1987 Cunningham Racer
1987 Cunningham Racer
A Cunningham mountain bike is a pretty rare thing, as only about 200 were ever made. It’s a shame that more aren’t around, as these unique bikes ride beautifully and show off some real innovation from the early days of the sport.
This particular bike, a Cunningham Racer, would have set you back a mind-boggling $4200 in 1987, or about four times the price of a new Bridgestone MB-1. Sure, a lot of money thirty years ago but if you had bought a Cunningham back then, today you could show up at a gravel-road race or mountain bike event and never pay for beer at the after party.
Dirt drop bar, custom fork
Roller-cam brakes, a Cunningham invention
Dirt drop bars with thumb shifter mounts
The designs that Charlie came up with for his bikes made mountain bikes what they are today. One of the original Marin County mountain bike guys and an inductee in the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame, Charlie made his contributions to the sport as an idea guy.
Grease guard bearings could be maintained without removal
Sealed bottom bracket, mud guard for the brake
Cunningham custom post and quick release
He came up with iconic tire tread designs (Specialized Ground Control, WTB Velociraptor) that are still rolling down trails today. Charlie built the earliest aluminum mountain bikes you’ll ever find, and designed them with sloping top tubes and reinforcement gussets years before anyone else figured out that those were smart frame elements. Roller-cam brakes were Charlie’s idea, and they woke up the bike industry to the fact that cantilevers didn’t stop mountain bikes very well. 135mm rear hub width (which reduced wheel dish and spoke breakage)? Charlie. Grease Guard cartridge bearings that could be repacked with grease without removal? Charlie. Tubular (instead of flat plate) fork crowns? Charlie. Dirt drop handlebars? Charlie.
There’s an interesting extra touch to this bike. Take a look at the back side of the fork crown. See the two bolts there? They aren’t there for any type of brake. We originally thought that those were there for a Cunningham idea that didn’t quite pan out: a steering damper of some type. Before suspension forks, Cunningham and component maker Tioga both played around with dampers that would limit the amount your handlebars could turn, or just tamp down the jostling that you would feel at the handlebars. We thought wrong. It turns out that those bolts were there to secure a front rack that wrapped over the fork crown and away from the front brake. A perfect storage solution for an era before Camelbak backpacks.