Charlie Kelly doesn't get enough credit for the mountain bike. It was Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly who started
a company in order to build mountian bikes.
As life goes, they had dissagrements--and Charlie walked away. Charlie was the bike builder, and the bike mechanic.
Without Charle I don't think Marin Mountian bikes would have
ever build bikes?
The shop was on Tundtead Ave. There was always a thick cloud of the early 80's in the air. The bikes were stunning.
There were so many people who thought they would never be successful, but the bikes started to sell-- and the rest is
history. The people who thought they would fold were adults. All the kids who drooled over the bikes(myself); knew different, but knew it was still a very risky business.
As a chid, I would look into the shop and I used to say to
myself "I hope they are still in business when I earn enough
to buy one."
As to Charlie Kelly; I don't think he is rich, but he looks
younger than the rest of the guys, and seems genuinely happy. It's not just about money?
I wouldn't label them as Hippies though. They were just young guys who liked riding bikes(road and mountan). Young guys who didn't want to follow in their fathers footsteps?
Putting on that tie and spending years at same company seemed like a prison sentence years ago.
(I let my brother use my bike and he eventually destroyed it. Then someone stole it. Somethings never change.)
I used to see Kelly on Skyline in Oakland in the mid 90's on a Kelly frame. I knew he was a somebody but didn't know the story. Did he move to the East Bay?
As life goes, they had dissagrements--and Charlie walked away. Charlie was the bike builder, and the bike mechanic. Without Charle I don't think Marin Mountian bikes would have ever build bikes?
The shop was on Tundtead Ave. There was always a thick cloud of the early 80's in the air. The bikes were stunning.
There were so many people who thought they would never be successful, but the bikes started to sell-- and the rest is history. The people who thought they would fold were adults. All the kids who drooled over the bikes(myself); knew different, but knew it was still a very risky business. As a chid, I would look into the shop and I used to say to myself "I hope they are still in business when I earn enough to buy one."
As to Charlie Kelly; I don't think he is rich, but he looks younger than the rest of the guys, and seems genuinely happy. It's not just about money?
I wouldn't label them as Hippies though. They were just young guys who liked riding bikes(road and mountan). Young guys who didn't want to follow in their fathers footsteps? Putting on that tie and spending years at same company seemed like a prison sentence years ago.
(I let my brother use my bike and he eventually destroyed it. Then someone stole it. Somethings never change.)