2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

This video was shot for a US TV programme in 1979, and represents the first publicly shown images of the insane fringe sport of downhill bike racing, from the first such race held anywhere in the world. At the time the activity was confined to a bunch of California hippie stoners, a colorful cast of characters for the TV show.

The origin of the sport, caught on camera.

Can’t embad. Here’s the link.

It’ll never catch on! 😉

Brilliant!

Kids with bikes must have been soooo lacking in imagination before 1979 🙄

Got to love the beards. Why are there not any beards in our sport any more?

for the same reason we no longer have toilets in outhouses. progress. 😉

Really enjoyed that, lovely to see the roots of our sport and the people involved. Cheers Repack Rider 🙂

Superb stuff, wish I’d been there.

“Klunking is best away from the cops, the cars and the concrete”. Love it!

What a lovely film. I really like the social-scene aspect of it. And the huge handlebars.

thanks for that charlie, loved it,

the bikes do look more than a bit desirable even now, it’s those bars i recon, you can keep the gloves though 😀

very well presented as well, can see that would have had a very positive effect on the sport in it’s early days
hats off to the guy with the mic for being understanding and not being judgemental.

top marks all round,

more please

Fantastic.

Kids with bikes must have been soooo lacking in imagination before 1979

Like ‘The Fish’ says – it probably started 100 years ago….

Great link, thanks for sharing!!