Fisher, the klunker king who out of mountain biking’s core pioneers generated the most successful business enterprise, gained a boutique “Collection” but lost his brand ID at the hands of megacorporation Trek. Purchased by Trek in 1996, Fisher Bikes managed all the time since to retain its own line of mountain bikes, innovating further with the 29-inch models that Fisher invented and tirelessly promoted.
All well and good. But we’ve seen this movie before, with Gary Klein (inventor of the fat-tubed aluminum frame who was once king of the boutique brands), with Greg LeMond (who wound up in a bitter lawsuit to obtain his brand back from Trek) and with Keith Bontrager (whose wit and wisdom sadly faded from the scene as his brand became diluted with decent but unremarkable components).
To say that Fisher can endure where these other icons eroded would be blind optimism at its finest. Whatever sense it makes for Trek fiscally, we cannot see how Gary can maintain an individual identity in the huge Trek gene pool.
No matter what happens, to us he will always be The Man. When we left road riding for mountain biking in the early 1990s, Fisher bikes were the bomb. You’d see one on the trails and the encounter would instantly turn to inspecting the frame and components and commenting on this and that, and what a cool guy Gary was. He’s still a cool guy, and we trust that if the implementation strays from the vision in this deal, he’ll land on his feet for the betterment of us all. We can’t say we’d mind seeing him break off and start another something on his own.
Then there’s Gary’s early counterpart, Joe Breeze, who’s a much bigger name than the outfit that bought his brand in 2009 — Advanced Sports Inc. (ASI). And getting bigger: He officially announced his first new mountain bikes in more than a decade.
If there’s one word that sums up Joe’s reputation, it’s “class.” Or classic. His early mountain bikes are works of art that you can still find occasionally on the trails around Mill Valley and NorCal.
A long time ago in cycling years, Breeze abandoned mountain bikes to focus on commuter bikes, leaving his legions of fans scratching their heads while knowing Joe never made a foolish move in his life. As it turned out, Breeze correctly prophesied the decade of cycling as a transportation pursuit, evinced by healthy growth in bike commuting in metro areas.
So it comes as another out-of–the-blue surprise that Breeze is getting back into the mountain bike business. He announced three new models based on his uniquely strong and innovative tubing and design. Carrying the distinctive “Breezer” logo, they’re light, they’re bulletproof, and they carry the Breeze cachet all the way to the podium. The Thunder Elite with a fairly straightforward XT build clocks in at just over 20 pounds before even being weenied out. These things should fly.
We wish both these guys the best and will watch for their respective steeds out on the trail.