User Reviews

Mountain bikes weren't called "mountain bikes" in the 1970's. Category 1 road racers and hippies alike took their old cruiser bikes out on Mount Tamalpais, in Marin County, California, and rode them on the dirt trails and fire roads. They called them Clunkers, Bombers, Ballooners, Beaters, and many other names– but the sport of mountain biking had been born. This is a great documentary film about the very beginnings of mountain biking. Director William Savage is at his finest, capturing the thoughts of the men and women who brought this sport into the public's eye with the world's first mountain bike race, the famed "Repack" downhill.

Interviewed in the film are mountain bike pioneers Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, Tom Ritchey, Otis Guy, Alan Bonds, Wende Cragg, Chris Lang, Craig Mitchell, and Fred Wolf, including others too many to be named. The Larkspur Canyon Gang and The Morrow Dirt Club are two more groups that rode on Mt. Tamalpais in the early days. Klunkerz has some great footage of the old days; shots from helmet-mounted cameras, bombing down fire roads, cameramen being wiped out by out-of-control riders, and the festivities at the end of the race. Whether you're curious about the history of mountain biking or not, this is a entertaining and informative film to see.

When Bill Savage contacted me in early 2004 to tell me about his project called KLUNKERZ, I recoiled in fear. Good Luck, I told him sarcastically. At that time I had no idea he possessed the guts and determination it took to create the definitive film about the roots of mountain biking.

After carefully viewing the film twice, I am convinced KLUNKERZ belongs in the pantheon of definitive sports films along side On Any Sunday, Endless Summer, Riding Giants, North Dallas Forty and Slapshot. There is a labor of love at work here that becomes evident immediately. Informative, entertaining and respectful, this film is required viewing for anybody who ever straddled a Stingray, hammered up hills on a 10 speed, or bunny-hopped a Stump Jumper.

Riding mountain bikes is not just a sport to most of its participants. It is a religion. A way of life. Bill Savage, a Marin County founding father himself, has taken his time and his own money to carefully and passionately construct a cohesive and detailed documentary that never strays from the point. The cast list reads like the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. If you don't know the names Bonds, Breeze, Kelly, Fisher, Ritchey and McLean you will not only know them, but forever speak of them with awe and reverence, after seeing KLUNKERZ. Bill Savages' KLUNKERZ answers the frequently debated post ride questions: "Who invented the Mountain Bike?" and "How and Where did Mountain Biking begin?" Only a wheeze bag would not want to see this film.

Jerry Martin Producer The Fat Tire Journal