Repack Rider
Senior Retro Guru
I put this on MTBR so I should leave it here also. It helps to understand this bike if you have seen "Klunkerz."
Tom Ritchey built his first run of three bikes in 1979, one for himself, one for Gary Fisher, and one for a friend of Gary's. Over the next few months he built nine more, but he found that no one he knew wanted this kind of bike, so he asked Gary Fisher if he could help sell them, and Gary in turn asked me to help him sell them, and things got really crazy after that.
This is one of those nine bikes that Tom dumped in our laps in the fall of 1979 as framesets and forks, and Gary and I bought the parts and assembled the bikes and then found a few friends who could afford expensive "klunkerz."
The bike belongs to a longtime friend who is now a fire captain in the same department where Otis Guy recently retired. The owner helped me put on the last Repack downhill races 25 years ago.
Some of the original equipment is gone, the too-fragile by half Huret Duopar derailleur and TA crankset long ago consigned to the drawer, the Bullmoose bars upgraded to Steve Potts bar and stem. Thumbshifters are original, Magura lever handles have been replaced a few times but are the same configuration, saddle is original Avocet Touring II. I built the wheels myself almost 30 years ago, Phil Wood QR hubs and UKAI 2.125 rims. I must have known what I was doing, because they are the only set the bike has had.
Paint is not original, Ritchey supplied the decals.
Tom Ritchey built his first run of three bikes in 1979, one for himself, one for Gary Fisher, and one for a friend of Gary's. Over the next few months he built nine more, but he found that no one he knew wanted this kind of bike, so he asked Gary Fisher if he could help sell them, and Gary in turn asked me to help him sell them, and things got really crazy after that.
This is one of those nine bikes that Tom dumped in our laps in the fall of 1979 as framesets and forks, and Gary and I bought the parts and assembled the bikes and then found a few friends who could afford expensive "klunkerz."
The bike belongs to a longtime friend who is now a fire captain in the same department where Otis Guy recently retired. The owner helped me put on the last Repack downhill races 25 years ago.
Some of the original equipment is gone, the too-fragile by half Huret Duopar derailleur and TA crankset long ago consigned to the drawer, the Bullmoose bars upgraded to Steve Potts bar and stem. Thumbshifters are original, Magura lever handles have been replaced a few times but are the same configuration, saddle is original Avocet Touring II. I built the wheels myself almost 30 years ago, Phil Wood QR hubs and UKAI 2.125 rims. I must have known what I was doing, because they are the only set the bike has had.
Paint is not original, Ritchey supplied the decals.
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