Must Watch – Wende Cragg Documents the birth of mountain biking

Brilliant hour long documentary about of the birth of our sport: the clunkers, Charlie Kelly, Marin county and so on.

I have one of the Repack posters in my office to remind me where we all came from and what our brilliant sport is all about.

I preferred her in Butterflies to be honest

It has been done before but the angle of showing from her photographs was a good one.

I don’t truly care who claims to invented Mountain Biking/Offroad but it certainly wasn’t Americans of Ma-Rin County, exclusively.

Note:   we invented trails dogs as well 😉

Oh FFS! Not this old self aggrandising yank again. Off course, no one ever rode bicycles off tarmac before they thought of it. ?

1974, my local woods. Rigid single speed.

@scruff9252

No, and they say pretty much that in the video.

However, It’s as much a FFS that someone still moans about the Marin crowds claims and achievements.

People rode bicycles off road ever since there were bicycles.

Until people started racing downhill, which started in Marin County, no one thought about building a bicycle that would take that level of abuse.

The real invention from Marin was downhill, which forced bicycles to evolve past Rough Stuff Fellowship bikes.

Aaargh. It’s like Beetlejuice.

The real invention from Marin was downhill, which forced bicycles to evolve past Rough Stuff Fellowship bikes.

I always wondered why the summits of the Scottish hills were strewn with the remains of old bicycles. 

RepackRiderFree Member
People rode bicycles off road ever since there were bicycles.

Until people started racing downhill, which started in Marin County, no one thought about building a bicycle that would take that level of abuse.

The real invention from Marin was downhill, which forced bicycles to evolve past Rough Stuff Fellowship bikes.

funny you should say that Repack Rider; did I tell you about when I invented fishing? Firth of Forth, Scotland around May 1989. Dangling an old sailmakers needle on a bit of twine of the back of a dinghy out in the Forth, I caught a fish and in doing so invented a whole new sport called fishing. When we got home we realised that not only was the Mackerel good sport, it was also delicious.

since I invented fishing on that day it has blossomed into a worldwide cuisine and sport that millions of folk around the world enjoy. ?

Bookmarked. A nice addition to Charlie’s book and the few original films of the early years.

What California has that us in the UK could never dream of in building a scene is the predictable weather over a season. Must be nice to say “see you next weekend” knowing you really will rather than crossing your fingers and watching the weather forecasts from Wednesday onwards to see who might venture out in the rain. No jealousy, obviously.

funny you should say that Repack Rider; did I tell you about when I invented fishing? Firth of Forth, Scotland around May 1989. Dangling an old sailmakers needle on a bit of twine of the back of a dinghy out in the Forth, I caught a fish and in doing so invented a whole new sport called fishing.

And then you designed, built and marketed the spinning reel, right?

I always  wondered where those came from.

I always  wondered where those came from.

A bloke from Bradford, and then Shimano.

Thanks for posting. A great film with brilliant photography from Wende.

It’s the same film we’ve seen a few times now and I’m absolutely fine with that because I love it.  Some lives well lived there, which is what I like to take away from all the re-tellings of this story.

We all still agree the bicycle itself was invented in Scotland though, right?

I thought it was my mates an I who invented the sport, but we were just recreating Kick Start in Brier Woods down Howden Clough. It didn’t matter what you rode, as long as you were committed and could stop before the beck!