Gary Fisher, the ‘hippie capitalist’ of mountain biking, coming to Marty’s in Randolph

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Gary Fisher, one of the pioneers of mountain biking, will roll into Marty’s Reliable Cycle in Randolph at 7 pm on Feb. 15 to talk bikes.

Gary, 60, once got banned from bike racing because his hair was too long.  His love for racing was matched only by his passion for tinkering; in the mid-1970s he started grafting drum brakes, triple chain rings and other scavenged bike and motorcycle parts onto his 1937 Schwinn Excelsior X.

In 1976 he rode the machine to a course record in the Repack downhill race near San Francisco. Coaster brakes of that era got so hot, riders had to keep repacking them with grease.

In 1979, Gary and pal Charlie Kelly opened a shop in Marin County, CA., called “MountainBikes.”

And a craze was born.

gary fisher
Mountain biking pioneer Gary Fisher, from the film 'Klunkerz.'

“I wanted to do it my way,” Gary said in the documentary Klunkerz. “I wanted to make a company of this thing, and I wanted to spread it all around the world.”

“And the business was badly run from that minute on,” Charlie joked in the film.

“In order to get a bike from us, you had to pay us up front–a couple of crazed hippies….Demand was so high, and supply so limited, that even our ineptitude couldn’t stop us.”

Nobody questioned the quality of Gary Fisher bikes, however. Bring your cycling questions to Gary at Marty’s in Randolph on the 15th… or just bring a cracked helmet for an autograph.

Gary, who introduced front shocks to off-road bikes, will be joined by factory representatives from about 30 cycling companies. There will be food, prizes and discounts, too. Marty Epstein also has shops in Morristown, of course, and Hackettstown.

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