Help Charlie

By now you may have heard that mountain bike pioneer Charlie Cunningham has had a serious bike related accident.

In August of this year Charlie suffered multiple fractures and a sever head injury.

News of Charlie’s condition has made the rounds of social media outlets like Facebook, Reddit, and Linkedin.

Currently there a crowdfunding effort is under way to help Charlie’s family to help pay for his medical bills and rehabilitation.

Perhaps it is a good time to take a look at Charlie’s contributions to the cycling industry. I want to predicate thing before preceding any further by saying I don’t claim any special relationship with Charlie, nor do I clam an extraordinary knowledge concerning his accomplishments.

While many early mountain bikers had experience with metalworking or motor sports, Charlie Cunningham was unusual due to his background as an aerospace engineer.

While St. Louis Refrigerator and Wooden Gutter Co may lay claim to the first cast aluminum bicycles, the 1890’s Lu-Mi-Num Charlie was amongst the first people in mountain biking to experiment with welded aluminum as a frame material.

Though it is a matter of debate who made the first welded aluminum road bikes in the US (Gary Klein debuted a welded aluminum road bikes at a New York bike show in 1975) Cunningham saw the advantage of aluminum for mountain bikes. Aluminum was considerably more resistant to oxidization than were the more communally available steel bikes and with careful heat-treating it could be just as durable.

A major problem with early mountain bikes was extremely poor braking. Poor braking partly due to the paring of heavy steel rims mated with underpowered, antique MAFAC tandem cantilever brakes. While the MAFAC cantilevers were arguably an improvement over the previously favored coaster brakes coaster brakes generally had a limited gearing option, were underpowered, and were maintenance intensive.

Some one needed to develop a low weight, high-powered alternative to dodgy cantilevers, heavy and inadequate drum brakes, and outmoded coaster brakes. Charlie set about trying to find a better solution. That quest led Charlie to explore the library and after viewing many designs from the 1880s and 90s he developed his own brake designs.

Originally these brakes were made with the use of a band saw and hand tools but later versions became much more refined, and powerful.

In 1982, Charlie Cunningham, and fellow frame builders Steve Potts and Mark Slate and started Wilderness Trails Bike. WTB combined the collective engineering and frame fabrication skills of the founding members and was often hired as design consultants by such major companies as Trek, Specialized, Blackburn and SunTour to name a few.

I talked to several Cunningham owners concerning why they thought Charlie’s bikes had developed such a cult following. This is what they said:

•    Some owners talked about how they liked having a direct link to the earliest days of mountain biking
•    One talked about that up to the point of his buying his ‘Ham that he had broken every other mountain bike he had owned
•    Others had said that since each bike was made for rider they were tailored for their individual needs
•    Several had said that Charlie’s bikes were the ultimate “all day” bike because they isolated the rider from shock (partly due to a large diameter, thin walled seatpost that had a fair amount of built in flex)

While there had been several Wikipedia pages, MTBR threads, and fan sites concerning Charlie’s technical contributions his biggest contribution, however is just being Charlie.

In an era of televised jumping contests, and off shore made bikes that cost as much as a car Charlie harkens back to an era where the most important part of riding a bike was simply riding a bike.

The one and only time I met Charlie was I was over at his house with a friend of mine and we were working with his wife, Jacquie Phelan, helping her with some computer issues. While there Jacquie said that if we were lucky we may actually catch a glimpse of “The Shy One”.

Charlie eventually walked by and peered in through a window of their kitchen door, smiled, waved, and quietly walked off. That was it.

Today we are overwhelmed by a nigh endless barrage of marketing bullshit, instantly forgettable famous for being famous types, glory seeking GoPro adrenaline hogs, Charlie focused on what was important, doing good work, being a good person, and not being a dick.

Any one wanting to contribute to Charlie’s rehabilitation is heartedly encouraged to do so.