Mountain Bike Pioneers Visit Tahoe



Two of the early mountain biking pioneers will be visiting South Lake Tahoe for the screening of the film, Klunkerz, a documentary film in which they appear as key characters about the beginning of the sport in Marin County, California. The film, Klunkerz, is produced and directed by Billy Savage of Pumelo Pictures. It will be showcased during the upcoming Lake Tahoe Bicycle Film Festival on Saturday, September 8, 2007 at the Horizon's Hotel Casino in Stateline, NV.

Two of the key pioneers are Joe Breeze, founder/president of Breezer Bikes, and Alan Bonds -- both will be attending the film festival with a couple of their early Klunker bikes and to show their support of the efforts being made by the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition to make the region more bicycle friendly.

Brief biographies:

Alan Bonds. Alan came to Marin in the mid 1970s and moved into the Humbolt Avenue house with Gary Fisher (Fisher Mountain Bikes) and Charlie Cunningham (Wilderness Trail Bikes) in 1976. It was here, in the kitchen of this house, that many of the first multi-geared Klunkers were built.

In 1976, he and a friend from larkspur made a trip to the 'Legendary Wocus' bike pile Oregon. They came back with nearly 100 pre-war frames and went about the task of building many of them up into Klunkers. Alan was one of the early practitioners of the 'black art' of building this new breed of machine.

Alan was a hot rod enthusiast and he used his skills honed on building V8s to build Klunkers. He not only built up the bikes, but he meticulously painted them similar to their original Schwinn pre-war color schemes. That's what made his bikes stand out from the other Klunkers on the hill. His bikes were the eye candy that everyone in the Klunking scene wanted.

Alan participated in nearly every one of the 24 Repack races and won several of them, including the very first race. If Alan didn't win, he usually finished in the top 5. He also organized early cross-county style events.

Alan is still riding, fast and loose, down the trails of Marin on modern machinery. He also continues to build and ride his Klunker creations, which meld pre-war Schwinn frames with modern technology. Alan lives with his daughter, just down the street from Charlie Kelly, another member of the Larkspur Canyon Gang.

Joe Breeze, Founder/President, Breezer Bikes, (



Mountain Bike Pioneers Visit Tahoe