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being gary fisher and the bicycle revolution. gary fisher and guy kesteven. bluetrain hardback 254pp illus. $39.99

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

"Let's tell people how much of a buzz just swooping round your first corner is, or how awesome getting your feet off the floor, cranking those pedals and flying along feels - however old you are or whatever shape you're in."

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

in the late 1980s, in need of a more practical means of velocipedinal transport than a steel, ten-speed racer, i bought one of the new-fangled mountain bikes. as it turns out, the shop in kilmarnock from which i acquired the original muddy fox courier belonged, in part, to graeme obree, perhaps an innocent portent of things to come. of course, along with many who partook of the mountain bike revolution, i had no intentions of going anywhere near a mountain. and the commute from troon to prestwick was flat enough to have no direct need of gearing that would presage the advent of 'everesting' as a cycling pastime.

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

however, what the mountain bike had going for it at the time, was its american heritage, reputedly evolved from the desire of a group of hippies on america's west-coast to throw themselves down a hill in marin county. the chances of that being reprised on the carrick hills near the former butlins, south of ayr, were small to non-existent, but that didn't stop a group of intrepid and, if i'm honest, rather intense folks forming a mountain bike club to do just that.

though i greatly appreciated the three chainrings up front and a decent spread of sprockets at the back, along with tyres that offered a great deal more comfort than had the 25mm tyres on the steel road bike, i didn't quite get the mountain bike bit. but the fellow responsible for coining the name had been in at the birth pangs of the 'invention' that ultimately saved the bike industry for probably more years than they could have reasonably expected.

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

unlike tom ritchey, scot nicol and joe breeze, however, gary fisher - for 'twas he - didn't actually build his own mountain bikes. the original fisher mountain bike frames were built by tom ritchey. however, with one eye on the potential commercial benefits of being in on the ground floor, he and fellow enthusiast, charlie kelly, gave "this new type of bike a name. Then I took that product out of the village, personally spread it round the whole world and made an industry out of it..."

but gary fisher didn't arrive at the mountain bike, fully-formed, replete with bright, pin-stripe suits, goatee beard and handlebar moustache. not only was he involved in the ministrations around mt. tamalpais and the repack run, but gary fisher spent his teenage years as a confirmed road racer who trained and raced as hard as anyone in american flyers, eventually becoming embroiled in the hippy scene of the mid to late sixties.

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

"I wasn't going to cut my hair, so I cut the racing instead. [...] When I started going to see the Grateful Dead, they sounded like shit."

being in the right place at the right time offered the opportunity to become more involved in that scene, other than observing from the sidelines. working with others, fisher developed light shows for the bands of the time, along with working on sound development for the public address systems needed to let ever-increasing crowds hear what was happening on stage. effectively, it was the same scene that spawned the future mountain bikers, exploring their surroundings by opting to hurtle down gravel slopes on cruiser bikes scarcely designed for the purpose. refining those machines to survive their repeated hammerings, eventually led to the ancestors of today's springy farm gates.

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

'being gary fisher' is a unique book on every level you care to consider. even the physical book eschews the spine that usually features on hardbacks; the book title is printed across the grouped pages, held together solely by the fastening to the front and rear covers and the glue that holds them all together. and that's only the beginning of its weirdness. during the pages concerning themselves with the acid scene of the sixties, the graphics and typography are every bit as disorienting (in a very good way). for those who remember david carson's 'ray gun' magazine, this will make you feel quite at home.

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

yet, unlike several issues of ray gun (interviews printed in the wingdings font), the oft times glaring graphics never actually impede the reader; 'being gary fisher' is every bit as easy to read as any other on the market. however the combination of text and graphics have produced a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, courtesy of alex fergusson and ultan coyle.

but my praise ought best be reserved for co-author, guy kesteven, ("Guy, I need to write a book...") who has taken the life and times of gary fisher and created a narrative that defies you to put the book down. i read this book in far fewer sittings than i had expected, because at the foot of each page was an invisible voice saying, "just one more..."

being gary fisher - guy kesteven

following his 'conversion' to the ways of the knobbly tyre, the book continues by relating how things developed from fisher mountain bikes, the shop, to fisher mountain bikes, the production factory and the ups and downs that creating a successful commercial reality entails. on asking at bluetrain publishing where you could all get hold of a copy, and the uk pricing, taz told me "It's only available via Trek US at the moment and selling out fast. So the next print run will be available in the UK, we'll make sure of that!" if you're across the pond, i'd encourage you to search out a copy; if you're on this side of the atlantic, i'll let you know when the book is released in the uk. even if mountain bikes don't float your boat, you still need to experience this book.

bluetrain publishing

monday 28 december 2020

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................