THROWBACK THURSDAY: STEVE FERGUSON’S AMAZING COLLECTION OF VINTAGE MOUNTAIN BIKES

STEVE FERGUSON’S AMAZING COLLECTION OF VINTAGE MOUNTAIN BIKES – THE CLASSICS LIVE ON

In the world of mountain biking, there are some riders who only want the newest thing, and then there are riders like Steve Ferguson who cherish the classic mountain bikes of the past. We met with Steve this past month and took a look at some of the classic bikes in his collection. We don’t have room to review all of them here, but we can focus on a few of them and find out what got Steve interested in collecting mountain bikes in the first place.

 

MBA: What’s your background in mountain biking?

Steve Ferguson: I bought a mountain bike in 1988 when I couldn’t resist the call of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I’ve ridden mountain bikes ever since, mostly in Southern California. My best showings have been a second place in the Downieville XC and a first-place tandem in something out in Redlands. My love in cycling has been long-distance touring. The freedom of being on the road for weeks with minimal gear is the best. I’ve had the good fortune to tour by bicycle in Europe, and on the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S.

 

Above: The 1995 Ritchey Lite Beam. Says Ferguson about this frame: “The prospect of designing and building a bicycle with active suspension did not appeal to many traditional frame builders, including Tom Ritchey. The Softride design gave an option to build a special rigid frame and bolt on the suspension later. Softride’s “suspend the rider, not the bike” idea was unusual, but made some sense in being lightweight, reliable, an efficient climber, and an overall decent cross-country racing design. In rough terrain the suspension stem was easily overwhelmed. The beam was more successful, with some popularity on tandems and triathlon bicycles. One year’s Ironman competition saw nearly 15% of the bicycles using a beam design. What helped this design work well is clipless pedals. Once your feet are firmly attached to the bike, you can plant yourself in the saddle and let your legs relax. It has Barcalounger comfort and many found it more restful than most designs when coasting. The Softride beam doesn’t work as well with flat pedals or toe clips – it’s difficult to use the beam to your advantage without your feet slipping off the pedals. The Ritchey team endorsed Softride stems from 1992. The Beam models were from 1994; about 100 were built. Tom’s recollection is that all team riders at a race used the rigid Ritchey MTB with the suspension stem, except one rider had to use the Beam bike. Then Tom sighed and lowered his head: “Guys didn’t like the beam so much.” This era saw Tom outfitting his bicycles with minimal Shimano components and maximum Ritchey components. The pictured brakes and shifters were later additions. By 1996, the Rock Shox Judy suspension fork had shown its worthiness (even to Tom Ritchey), and in itself was a good enough reason for the Softride system’s fade from mountain bike races. Many notable makers sold or experimented with the Softride beam design over the years, including Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Burley, Co-Motion, Ti Cycles, Yeti, Serotta, Bianchi, Colnago, Rodriguez, Erickson, Brodie and Zipp. The UCI banned beam-style frames in 1999, but beams were produced through 2006 mainly for triathlon bicycles.”

MBA: What do you do for a living?

SF: I worked in several bicycle shops during my college years, then I was fairly busy playing trombone around SoCal and sometimes around the world. In 2000 I began to sell some leather instrument cases that my friend was making, along with other accessories, and it developed into a fairly big music retail store. Now the store is internet only, which is quieter, and I can balance running that with some property restoration projects and occasionally taking a day off.

 

 

MBA: What made you decide to start collecting bikes?

SF: It didn’t take long to have several bikes in my stable: a touring bike, then a racer, then a mountain bike, then a commuter. These were all useful in college and beyond. And then, working in the bicycle industry, things come along and the price is fair. I had to have them. A tandem, a new roadie racer and a few more mountain bikes followed during that era.

When I bought a small house and finally got organized, I arranged inside parking for about 10 bicycles—mostly for me, plus some guest space. But then another bike always comes along.

About that time, I read the book “Cyclopedia” about the collection of Michael Embacher from Vienna. He loves every kind of bicycle and owns over 200. Some of his collection travels as a museum exhibit, which I saw in Portland, Oregon.

That gave me the idea that it was okay to own more bicycles, even if temporarily. Maybe I can be a bicycle archivist.

 

Above: Manitou’s My Evil Twin tandem bike.

MBA: How do you find these classic bikes?

SF: I see some on eBay, Craigslist, Pinkbike or Facebook vintage MTB groups. A friend who scours those forums more than I will sometimes send links to tempt me. That’s why I have a Serotta—his fault. To be fair, it’s a pretty nice bike. I don’t regret the purchase. I’ve had encouragement along the way by cycling friends who are into classic Ritcheys and Steve Potts MTBs, or a steel Ibis roadie in sage green with mustache bars. One friend found the Mantis XCR he’d always wanted, so I may have one soon as well.

 

 

MBA: How do you decide which bikes to buy for your collection?

SF: Most modern bicycles are of similar design to others in their class, whether road or MTB, suspension or rigid. We’ve figured out aerodynamics, carbon molding, pivot and shock locations, so I expect many designs to converge over time as they have. But, there was a decade from about 1990 onward when the amount of experimentation and number of alternative design ideas was incredible. Most early full-suspension MTBs were not highly regarded for XC use, so there were unusual and very different options competing with the pivoting bikes. I noticed the designs that were based on material flex rather than pivoting systems. Bikes that stood out to me were from Moots, Slingshot, Softride, Ibis, John Castellano, Dave Kirk, Ben Serotta, Tom Ritchey and Kestrel. Some models from all these makers had some flexible component to them, which I found fascinating. These were some of the bikes I read about in MBA and Bicycle Guide back in the day or saw up close when I worked in bicycle shops.

 

 

And like most young cyclist/musicians, I couldn’t budget for all the bicycles I wanted at the time. But now the used market allows some great bargains for those willing to tinker. It’s not so different from cars or motorcycles or musical instruments. Bicycles are fairly harmless and human-scaled, so they suit me well.

To choose a bike now means one I dreamed of 30 years ago, maybe one whose performance and features are situated exactly between two others in the collection. What if this new bicycle was better than either of the adjacent models? What if it’s faster? And that’s how it goes. And sometimes a vintage bike needs to be saved. I bought one Slingshot because it had a high-rise stem, cruiser bars and one of those saddles with the twin butt pads. It couldn’t remain like that.

 

Above: The Gary Fisher Mount Tam mountain bike.

MBA: Do you perform many upgrades to the bikes once you buy them, such as looking for parts that are in better condition or getting the bikes repainted or refinished?

SF: I never intend to, but most every bike could use a refreshening. I haven’t yet arranged re-paints, but I often will set up a bike so it looks stock or period-correct, or has a gruppo setup that I personally like, or is a lot lighter. We’ve all bought too many sale parts at Jenson now and again, and I aim to fix that. eBay is a good place for vintage MTB parts.

 

 

MBA: Do you ever plan to show your bikes to the public or sell them?

SF: I hope I can do this. Bringing the bikes to the MBA studio helps in that regard. Maybe a local industrial design exhibit could feature some.

After I put together a little book like Embacher’s, I plan to sell most of them. These bicycles deserve to be archived well, because many are too new for history books but too old for the internet. And, they deserve to be ridden more than I ride them.

 

This frame design by Mark Groendal from Grand Rapids followed his unique Slingshots, which have been built for over three decades.  This ERB (Energy Return Bicycle) differed from the Slingshot in that the ERB’s saddle was mounted on the front triangle rather than the rear, which better insulated its rider from the trail.  The flex pivot was two carbon rods in a lower pivot location which gave more travel than the Slingshots.  The climbing prowess is not quite that of a Slingshot, so the ERB may be the limit of undamped flexible design.  The ERB with its disc brakes was built to fit 26×2.4″, 27.5×2.0″ or 700Cx35 wheels.

MBA: Are there any bikes you’re still looking for that you haven’t been able to find?

SF: I may now have satisfied my thirst for alternative bicycles, but I fondly remember the engineered wood bicycles by Renovo in Portland, Oregon. I think the design is still made by another company.

MBA: What’s your favorite bike of all the ones in your collection so far?

SF: The Ibis Bow-Ti MTB. Besides being an amazing feat of titanium engineering, it climbs and sprints like a coiled spring, a viper ready to strike. And, like they promised, its flexible nature makes it nearly maintenance-free.