Repack Rider
Senior Retro Guru
Bill Savage's documentary film "Klunkerz" opens tonight at the Mill Valley Film Festival. The two showings have been sold out since the day the tickets went on sale, largely because it is a local story. Everyone who is anyone in the local mtb scene will be there, and people have been begging for the tickets on the Internet.
The film collects all the original footage of the Repack races, and inteviews all the principals.
In connection with the publicity effort, yesterday Savage brought to Marin County the original members of the "Morrow Dirt Club," the guys from 50 miles south of here who in 1974 inspired us in Marin to add derailleurs to our old bikes. Although work prevented me from joining them, they took their original old coaster-brake iron up Repack for a ceremonial run down. Astonishingly, they had never seen it before yesterday, and I told them that they would end the day with a new respect for our hill, and they would know why it is a legendary course, deserving of its place in MTB history.
After work I cruised past Gary Fisher's house (on my '83 Ritchey BOTM), and there they were. Now they know, and they were willing to admit, that Repack is a special road, and a remarkable test for the bikes and the riders. Joe Breeze rode with them, and discovered what all of us originals have discovered; even on new bikes with suspension and great brakes, we can't come within a minute of our record times. We're no longer that crazy.
BTW, Gary is sporting a cast on his leg, after breaking his ankle on a local singletrack. The trail where he was injured is part of a local Boy Scout camp, and they were overjoyed to have an actual victim for first-aid application.
Here is a photo of me giving Gary his prize at a Repack event from 1979.
The film collects all the original footage of the Repack races, and inteviews all the principals.
In connection with the publicity effort, yesterday Savage brought to Marin County the original members of the "Morrow Dirt Club," the guys from 50 miles south of here who in 1974 inspired us in Marin to add derailleurs to our old bikes. Although work prevented me from joining them, they took their original old coaster-brake iron up Repack for a ceremonial run down. Astonishingly, they had never seen it before yesterday, and I told them that they would end the day with a new respect for our hill, and they would know why it is a legendary course, deserving of its place in MTB history.
After work I cruised past Gary Fisher's house (on my '83 Ritchey BOTM), and there they were. Now they know, and they were willing to admit, that Repack is a special road, and a remarkable test for the bikes and the riders. Joe Breeze rode with them, and discovered what all of us originals have discovered; even on new bikes with suspension and great brakes, we can't come within a minute of our record times. We're no longer that crazy.
BTW, Gary is sporting a cast on his leg, after breaking his ankle on a local singletrack. The trail where he was injured is part of a local Boy Scout camp, and they were overjoyed to have an actual victim for first-aid application.
Here is a photo of me giving Gary his prize at a Repack event from 1979.
