First Mountain Bike in Europe? 1976 Klunker on GMBN Tech.

[GrahamJohnWallace]

My opinion has always been that Richard Grant, who brought back this Gary Fisher Klunker back in 1977, is one of the great, unsung heroes of British mountain-biking. After decades of rumours of this bike rusting away in Richard Grant's cellar, it is wonderful to see that this bike has survived and is in good original order.

After Richard brought it over in 1977, he showed it for many years at numerous UK bike shows. The reaction from the a British bike-trade that was well aware of the UK tradition of teenagers making their own 'dirt-track' off-road bikes, was one of total derision. They probably thought that it was just another example of these home-made 'scrambler' bikes but with fatter tyres.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s the UK bike-trade could not understand why anyone would pay good money for a bicycle that would soon be wrecked by being ridden off road. Even when high quality 'roughstuff' bikes, like those made by Jack Taylor or Geoff Apps bikes were shown, they were considered to be very niche' and unsalable to the mass market.

What the bike-trade failed to understand is that teenagers, who had grown up riding homemade 'dirt-track bikes', would want to continue doing so as adults. As adults earning surplus income they would also be prepared to pay 'top dollar' for modern; high-quality, strong, and lightweight off-road bicycles.

 

[greencat]

It always struck me that the Bomber was an early (but perhaps too late) attempt to respond to the market you describe.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

It always struck me that the Bomber was an early (but perhaps too late) attempt to respond to the market you describe.

The 1981 Bomber was was Raleigh's most successful attempt to commercially tap into the teenage 'dirt-track/scrambler bicycle craze. A phenomenon that started with cycle-speedway in the 1940's and thirty five years later led to the bicycle designs of Geoff Apps. In-between there were numerous attempts by a bicycle manufacturers to tap into this trend like the Phillips Speedtrack, Vindec Trekker and Halford's Trackstar.
Unlike the later mountain-bikes, these were nearly always low-cost and low-quality machines aimed at teenagers. Raleigh knew about the emerging US mountain-bikes before the Bomber but decided not to develop a mountain-bike of their own. The Bomber was conceived as a dirt track/scrambler style bicycle but with the unique-selling-point of being fitted with 2.125" US balloon tyres. The downwards bend of its top-tube being typical of cycle-speedway bicycles where it allowed the saddle to be dropped out of the way during races. Their short seat pins made them too small for many adults to ride.

I don't think that most families in the 1950's, 60's and & 70's could have afforded an expensive bicycle built to the same quality as a 1980's mountain bike. The mountain-bikes succeeded where others failed because they came along at a time when a significant proportion of people were affluent enough to afford the £300 to £500 price-tag.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Just one example is Geoff Apps, who was converting bikes into off-road 26ers before 1976 and had made his first Cleland by 1979, a far more refined ‘MTB’ than any clunker that was really only designed to go downhill.

This account from October 1981 is the earliest account I know of a bicycle being ridden up a UK mountain. (As opposed to carrying/pushing a bike up).

It was not ridden up Snowdon by a single rider, but by a team of riders/walkers who took turns in riding the bike until they reached the top.
Snowdon Ascent 1981

The bike used was a Geoff Apps' second generation Range Rider which came out of the UK 'Tracker-Bike'= (Dirt-Track/Scrambler-Bike) tradition.

Though this bike ticks all the boxes in terms of being a type of 'mountain-bike', it was designed in 1980 with no connection to the mountain-bikes that were emerging in the US at the same time,

 

[legrandefromage]

The internet is great for fogging up the hindsight lens of history (I should copyright that)

I think you will find that the Bomber (an upcycled Raleigh 3 speed from the Nigerian market) was more part of, and an answer to, the far more visible beach cruiser scene and was offered on the back of the then UK BMX craze.

Mountain bikes and Charlies' scene just simply didnt feature in the UK mainstream at the time, it was BMX and kids at Christmas wanted a BMX.

The Bomber fitted that criteria of a big boys tough bike, BMX may have just started the slide in the US but the early 1980's belonged to the BMX in the UK. BMX was cool, it was edgy, it was anti establishment. There was no BMX Bandits for the Mountain bike and MTBS rarely featured in cinema (Point Break springs to mind) except for product placement leaning up against a wall.

ET was not in a Clunker shopping basket.

The Bomber was made to tap into this market and was not a success, sorry Graham, Raleigh thought it had backed the winner but got caught out by the MTB when it really took off for the rest of the 1980's and beyond.

The Mountain Bike, no matter who had brought it in to the UK was simply dwarfed for the first part of the 80's before the kids grew up a bit, punched BMX in the bollox and got an MTB.

If you look at the Bomber today, it is nasty. Awful brakes, super bendy forks and those chrome rims! There was nothing tough or even off road about it back then and just comparing it to a Raleigh Mustang from a couple of short years later, it would lose badly.

*now, I'm sure you think I one finger typed this after reading wikipedia. No, I wrote this before even glancing at the internet. The internet goes on to contradict itself by saying the bomber came about through Repack. Nobody knew what 'repack' was and from the literature at the time, catalogues, newspaper adverts, Argos, Grattans etc etc, Joe public would have had the multicolour BMX scene leaping out at every page and TV set.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

The Bomber was made to tap into this market and was not a success, sorry Graham, Raleigh thought it had backed the winner but got caught out by the MTB when it really took off for the rest of the 1980's and beyond.

*now, I'm sure you think I one finger typed this after reading wikipedia. No, I wrote this before even glancing at the internet. The internet goes on to contradict itself by saying the bomber came about through Repack. Nobody knew what 'repack' was and from the literature at the time, catalogues, newspaper adverts, Argos, Grattans etc etc, Joe public would have had the multicolour BMX scene leaping out at every page and TV set.

I was referring to the 'Bomber' being relatively successful when compared to other UK attempts to monetarise the UK 'Tracker/Scrambler' scene.

Tony Hadland has published an interesting article on the origin's of the Raleigh Bomber. It includes quotes from Raleigh board members and employee's at the time. I will see if I can find this article.

 

[legrandefromage]

The Bomber retailed at around £99 and was often cheaper than its budget BMX counterparts. There is a Toyah Wilcox poster out there, somewhere.

Re-reading my caffeine fuelled sleep starved post and thinking back to the early 80's, it was BMX all the way. Kids TV was full of them, school bike racks were BMX and clunky road bikes and one converted pedal moped. Our street was Grifters and BMX, not a Chopper to be seen. Their owners were to be found on 50cc and 125cc bombing around the industrial estates, they'd grown up a bit.

So, a trundle down memory lane courtesy of Duro tyres and maybe a Farmer John's Cousin or two

We had two large American Airbases nearby with local housing built specifically for them. This meant there was airmen and their families and posh new American bicycles. We were treated to the exotica of very early fat tubed yellow Cannondales and even an Off-Road Toad to be seen in 87 and 89. We got to see early bouncy models too, even what was the holy grail, an RS-1, in red, being ridden down the very steps I bent my seatpost on a few years later when trying to out Zaskar someone...

September 1986, I got my first 'ATB', the richer kids soon appeared with a Raleigh Ozark and a sprinkling of Peugeots. Then the bike racks had exploded with MTBs within a few months.

It was seeing the US airmen and their families on better off-road capable bikes that got our little world into MTB perhaps on the crest of the wave rather than the backwash. Our group by 1990 was a who's who of the MTB scene with Marins, Saracens, Treks, GTs and so-on. And they were XT equipped too, a lot of generous parents not just paper-round bikes! The poorer among us were given the hand-me-downs of rapidly upgraded equipment so even my 1989 MTB had XT brakes and barely any original parts within a few months. Car-boot sales had taken my attention and mates who could drive were pressed into service. 1991 saw a Mavic BB, Campagnolo Record Titanium rear mech and MAG 20 - screw the fact that it didnt shift very well, it was Titanium mate!

One of our group even made it into MBUK! Go Simon!

So within 5 years of my first MTB It was already a lifetime away from the Metorlite cromo bullmoose bar ATB I had been given as a birthday present, complete with mudguards, panniers and Everready lights.

Rad Skilz innit

 

[Nabeaquam]

In the 1970s through the early 80s I built many bicycles specifically to ride on gravel, two track and for winter commuting. At that time there were a lot of used 3 speed bicycles available for free, abandoned in woods dumps or thrown into iron ore mine caving ground. I built one with 24 inch wheels for the winter figuring it would be easier to jump off if it slid out. That bike was from a mine pit, was rusty and the frame eventually busted at the bb when my son jumped off a frozen snow bank. I always had at least two of these bikes built up with 26 x 1 3/8 tires as single speeds. I would get a friend to go hiking trail riding with me on one as a loner. We called them medicine bikes as they were hard to ride In the woods. A lot of flying over the bars when hitting sand. I would toss or give them away but I have pretty consistently always had one in recent years. A few years ago I reassembled one one of my early ones that was stored in pieces in my attic. Nostalgia got the best of me. I just found out here on this site that the UK had a similar tradition. I was thrilled. Mine is based on a Hercules frame and coaster brake wheels from an old girls Sears or Wards bike. I also put caliper brakes on it. I saved the knobbiest free tires I found and used those, but they are old and worn. I welded, on to the original crank arms, a small chainring from a cheap exercise bike that was discarded. I painted it so it looks better than it did back in the day. I Spray painted one over the rust with chrome paint and we called it the Silver Maggot. I have not ridden it since I rebuilt it 2 or 3 years ago.