For our Friday video this week, we’re laughing it up by watching “Klunking” by Evening Magazine. The video comes from the late 1970’s, and is hosted by Steve Fox. Strangely, it makes me think of how some mothers videotape their babies being born, and I wonder if I would ever want to witness my own birth… the answer is no. Besides the creep-out factor, something being born is downright ugly and messy. Well, Klunking is the birth of mountain biking as we know it today, and it too is messy as hell.
But like all things born, something beautiful comes out of it. Without these guys dive-bombing down fire roads on cruiser bikes, rocking steezy moustaches and clothes that would make any tricked-out, full kit wearing weenie with razor shades and clip-in pedals shake in their cleats, we wouldn’t be riding fat tires down mountain trails today. You’ve got to see it to believe it.
Ah, times were more simple back then eh? I think this video is so rad, that we should bring back the term “Klunking.” Forget mountain biking (even though that’s a more visual descriptor of, well, mountain biking.) But Klunking just sounds more fun. But it’s nice to know that one thing never changed in the evolution from Klunking to mountain biking – “it’s muddy in the winter, and dusty in the summer.”