Throwback Thursday: Fat Tire Flyer, Charlie Kelly's Original MTB Mag

Feb 16, 2023
by Dario DiGiulio  
photo
All photos courtesy of Fat Tire Flyer.

At this point, mountain biking media is pretty much web-only, with videos and reels taking the place of print and patience. For folks who simply want more in their feed, there's no better time to be a consumer, but you'd be forgiven for feeling nostalgic about the simpler days when a few print mags ran the game. The very first of those early magazines was the Fat Tire Flyer, created by the one and only Charlie Kelly, one of the pioneers of the sport in California's coastal mountains. I'm not going to attempt a full recounting of the history here, as there's nobody better suited to do that than the man himself.

Charlie has been digitizing the entire FTF collection, with a great deal of the issues already available to view on his site. In the pages you'll find a wonderful time capsule of mountain biking's early days, back when things were really cool. The Flyer's full run of existence took place before mine even started, so it's been a real treat to get to dig into the earliest history of this sport I love so much. Sometimes kooky, often rad, there's no shortage of entertainment in the scanned pages, even if it's just the ads.

photo
It's basically a First Look, only 40 years ago.
photo

There are plenty of instances where I'm reminded of how young mountain biking is, relative to other outdoor pursuits - considering skiing's earliest days could date as far back as 8000 BCE. Though there's plenty of debate as to when mountain biking really got going, but any time in the late 1900s is pretty recent in comparison.

photo
Some things didn't age all that well.
photo
Bring back hand-drawn bike ads!

One facet of the FTF archive that surprised me was how strong the local racing scene was back in the day, despite the sport being tiny in comparison to today's scale. Take this race report from the Punk Bike Enduro, a fat tire race in the hallowed woods of Annadel State Park in Northern California. I grew up riding these trails, and they manage to still be plenty exciting even on modern bikes - it's pretty impressive to imagine folks hurtling themselves through the rock gardens on their glorified cruisers.

photo
An ENDURO in 1984? Proof that time is indeed a flat circle.



It's pretty cool to see that some of the brands featured in the Flyer way back then are still making bikes and components at the forefront of the industry. Say what you will about Ibis' industrial design, but the fact that they've gone from the steel frames of yore to the curvy carbon creations of today is a pretty wild evolution.

If you dig around, there are plenty of indications of what's to come as well, with people discussing tire clearance, geometry, brake setup, etc. all in the same way we do now. Sure, today's bikes are more than a little bit better, but the way we discuss them hasn't really changed since the get-go.

Charlie's archive stops around 1990, as that's the year that the sport really exploded, making the cataloging nearly impossible if you aim to collect every last piece of lore. In addition to the many scanned pages of Fat Tire Flyer, Kelly's archive also includes publications and stories from other magazines and media of the day, with some other cycling history sprinkled in for good measure.
photo
Bottle cages haven't changed much, thankfully.

photo
Sick.



I've just cherrypicked a few images that caught my eye, but if the history of our shared passion interests you, there won't be a bad page in the Archive. Head over to the Fat Tire Flyer website to see all the digitized issues. If you want to support Charlie Kelly in his mission to preserve the early days of mountain biking, you can do so by becoming part of the Mountain Bike Legacy Project.

Author Info:
dariodigiulio avatar

Member since Dec 25, 2016
167 articles

95 Comments
  • 82 0
 Those images are obviously deep-fakes. There's no way anyone could ride that shit on anything other than a 180mm enduro sled
  • 17 3
 agree, internet is full of fake DH videos where... for a moment just think about it... people ride 26' wheels... like c'mon - everyone knows 26 is unrideable!!!!
  • 10 2
 No motor either. Unthinkable.
  • 28 0
 As someone who started riding in this era it's hilarious to be reminded of some of the big news back then. Here are a few things that were a big deal then and the subject of PB articles now.
Dropper posts - Hite Rite
Adjustable headsets - Mountaneus
Access issues (especially wilderness access)
Internal cable routing - Klein
Flat vs. Clips (okay these days it's clipless, but still)
Mullet bikes and wheel size debates
Ned Overend crushing everyone
High end domestic vs. mass produced imports
Crank length debates
Jersey's vs. t-shirts debates
Stem length debates
Bar length debates
  • 1 0
 It has not changed much :-)
  • 2 0
 Forgot the classic rim brake vs disc brake debates
  • 1 0
 How about the 'Punk Bike Enduro', enduro before it was a thing....
  • 26 0
 Is your bike making toooo much noise???
  • 13 0
 Is your bike constantly creaking around, driving you craaazyyyy???
  • 13 1
 Are your tires skinny, fat, or in-between? You're sooooo stupid!
  • 18 0
 This is great. One of my favorite things of this sport is how young it is. The people who pioneered it are still involved in it and sharing their stories. I'm thankful for folks like Charlie Kelly who lived it and documented it. I met Charlie a few years ago at Interbike and we had a short but great conversation. He's an awesome dude.
  • 18 1
 These were the days, I would be so stoked to see another rider on the trails (or basically animal trails/fire roads we had) and they would be stoked too! Always happy to chat, share a few kilometers together before heading separate ways (everyone rode from home it seemed)

Now days it's all about what bike you are on (go forbid it's more than 2 years old) what gear you are wearing and mean mugging people in the chairlift line.

Take me back, maybe it's the rose coloured glasses talking. But MTB as a whole was just better back in the 90's.
  • 3 7
flag sanchofula (Feb 17, 2023 at 20:52) (Below Threshold)
 No it wasn’t: the trails sucked, the bikes sucked, and it just wasn’t all that fun.

In the mid seventies when I started riding trails, BMX was the only legitimate trail bike, now that was fun!

Mountain biking on the other hand, didn’t really gain traction until we got suspension. Sure, single speed 29ers were a thing in the late 90’s, but what mountain bikes are capable of now, that’s we keeps me riding!

I don’t reminisce at all for the old days, my Pinion enduro sled is the shite!
  • 5 0
 @sanchofula: The trails were fine. I'm still out there riding trails that have been around long before bikes were a thing.
  • 3 0
 @sanchofula: Speak for yourself please.

The trails didn't suck, because there weren't any dedicated mtb trails. You just went out to explore, and rode everything that was sorta rideable. And it was f*cking great! In fact, it was that sort of riding that makes gravelbikes so popular. Venturing out and making your own decisions instead of just following a trail someone else set out for you.
Thinking mountain biking only gained traction after suspension came around is just factually wrong. Personally I lost interest exactly because of suspension, and bikes getting more and more expensive and complicated.

I am still riding my '94 mounainbike (now with a dirt drop bar and faster rolling tires), as do my friends, and we have a blast.
  • 4 0
 @sanchofula: you have your opinion and I can't speak for you but I had the most 'fun' on my fully rigid, 26" 1989 Cannondale.....bought tires where they were bald, brake pads when they were nubs, didn't touch a component on that bike unless they broke. Rode that sucker well into the 90's, probably 1995 before I got into dirtbikes.

It was my trials bike, trail bike, DJ bike, DH bike, road bike and BMX bike

No helmet, tshirt, jeans and open finger gloves....come get some
  • 2 0
 @RadBartTaylor: Exactly that.
The more 'EXTREME!!1!' mountain biking became, the more bored I got with it. I hardly touched my mtb for years (for trail riding that is, I used it as my daily bike all the time). Then I was a MTB test event, where many brands brought their latest and greatest, and I decided to give these full suspension, wide barred, dropper equipped bikes a fair try… and I hated it. It was like the suspension dampened everything, including all the fun and excitement. What a bore.
Luckily there were two brands that brought gravelbikes too, and after riding those on the technical mtb trail I was stoked! They gave me a deja vu of my pioneering mtb years. The next day I started rebuilding my '94 mtb in to a monstercross/gravel-ish bike, and I have been having a blast ever since.
  • 1 0
 @WhateverBikes: well said. How did you build up your 94?
  • 2 0
 @RadBartTaylor: Thanks. I had no real budget for it, so I kept it simple.
Chose a dirt drop bar with plenty of flare, because it gives me a wider grip for technical trails, and with the brakes pointing towards each other I can get somewhat aero to. Put some 2.0" wide tires on with a faster rolling gravel thread (hardly any thread in the middle, a bit more knobby on the sides for cornering), and went 1x with the drivetrain. Put on cantilever brakes because they work better with the road brake levers. Chose Microshift Advent for the brifters, rear derailed and 9-speed 11-42 cassette. Oh, and a higher, steeper stem to avoid a too stretched out, too deep position.It's just a simple, but fun and very capable bike. Affordable, and even if something breaks it will be cheap to repair/replace.
  • 13 0
 Hey, I liked the Biopace chainrings.. I ran the whole triple back in the ‘80’s, and everyone laughed at me.
Now I run an absolute black oval chain ring. Now people just laugh behind my back. So they tell me..
  • 3 0
 Yes but is your rear mech laughing?
  • 6 1
 Here’s a review of oval chain rings-
If you spin a high cadence, like a roadie or a hamster on a wheel, forget it. You’ll hate it.
If you waste energy being out of the saddle, have more core strength than leg strength, and ride Slickrock all day, it’s for you!
And the claim that they span a tooth range higher and lower than the actual is crap. They work like the tooth count they have.
And I won’t ride without one!
  • 4 0
 @Untgrad: I love my AB chainring. Though, didn’t they rotate the ring like 90° in relation to the crank arm from where Biopace had it back then?

I still remember my 9th grade geometry teacher (‘97-9Cool bringing his bike in trying to explain to a bunch of kids how the oval chainring concept worked.
  • 2 0
 @gnarlysipes:
I’m still not sure how the thing(s) work.. if it’s “slipping” through the low power, nearly vertical crank arm position to keep from bogging, or slipping through to simply speed up the cranks for the “power” stroke.
I’d guess a degree of both.
I’ve heard of the 90° clocking, but I just don’t remember them working that badly back in the day. I think they had more “Biopace effect” than my Absolute Black ring.
Topping out my Black ring in the smallest cog feels silly. I look like I’m dog paddling on a pogo stick!
  • 1 0
 Me too
  • 1 0
 @Untgrad: Yeah, not sure. I never tried a Biopace setup but I can confirm my pedaling improved (more consistent power I guess) with the AB ring. I ride flats and suspect the improvement may be somewhat related.
  • 2 0
 @gnarlysipes:
Oh interesting point..
I ran flats with Biopace since there was no such thing as clipless in the mid ‘80’s. Not that I knew of.. And I never got toe clips to work for me.
Now I’m clipped in and kinda wish I never started.
I’ve done many Moab trips and my (current) oval sprocket kicks ass. Feels totally natural scaling Slickrock steeps. Amazing how the dog paddling effect disappears you’re climbing for your life!
  • 2 0
 @Untgrad: Chris Froome uses oval chain rings and has the highest cadence of anyone I've ever seen.
  • 1 0
 @kevinturner12:
No way..
Then he is a better man than I.
I wonder how much “ovaling” he uses. If it’s off the shelf or something custom for him.
I’ll inform my friends they can stop laughing at me now..
  • 1 0
 @kevinturner12:
You know, the old Biopace triple ring set may have an advantage over 1x12 oval.
They claimed each ring profile was specific to the condition to which it would be used.
Now we have one.
It took me ten years on the bike to get my cadence from 65 RPMs to 75. I’m a horrible spinner.
  • 12 0
 If you like this, you'll love "moment" on redbull tv. It documents the rise of the north shore Vancouver scene. Complete with stories from all your favorite childhood memories about mtb.
  • 4 0
 @DirkMcClerkin: Thank you for sharing it.
  • 1 0
 Looking it up now.
  • 13 0
 Just great, Ibis changed their logo again!
  • 2 0
 You can check Scot Nicol's results in FTF. None to shabby.
  • 10 1
 oval chainrings. that sounds like a good idea, then a bad idea, then a good idea again, then a bad idea, then a good... well you get the picture.
  • 3 5
 Kinda like the 2 stroke vs 4 stroke in MX.
  • 13 0
 @nozes: actually nothing like that
  • 2 0
 @nozes:
After racing two-strokes all my life, I got on a four-stroke 250F and never looked back. Actually looked back once by trying a two stroke again and it was horrible! No weight on the front end!
Now, which is fits into the round hole, and which is oval..?
I’m going four-stroke for oval just because of the added rotational mass of the engine..
  • 2 1
 Just to be clear, I'm not that educated on MX,I don't even have a dirt bike,never had.
My comparison was based on what I hear my friends talk through the years,some of them having tried both types more than once.

The oval chainrings however,I can talk from experience,had an Ofmega (italian brand) copy of Biopace on my first MTB back in '89 and it was crap,now I have ovals on 2 of my 6 bikes and it's great,especially on the low rpm/high torque range,I get the feeling that the bike maintains traccion better and feels easier on the knees.
  • 2 0
 @nozes:
And guess what? 4 strokes were complete crap back in the day! No one took them seriously enough to build a chassis around one that was worth a damn.
Until they started getting shoehorned in 2 stroke race chassis. Then the benefits could be realized.
You know more than you thought!
  • 1 0
 @Untgrad: I'm not so sure. My 95 xr250r may disagree with you on that. Not the lightest, not the best suspension though I have updated the front to an inverted fork. It's so damn reliable. Gobs of low end torque for my riding area/style. Great on the trails, can be ridden on track with some success. Extremely reliable and known for the ability to be flogged without whimpering. I love it, it's so old I don't care if I drop it, which happens on the trails near me often, fairly technical around here. Almost 30yrs and still ripping. Love my vintage 4strokes Smile
  • 1 0
 @JarrodB:
Cheers to all of the above!
I was on a CR250 back in the day and couldn’t shake an XR350 in a drag race..!
Led to adding a Moose flywheel weight to my CR.
Where I’m from in the Rocky Mtns, an XR200 is considered the fastest bike for single track. I was trying to keep up with a racer buddy of mine on one with my YZ250f and I couldn’t! The trail was just too tight.
But, my YZF was heavily modified, and would destroy any stock 250f on the track. Even the KTM..
For the woods, my bike didn’t really work. On an MX track, my 250F was unreal.
I’m just sayin, that when the YZ400f came along, the shit got real, and the two-stroke’s days were numbered.
  • 1 0
 @JarrodB:
Hmm, touché..
  • 7 0
 My 1st mtn bike was a 1985 Kuwahara yellow with black accents. Had a black frame bag, black rack with paniers to go the Vancouver beaches. Remember having to stop to drop the seat for DH and using strapless pedal cages. Got caught going down Blackcomb Mtn slopes in the summer. In 1994 got a Rocky Mountain Bike (RMB) Sherpa with LX components and clipless pedals. Later added Judy XC forks. Bikes I ride now might as well be starships or as I say they are better than me!!!
  • 4 0
 LOL me too! And my name's Neil also. Had a Kuwy in the mid-80s with frame bags and paniers, but my first "real" decent bike was a Rocky Fusion in the late 90s.
  • 2 0
 Kuwahara Cougar with a blue to white fade paint job. Roller cam rear brake under the bottom bracket. Still have it, though I foolishly painted the gram BRgreen.
  • 7 0
 Robin currently plotting take over of Fat Tire Flyer website, to run that into the ground. Charlie, watch your six.
  • 8 0
 Had that Ross! Wow I'm old.
  • 1 0
 Me too! And then I said the same thing... Old.
  • 2 0
 They're near indestructible. I picked up a chrome one a couple years ago to use as a bar bike. Had to add a hite-rite of course.. for security.
  • 5 0
 Hey looks like these sport the hidden shock just like the new Scotts! Because, hey, I don't see that rear shock but no way they could ride enduro without it!
  • 6 0
 Amazing I lived through all the bikes from 1990 on. I sure as heck got banged up a lot.
  • 3 0
 I wish Mtn bikes started as stretched BMX bikes instead of road bikes without drop bars.
  • 2 0
 @Untgrad: I mean they started at cruisers and if you look at the early Stumpjumper geo it was a bit more modern then some of the newer ones. It was like it started well and then roadie geo started coming in.
  • 1 0
 @93EXCivic:
Yes! Exactly!
Maybe someone showed up to an early Mtn bike race on a road bike with a high stem and dusted the whole field.
Where’s the fun in that?
..roadies
  • 1 0
 @Untgrad: The early races got dominated by roadies who wanted easier courses for their modified bikes. It's why only recently, do we really see more tech courses now and the bikes becoming more suited for actual mountain biking.
  • 1 0
 @neimbc:
They should have stuck to causing traffic jams. On the road.
  • 4 0
 I actually just got a year subscription to Mountain Bike Action mag print addition. I used to get it in the mail before the internet took over. Having a magazine come in the mail again is like Christmas every time!
  • 5 0
 I’ve got a decent collection of the Uk version, called Making Tracks. Maybe I should scan em !
  • 1 0
 I subscribed to Fat Tire Flyer in the mid-1980s when I was living in Southern California. Charlie stiffed me when I renewed my subscription because a couple weeks after mailing my check the magazine went belly-up. If you haven't read his book, get it, Charlie has a lot of good stories. And speaking of those good ol' days, a great film capturing that era is Klunkerz (2006).
  • 3 0
 Hey, Biopace aged very well...into Rotor and others.....still elliptical!

Lets see who can pick out all or some of the legend's names in the enduro results??
  • 2 0
 Vintage MTB Festival next 13 August in south Belgium: www.vintagemtb.org

I will also go to Switzerland in September for the European Vintage MTB Festival www.vintagebikemasters.com
  • 1 0
 Thanks! All the way on the far side of Belgium from where I live, but still an acceptable riding distance… let's see if I can get some friends to come along!
  • 3 0
 That Ross Force 1 was my and my wife's first mtb bought in Cannon Beach, OR at MIke's Bikes with unemployment $$ from commercial fishing......
  • 1 0
 Props to Cannon Beach. What a funky place.
  • 1 0
 Cannon Beach is a cool place - spent a lot of time there over the years
  • 2 0
 @RadBartTaylor:
Thought of it as a typical tourist trap when I showed up, felt like I was coming back from another planet by the time I left..
  • 3 3
 Don’t mind me just here to see if anything’s been posted about the win it Wednesday from sdg and we are one, and the advent calendar prize winners.. middle of feb. and still no sign of anything.. guess p.b. Is just trash? Idk haven’t seen much to prove otherwise
  • 2 0
 And comment of the year for the last few years now
  • 2 0
 This! Finally some content that makes me smile! I remember these days. Didn't realize Ibis was ever from Walnut Creek though. Did I read that Ad right?
  • 4 0
 Aahhh simpler times when cable routing wasn't even a topic
  • 2 0
 Pre-CR, - when everything was awesome, and now apparently unrideable in modern times
  • 3 0
 Can’t recall the manufacturer, possibly yeti, but I remember back in the day someone came out with a frame that ran all the cables on top of the top tube. Allegedly to be protected from mud. I’m sure the mountain bike magazines were absolutely inundated with hand written snail mailed hate mail.
  • 2 0
 @boopiejones: lol ...fax machines would have been going mental with incoming rage at mtb mag HQ
  • 1 0
 @boopiejones: GT had cables all on the top tube when I sold them in the 90's!
  • 1 0
 @SLBIKES: Bring back the “Groove Tube!”
  • 1 0
 @threesixtykickflip: my first job was for an insurance company. Customers would sometimes get angry when their claims were denied. We had one angry customer fax in a death threat.
  • 4 0
 MTB history is as important as the future. Thanks for sharing!
  • 2 0
 My dad bought that Ross back in the day and still has it. I’ve never actually taken it out on the trail but it rides really nice on the road.
  • 2 0
 You could convert it to a gravelbike.
  • 1 0
 At first glance, I thought this was about New Belgium changing their original Fat Tire recipe last month. Thank goodness this isn't as tragic
  • 3 0
 My first mtb had the Biopace chainring...haha.. 80's.
  • 1 0
 My cat's name is Fairfax. After the town. I'm sure it's lost a lot of its character now but man, than would have been a great place to be in the late 70s.
  • 1 0
 Fairfax has plenty of character today. And characters.
  • 1 0
 Why are the all the late 80’s early 90’s mountain bikes I had worth nothing but the early 80’s BMX bikes I ounce owned worth $?
  • 1 0
 Exactly!
I was once looking for an aluminum framed ~2015 SC Tallboy so I could commute on the same bike as my carbon Tallboy.
Gone. Nowhere. A super popular bike that apparently was rolled off the edge of the flat planet.
  • 3 0
 I like the race results - dave, bob, steve etc.
  • 3 0
 Bring back Bike Magazine, in print.
  • 2 0
 I feel like a lot more people were named Tom back then
  • 2 0
 Shout out to Gordon in second place.
  • 1 0
 High end cycle for 16 hundy. What a deal!
  • 1 0
 Is time a flat oval circle?
  • 1 0
 LOL, the fat tires these days make you look skinny!







Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv42 0.044125
Mobile Version of Website