes.com)
One can't really think about the birth of mountain biking without thinking about Joe Breeze. Joe's first 10 Breezers are considered the first 'true' mountain bikes ever built. His attention to detail and meticulous craftsmanship were the hallmark of these early bicycles. His contribution to the sport cannot be over-emphasized.

Joe was an avid road cyclist and member of Velo Club Tamalpais (VCT) in Marin, competing in road racing events across the United States. At the Nationals, Joe finished in the top 15 in the country in his category. Joe and fellow VCT member Otis Guy (appears in the film) also made two trans-continental record attempts on tandem road bikes, one of which was built by Tom Ritchey (Ritchey Logic).

It was in VCT that Joe met Marc Vendetti. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Marc road old klunker newsboy bikes down the slopes of Mount Tamalpais with a group known as The Larkspur Canyon Gang. Marc began showing up to the VCT meetings on his old klunker bike. It wasn't long before Joe had an old klunker himself. Soon many of the VCT riders, Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Otis Guy among them had old klunker bikes. It was on these old bikes from the 1930's and 1940's that they began to explore the off-road trails of Mount Tamalpais.

Get a few competitive cyclists together and it's only a matter of time before there is a race. Organized by Charlie Kelly, with a little help from his friends, the Repack race series was born. There were two-dozen Repack events held from 1976 to 1979. These were the first downhill time-trail races in mountain bike history, and Joe won 10 of them. Joe was the man to beat.

Joe has been an advocate for cycling his entire life. He was one of the founders of NORBA (National Off-Road Biking Association) and even drew up the logo. He designed many early components for off road bikes and produced mountain bikes throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He continues to produce bicycles to this day, though they are more utilitarian in nature.

He works tirelessly with government agencies to provide cyclists with a safe environment in which to ride.

Joe lives in Marin with his wife and son.

For personal interviews with Joe Breeze or Alan Bonds during the festival or phone interviews with Billy Savage and Chris Lang, please contact Ty Polastri at 415-259-8577 to coordinate.

The hours of the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Film Festival are from 6 pm to 10 pm.

The film festival is a fundraising event for the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in South Lake Tahoe, dedicated to transforming the region into a more bicycle friendly region and world class cycling destination. For more information about the Coalition, visit www.TahoeBike.org.

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ENTERSPORT
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