1980 Koski Trailmaster #2

[Wold Ranger]

Those were the days, T.R. still not wearing any socks Many thanks for sharing this story, would have loved to see the exhibition!

 

[sinnerman]

To be fair, this is more than BOTM for me, it should be a "Feature bike" here IMHO.

Fantastic story, great pictures, great bike, but the best bit of all, is how everybody pulled together for the greater good, enabling it to be shared and for everyone to see.

Big respect to all involved.

 

[stanlee]

best bit of all, is how everybody pulled together for the greater good, enabling it to be shared and for everyone to see.

Exactly! It's also cool to see all of those guys get the recognition they deserve for building and riding bikes back in those days . Thanks for the photos Nate and Nik, Erik Koski is the guy hiding behind CK and he was so humble in person and genuinely excited to be recognized. You can kind of tell from that photo the guys (and gal) who are use to the limelight.

Many thanks for sharing this story, would have loved to see the exhibition!

Yeah, it's a bummer that all that time and energy went into the show and then it just came down and everything went different directions. It would have been cool to see the show travel around a little so it was more accessible but I do think it got some publicity so maybe there will be more shows like it in the future.

 

[hollister]

The couple shaky shots I got at the opening, thought I had more. :/ and a close up of the info card

 

[al]

As you all know, I'm not often lost for words...






al.

 

[Ductape]

Thanks for sharing StanLee. When I first got into vintage mountain bikes, I saw a few teaser line up shots of your bikes on the web that made me really want to collect a few cool old bikes myself. Then I found Monkeywrench Cycles website with their vintage bikes and my jaw dropped. There were prime examples of so many bikes I used to dream about and then a few others I didn't know about from BITD. As I immersed myself deeper into early MTB's and their history I learned about those other bikes you had. One bike of yours stuck out as the coolest of them all. Certainly this Koski Trailmaster takes the cake.

Amazing!

This is well documented history, this is rare, this is awesome.

So exactly how many Trailmasters were actually made and how many are still accounted for?

The fact that Joe Breeze was able to find you and talk you out of the bike for the SFO Vintage MTB exhibit while you were off doing, well whatever it is you do all around the world is great. It's got to feel pretty cool knowing JB with the guidance of the original owner of the bike from over 30 years ago was able to make a few tweaks and get the bike back to those original specifications.

Enough sucking up,

This bike is just ******* cool.

Anybody else here got a Koski Trailmaster that are interested in working a trade.

 

[stanlee]

So exactly how many Trailmasters were actually made and how many are still accounted for?

Thanks for all the kind words about the bike and the shop. I honestly have no idea how many Trailmasters were made but I would guess around 80 from information I've gathered. Dave Garoutte at DKG is the guy who welded the basic frames out of 4130 straight gauge non tapered motorcycle tubing and then Erik added on the bosses, cable stops and anything else the customer desired which is kind of interesting. I've seen photos of 4 (including mine) and I know of 3 others that I've never seen and I've been seeking them out for 15+ years.

The fact that Joe Breeze was able to find you and talk you out of the bike for the SFO Vintage MTB exhibit while you were off doing, well whatever it is you do all around the world is great. It's got to feel pretty cool knowing JB with the guidance of the original owner of the bike from over 30 years ago was able to make a few tweaks and get the bike back to those original specifications.

One of the cool things Joe said was that the shim for the bars and the seatpost were pulled from a stash of parts he had left over from when he did the early Series I Breezers. It's certainly an honor for me to have him around the bike!

 

[uno-speedo]

Rad, rad bike!

 

[scant]

awesome bike

 

[stanlee]

Better/bigger photos....