Amazing video from klunking’s glory days
Originally posted on September 1, 2011 at 11:18 am
By now you likely know the story of klunking, the first genesis of mountain biking in Northern California. But in the late ’70s and early ’80s the idea of riding a bike down (or even up) a mountain was still considered crazy. CBS Evening Magazine aired this story about the craze and caught up with some of the legends of the sport, including Charlie Kelly (pictured here in the white shirt) and Gary Fisher (in the plaid).
The footage covers the Repack Downhill race, named for the need to repack your coaster brake hub afterwards.
Highlights include a quick interview with Fisher: "It’s come a long way [in the last five years], and it’s going to go a long way." Yup, sounds about right.
As they say, "klunking is best away from the cops, the cars and the concrete."
Segments from the original Evening Magazine are brought to you courtesy the School of Multimedia Communications archive at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and Jan Yanehiro. These video pieces are under the ownership and copyright of CBS Television.