Gary Fisher

Gary Fisher at Interbike 2007

Gary Christopher Fisher (born  November 5,  1950 in Oakland, California ) is a retired American cyclist and two-wheel mechanic . He is considered one of the inventors of the mountain bike , and he is also the namesake of the Gary Fisher bicycle brand .

Cycling career

In 1963, the then twelve-year-old Fisher discovered road cycling for himself and decided to become a racing cyclist. A year later he was on cross-country race attentive (cyclocross). He practiced both disciplines quite successfully until he was banned from the American Cycling Association in 1968 because of his appearance (he had long hair at the time and thus looked like a hippie ). Not wanting to part with his long hair, Fisher was not re-admitted until 1972. He was able to achieve some successes in the period that followed.

Invention of the mountain bike

In 1973, Fisher and his friend Joe Breeze , also a cyclist and frame builder , began riding converted bikes down from Mount Tamalpais in Marin County . From the top of this 850 meter high mountain in California , a gravel road, intended as a fire service road, led to the valley. The bikes used were converted cruisers from the Schwinn bicycle brand from the 1930s, which the friends called “Klunker”. These bicycles, weighing more than 20 kg, could only be got by pushing them up the mountain, but had the stability required for the descent and had two-inch wide 26-inch balloon tires that Ignaz Schwinn had brought back from Germany in 1932 from a trip to Europe . These tires now provided an unusual level of comfort for the racing cyclists, which increased the fun factor of the descents.

As a result, Tom Ritchey and Charles Kelly joined the hard core around Gary Fisher, and the so-called Repack races developed from the downhill run . The name comes from the fact that the hubs were completely dry after a lot of braking after the descent and required extensive service, especially with lubricants, i.e. had to be "repacked". In order to achieve better and better departure times, the bikes have been continuously improved, mostly with parts from motocross . Finally, in 1977, at the suggestion of Charles Kelly, Joe Breeze built the first custom-made bike specially designed for the terrain, with the frame geometry corresponding to that of the model of the cruiser: head angle 68 °, seat angle 70 °, chain stay 470 mm. Additional tubes were attached to the fork and the frame triangle for reinforcement. This bike was considerably lighter than the cruiser. However, such a framework was too expensive for Gary Fisher, and he also had a completely different framework concept with an open triangle in mind.

Fisher initially stayed true to his "Klunker", which he had meanwhile upgraded to 15 gears and which, thanks to his strength and stamina, he was able to drive up the mountain despite his weight. In Tom Ritchey, Fisher finally found the right man who could realize his bicycle plans. Fisher's innovative concepts and Ritchey's high-quality implementation were convincing, so Fisher ordered ten frames straight away and decided, together with Charles Kelly, to sell the bikes professionally. They called their company “Mountainbike” and so the mountain bike was born.

In 1984 there were irreconcilable differences between Fisher, Ritchey and Kelly. They split up, and each of the mountain bike pioneers went their own way. The bicycle brand Gary Fisher was born.

Further developments by the Gary Fisher company

The company Gary Fisher was instrumental in many developments in the mountain bike sector as wide handlebars and the Unicrown fork . Fisher worked with Shimano on the circuits that are common today. With the RS-1 , Fisher introduced the first full-suspension mountain bike in 1991 . Later, the Genesis geometry concept and the 29-inch bikes were presented. When carbon fiber reinforced plastic became marketable, Fisher was so fascinated by the lightness of this new material that he did everything in his power to develop a frame from this material. However, it turned out to be extremely difficult to develop a sufficiently rigid framework from this material, so that Gary Fisher spent all his corporate and private capital on the development without achieving a reasonable result. He then had to sell the majority stake in his company to the bicycle manufacturer Trek . Even after the takeover, Gary Fisher remained the “head” of his brand, and Fisherbikes are still his creations.

On June 16, 2010, Trek announced that the Gary Fisher Collection from Trek has now replaced the independent brand. However, the formerly renowned brand Gary Fisher has not been operated by Trek since 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Trek takes over stake ( memento from August 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ www.trekbikes.com: Trek introduces the Gary Fisher collection ( Memento from July 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ https://radmarkt.de/nachrichten/hausmesse-trek-world-ulm-ohne-villiger-aber-mit-electra/

Web links

• trekbikes.com: Garry Fisher Collection