Breezer Lightning back in the day.

The Lightning Team is a state-of-the-art steel hardtail with inimitable Breeze tweaks. On a historical note, the Breezer Lightning is a hallowed model in mountain biking lore. Joe designed and built the first from-scratch mountain bikes as custom frames for friends in Marin County under the shadow of Mount Tamalpais. As a nod to Tom Ritchey, the other pioneering frame builder, Breeze’s Lightning Team build uses a Ritchey headset, stem, handlebars and seat post.

Although most of our riding these days is on full suspension bikes, our Ibis Mojo and Pivot Firebird, we still hack around town on a slightly street-modified Titus titanium HCR hardtail we’ve had for nearly a decade. We decided to line up the Lightning with the HCR for visual comparison of what Joe has done to adapt convention to the 21st Century.

Today and yesterday, in racing hardtail tech.

The first thing you’ll notice is the Breezer’s arched down tube (for fork clearance, but also strength). Then there’s the shorter top tube. Lower standover height. More relaxed angles. Bottom bracket height and seat-stay length are comparable — a testament to both frames’ racing heritage. You can’t see it from the side-by-side, but the Breezer also has a clever inset rear disc caliper and unique dropout setup. [Full specs here.]

Testing the Breezer, we decided to trade off riding with our other bikes to really clarify its different feel. What jumped out at us most was the Lightning’s trigger-quick handling, its responsiveness to terrain, and its cat-like climbing ability. There were times the Lightning just kind of melded with the ride to the point we felt really at one with the frame. It reacts so fast to what you want it to do, the bike seems almost psychic.

Tucking in the caliper for stability and power.

As its name suggests, the Lightning is made to go fast. It felt so demonstrably quicker we decided to do a couple of tests against our other bikes. We rode both hardtails around a hilly loop near our home on dirt trails through Lower Woodland Park. The first test we rode the Lightning first and then the HCR. The second test we switched the order. In both cases the Lightning was faster.

We did a similar test up a long singletrack climb at Grand Ridge near Issaquah, switching off between the Breezer and our Mojo. The results were the same. According to the stopwatch, the Lightning won. The margin on all four tests averaged out to under 1 percent. That doesn’t sound big, but even a fraction of a second can mean a lot in a racing context. Just ask Davis Phinney.

Now to be clear, these tests were subject to so many variables as to render them meaningful only for casual observation. It should be noted that the Lightning is super light — 24.5 lbs. compared to 26.2 lbs. for the HCR and 25.5 for the Mojo. And although we tried to compensate for fatigue, etc., in the end our endeavor was hardly what you would call scientific.

A head badge steeped in MTB lore.

Still, we found it interesting that the Lightning, in addition to feeling faster, actually was faster, as far as our admittedly unrigorous testing could determine.

Light as it is, the Breezer seemed capable of taking a pounding. We couldn’t resist taking it over some of Lower Woodland’s doubles, and even off a small lip jump. While the landings didn’t quite compare to, say, our Firebird, we were impressed at how stable the Lightning felt on touch-down. It’s a finely balanced, springy frame that airs and sticks well, hugging any surface. Even over urban fun stuff, going down stairs, jumping curbs, etc., the Lightning sucked up hits with grace and aplomb.

Although far more compliant than aluminum, steel (Breezer D’fusion custom-butted Reynolds 525 CroMoly) does not typically have the damping of ti. But we were impressed with the Lightning. It fell a bit short of the Titus in soaking up vibration, but its more sophisticated geometry gave it a precision that helped compensate for surface jar.

We came to like the lockout.

The large frame fit perfectly despite the shorter top tube. At first we thought the remote lockout on the Fox 32 F100-RL fork was overkill but came to really like it, the only trick being remembering to click back to travel mode after the climb! The Lightning’s Schwalbe Rocket Rons were grippier than we expected, with an open tread pattern that accentuated the bike’s speed. The Shimano XT drive train (rear XTR derailleur) was crisp and quick but we still prefer SRAM. The one thing we’d definitely change on the Lightning is the narrow (23-inch) flat handlebar. It felt too twitchy, especially after riding our 27-inch Mojo bars (the HCR has 25-inchers; both are 1-inch risers as well).

What really struck home for us was the fun factor. It’s been years since we’ve ridden trails on a hardtail and we’d forgotten what a different set of pluses it can bring to the singletrack experience. This is a great all-around bike, especially for prowling the hills around Mount Tam, Breeze’s stomping grounds. Joe has 29ers on the way and undoubtedly a few more tricks up his sleeve. Watch for more quality innovation from the fertile and creative mind of Joe Breeze.

[Note: While BikeIntelligencer policy is to review only stuff we've purchased, in this case we will return the Lightning to Breezer. We've got enough bikes.]

Here’s a look at Joe on video, talking about his new Cloud 9 that we previewed last month.

The day after you stopped making mountain bikes, your fans began begging you to come back. Why now, given the shaky economy?

Back in 1998, it was a tough decision to not make mountain bikes. I made the choice because I felt it was time to focus on transportation bikes, which were virtually unknown in the US and extremely important for many reasons. With me as sole designer, spokesperson etc for Breezer, doing mountain bikes at the same time would have been too big a distraction. Now transportation bikes are an established and successful category, with Breezer being recognized as a leader. Since I teamed up with a much bigger company, Advanced Sports Inc. (late 2008), I’ve finally been able to re-enter the mountain bike field. We’re still focused on transportation bikes, but ASI also wanted to do Breezer mountain bikes and so did I. I don’t know exact demand/numbers, but the level of enthusiasm of the people who take time to find me and ask for mountain bikes has always been an encouragement. We chose to start with a hardtail because 1) people had been asking for an updated Breezer hardtail, 2) it was relatively easy to do, and 3) hardtails are still quite viable.

Back in the day on the first Breezer

Fork blades, chainstays and other tubes on frames are bent cold after the tube has been drawn. Breezer downtubes are hydro-formed, but structurally the result is essentially the same. The curved down tube is to allow clearance for the 100mm-travel fork. I could have continued the tube straight to the head tube without curving, but the tube would’ve intersected the head tube a long ways from its lower end. Without a gusset, that would’ve resulted in a weak structure. With a gusset, it would deaden the ride quality. A curved tube was the best solution.


”The lightest for their strength.” How lighter than ti, and how stronger?

I should have made it clear that I was speaking in the context of the bikes’ individual materials: steel (Lightning) and aluminum (Thunder). In each material, I work to make the lightest frame per strength. It is possible to build a titanium frame that’s lighter/stronger, but it’s a challenge. Unfortunately the gains with Ti are small or non-existent because Ti tubing and joinery is less sophisticated than the steel and aluminum counterparts, owing to titanium’s expense and difficulty to work with. Ti suffers from poor economy of scale.



Breezer's new Thunder Elite

These 2010 Breezer mountain bikes are made in Taiwan. It really is not economically feasible to make this product in the USA. You may recall that some time ago in the USA, bikes equated to about zip. Zip was unappealing to build. Zip was eagerly taken over by countries where people saw a future in it. They built it. The industry grew there and it is there. It’s nice that you see me as a game changer or a visionary, but change that?

Breeze tears it up aboard the new Thunder Elite. Photo by Wil Matthews/Singletrack.com

The badge is etched and painted brass and attached with drive screws. I arrived at the design in 1982. It is similar to the badges on the 1930s and 40s Schwinns we once rode, as is the “spears and diamonds” paint job. The badge depicts Mt. Tam in my Marin County backyard. The road down the middle is Old Railroad Grade, remnant of the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Scenic Railway (1896-1930). This was the scene of my first fat-tire ride, in 1973. There are redwoods and blue lupine. The road in the foreground is Rollercoaster Ridge, and the tire is a Stumpjumper, the best tire of its day.



What can you say about the forthcoming 29ers?

In 2011, we will offer four hardtail 29ers, two in aluminum and two in carbon fiber. One priority has been to make them great climbers. [Note: See accompanying press release.]



Rather than sell your brand to Trek or a similar megacorporation back in the ’90s, you stuck with small and boutique. Assuming you’d agree it was the right choice, did it offer any advantages in the evolving marketplace?

Courtesy BikeRumor.com


What’s the biggest surprise to you about how the sport of mountain biking has evolved?

The biggest surprise to me came quite a few years back, and that is how big the sport became in Europe, or that it happened there at all — that an American product was embraced so fully. I had never felt that Europe needed anyone’s help regarding bikes.


What’s the most impressive innovation in cycling you’ve seen (that you didn’t do yourself)?

Indexed shifting.



Is your son faster than you? Or does dad still rool?!

As Tommy approached his teens I knew I’d need to get in better shape if I was going to ride with him for long. Last year he joined the Drake High School mountain bike team and became a top-10 Freshman in NorCal racing. I’ve stepped up my program, but increasingly he’s a speck on the horizon. I still give him a run for his money on the downhills though.