Tom Lambrecht, Nederland.  Insider (from Wikipedia): “A member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access. The term is used in the context of secret, privileged, hidden or otherwise esoteric information or knowledge.”

Our local hikers and bikers are chomping at the bit, hoping for the day when Mother Nature finally decides that spring is here and the sloppy trails will dry out. Until that happens, a couple of new book arrivals at Nederland Community Library will serve to give us a fix of vicarious outdoors. Two of these titles explore the playful concept of “outside insiders,” the folks who push the boundaries of outdoor recreation, some even inventing a whole new form of it.

As someone who worked in bicycle retail when production mountain bikes debuted in the early 1980s, it still amazes me how quickly they morphed from something many industry professionals regarded as a flash-in-the-pan gimmick into becoming the mainstream bike of choice for Joe Consumer. Nowadays, you can run down to your local bike shop and choose from a bewildering array of featherweight mountain bikes, but in the old days, you had to construct it yourself. You’d typically start with a heavy thrift store single-speed bike. and then try to strengthen it to survive rugged trails that it was not designed to navigate and simultaneously lighten it so it wouldn’t be so exhausting to pedal. The people who made them called them ”clunkers,” and are the main topic of our first volume.

Charlie Kelly was one of the founding fathers of the “clunker” bike craze that started in northern California. His book, Fat Tire Flyer: Repack and the Birth of Mountain Biking (Velo Press) details the early history of the mountain bike. The first part of the book title comes from the magazine that Kelly sporadically published up until 1987. Our bike shop had a subscription early on and the arrival of a new issue generally caused an exodus of employees from the sales floor to the basement workshop where we squabbled over who got to read it next. It was the only periodical devoted to the subject at the time and like the first clunker bikes, was both cobbled-together and a labor of love.

Kelly’s observations of the Marin clunker scene including the Repack downhill race that he organized are followed by profiles of the first mountain bike frame builders, including legendary names like Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey and Joe Breeze. There’s something here for roadies as well, with the author providing his unique perspective of the Coors Classic and the Giro d’Italia road races. A chapter on the parallel scene that developed in Crested Butte should  interest Colorado bikers. These are only a few highlights of the book’s 250+ pages and Kelly’s first person narrative is done in a style that is as personable as it is personal.

The title of the second book, The Outsiders: New Outdoor Creativity (Gestalten Press) is a clever play on words, since the book’s focus is on the outdoor industry insiders that design, manufacture and use the outdoor gear we love (and love to ogle). Though its emphasis is on smaller cottage-industry companies, old-guard firms like Patagonia, Filson and Leatherman also appear in its pages. Loaded with pictures of trendy gear being used in exotic locales, this volume falls squarely in the eye-candy category, but does include some engaging profiles of gear users, including North and South Pole soloist Arved Fuchs, bikepacker Joe Cruz, and kayaker Mark Kalch. This book is well worth leafing through for the visuals, and to keep your own insider credentials current.

Tom Lambrecht is a Library Assistant at the Nederland Community Library