Fat-Tire Off-Road Bike West of the Mississippi
Date: 1973
In 1973, Russ Mahon of Cupertino, California (75 miles south of Marin County) grafted derailleurs onto a 1930s balloon-tire bike built by the Cleveland Welding Company. He also put thumbshifters on this bike. Three Cupertino riders including Mahon showed up at a Cyclo-cross race in Marin County, December 1974, pollinating Marin’s many Fat-Tire cyclists with their ideas. Russ Mahon and friends then disappeared from the bike racing scene. More than 20 years later they got reconnected by chance with Marin’s riders, who had been searching for them for years. (The film Klunkerz gives a good account of the story.)
