In the late 1960s near San Francisco, Gary Fisher and Charles Kelly began riding their bicycles on trails that no ordinary Schwinn could handle. With Joe Breeze, these two riders set up a group called "Clunkers" and began making their own bikes, specifically designed for off-road, rough-terrain riding. Organizing more and more races throughout the 1970s, the "Clunkers" watched the popularity of mountain biking sweep the nation, including a well-known group called "Fat Tires" in San Diego. Fisher would perfect his bike manufacturing to an art, and by the late 1990s, his hand-crafted bikes sold for thousands of dollars. Other bike shops and manufacturers followed suit, and mountain bikes had become the most common variation of the bicycle by the end of the twentieth century. The popularity of mountain bikes can be attributed to the abundant opportunities for off-road riding in most areas and the ease...