Charlie’s Green Machine
Charlie built this bike #12 in 1982. The brakes, frame geometry, fork and components are almost identical to his first mountain bike, built in 1978, now on display at the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and Museum. Green #12 was very light for its time at 23.5 pounds. The heattreated 6061-T6 aluminum frame has been further processed and cold worked in critical areas to make the metal incredibly strong and fatigue resistant. The stem was machined from ZK-60A magnesium billet with a 1.125” hole down the center. While the removable cap allowed fast, easy handlebar changes, it also presented a wide clamping surface to reduce stress on the handlebar. Charlie used 6-4 titanium in the chainguides and pedal toe flips. The seatpost is made from .035” 2024-T3 aluminum with an internal sleeve in the high stress area where it enters the frame. The saddle rail clamps are magnesium.
In the early years of mountain bikes, use of toe clips was rare, probably because early mountain bikers felt insecure riding off road with feet strapped to the pedals. Laurence Malone and Charlie were the only people Charlie knew of that used them until others began to recognize the huge ergonomic advantage they provide and that they could be safe. The pedals, straps and toe clips on all of Charlie's bikes are modified for easy, consistent entry and instant emergency escape, even with the straps tight.
Many of the handmade parts on this bike were forerunners of products that became popular in later years. The 7075-T6 cam style seatpost clamp has been adopted by manufacturers and is common today. The stem with its removable cap and the custom built sealed bearing hubs inspired many similar products by CNC machinists and large-scale manufacturers.
Charlie made the 11-38, seven speed freewheel from cogs available at the time and modified each tooth profile to give quick, precise shifting. The bike has a single 41 tooth front chainring. The black anodized brakes were bandsaw cut from 7075-T6 plate and hand filed to final shape. The toggle brake linkage gives accurate and powerful control while being fully adjustable for power level. Overall, this bike is an absolute dream to ride, having been designed to excel on narrow Marin County singletrack.
Charlie raced this bike in several major events in 1984, including the NORBA Nationals in Nederland, Colorado placing 10th overall and first in the over 35 class. This Green #12 contrasts starkly to the bare and battered Cunningham warhorse that Jacquie Phelan trained and raced on for nine seasons, winning three national championships.
Green #12 is a distinct departure from Charlie's purely function-based approach to bikes and equipment. Curious as it may seem now, many bike enthusiasts and opinion leaders in the early mountain bike scene preferred traditional materials, designs, components and appearance. Charlie's bare frames with big, visible welds and no paint were often viewed as “strange and unfinished looking.”
Charlie was not one to force his ideas on people, especially when they really wanted to buy a bike and wanted it to look pretty. So, when he began selling bikes, he decided to offer them two ways; exactly the way he thought they should be, and in forms that were closer to prevailing expectations. This included offering two different frame geometries, sloping or horizontal toptube, big diameter or standard seattube, several fork choices, Cunningham cam brakes or standard cantilever brakes, extra wide or standard front hub widths, modified dropbars or flatbars, and …
even paint!
Charlie's feeling is that with reasonable care 6061aluminum bikes don’t need paint to prevent corrosion the way steel bikes do. In fact, he considers paint on an aluminum mountain bike to be a liability. If the bike is really being used as intended, the paint just gets trashed. More important in his opinion is the fact that without paint, if the frame is damaged, it can be repaired quickly and easily … sometimes without even disassembling the bike!
Regardless,to demonstrate that paint could be available when important to the buyer, he chose to paint two of his many personal bikes, blue #11 road bike and green #12 mountain bike, but his opinion that paint is a nuisance was always known. Of course, in later years it became fashionable to sell unpainted aluminum bikes. Its hard for people today to imagine how mountain bike culture, so strongly associated with radical departure from tradition and unrestrained innovation, could have had early proponents in the beginnings that were uncomfortable with such things.
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