VIDEO: DOWNHILL RACING IN 1979

Watch legendary riders Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly race one of the downhill Repack races and talk about the sport from their perspective in 1979. MBA’s John Ker says this is one of the best videos he has ever seen on the early days of mountain biking. Watch when Gary Fisher gives credit to the Larkspur Canyon gang for inventing the sport some 12 to 15 years earlier, while also mentioning that the roots of the sport really go back 100 years, when bicycles first came on the scene, and the roads weren’t paved.

 

Here are some notes on the video “Thank you to the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax, California. [It ]was with their assistance that we were able to reconstruct this important piece of history: https://mmbhof.org ———— This segment, hosted by Steve Fox and showcasing the founders of mountain bike racing, comes from the Paul Colardo collection in the William French Archive. Paul was one of ‘Evening’s’ cameramen and producers. Steve Kotton, the cameraman on this shoot, had to testify in court over a lawsuit brought against KPIX by one of the riders. They claimed Steve was in the middle of the road on a turn, thus causing the rider to crash. The rider lost since the videotape does not lie and Steve was on the side (you can see it in this segment). It is believed this segment was edited by Jim Farney.

Launched in 1976, the original ‘Evening Magazine’ ran for 14 years and was co-hosted by distinguished Japanese American journalist Jan Yanehiro for its entire run on KPIX in San Francisco. For 10 of those years, she was joined by Emmy and Grammy-winning journalist Richard Hart. Other co-hosts included Emmy-winning journalist Steve Fox, Erik Smith, and Mike Jerrick. ———— ‘Evening Magazine’ is owned by CBS. Our intention is to honor the history of this groundbreaking series and the people that made it possible. ———— Finding … is a project of television historian and archivist William French. From 2009 to 2016 William had the honor of working for Jan Yanehiro, Richard Hart, and ‘Evening’ producer Steve Kotton as their archivist at the Academy of Art University. William now owns the archive they co-created.”