James McLean:
CLASS OF 1975
New Rochelle High SchoolClass of 1975
New rochelle, NY
Albert Leonard Middle SchoolClass of 1972
New rochelle, NY
St. Patrick SchoolClass of 1971
Yorktown heights, NY
Holy Family SchoolClass of 1969
New rochelle, NY
Brookside Intermediate SchoolClass of 1969
Yorktown heights, NY
James's Story
James McLean was born at the height of the baby boom (1957) in a small village on an island off the east coast (Greenwich Village, Manhattan Island, New York). He was raised in Westchester County, New York with his eight younger siblings. He rode balloon tire bikes in the woods of Maine during summer vacations as early as 1968. In 1968 he won a 3 speed English racer by selling greeting cards door to door that he modified to ride the streets and local trails. In 1970 he bought a ten-speed and began exploring suburban Westchester and the back roads of western Maine. In 1974 he entered his first amateur race and continued road racing around the northeast through 1977.
James moved to Santa Barbara, California in December 1977, where he met a local who went by the name of Wing Bamboo. Wing showed him his modified balloon tire bike (klunker) that he referred spiritually to as his ‘mountain bike’. After riding the bike McLean thought it was too heavy and decided to build a lightweight version. Two months later he read that Joe Breeze had actually built such a bike.
That summer of 1978 James visited Marin county where he met Charles Kelly on his original Breezeroff-road bike that he called a ‘Klunker’. Unable to meet Breeze, he bought a bare proto-type frame ofrom Don and Erik Koski for $100.
In the fall of 1978, McLean built the first definitive “mountain bike” with help from frame builder Chris Pauley and machinist Chris King who shared the bike shop where he worked in Santa Barbara. McLean, Pauley and King discussed starting a company that winter that they would name Mountain Bikes. In April of 1979 McLean met Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, Otis Guy and Greg LeMond when they visited Santa Barbara. He showed them his bike and spoke of their plans to build and sell mountain bikes worldwide. Later that year Fisher and Kelly started a company named ‘MountainBikes’.
In early 1980 James placed 7th in Victor Vincente’s ‘Reseda to the Sea Challenge’. After finishing second to nemesis Fisher in the ‘Central Coast Clunker Classic’that June he...Expand for more
decided to trade his bike in for a lighter MountainBikes Ritchey built frame. He won the 35-mile Sespe Hot Springs Stage Race the next month by nearly an hour. McLean edged out Vicente and Fisher later that year winning the ‘Southern California King of the Dirt’ title in the first year of off-road bicycle racing.
James began his road rep career that summer of 1980 and set out to sell mountain biking to California’s bicycle shops. Representing Mountain Bikes he visited hundreds of bike dealers showing them his bike hoping that they would embrace the new concept of off-road cycling. In late 1981 he convinced Univega Bicycles owner Ben Lawee to produce a mountain bike that McLean designed and named the ‘Alpina Sport’. The model was introduced in early 1982 and became the first factory
produced mountain bike. The Alpina Sport out sold all other mountain bikes on the market that year. He joined Specialized Bicycles summer of 1982 and that fall organized and promoted the ‘Rockhopper for Lungs’ off-road race in Sonoma county. The Rockhopper became the largest event of the sport for the next four years. (He allowed Specialized to use the name ‘RockHopper’ for it’s new model in 1984.) In 1983 he helped Glenn Odell put on the first NORBA National Championship in Santa Barbara. In 1986 James conceived off-road technical support which Specialized initiated later that year.
McLean became the promoter of the ten event ‘Colorado Off Road Series’ in 1989. In 1990 the series included the first unified World Mountain Bike Championship in Durango, Colorado. The prize list of over $230,000 (90) remains the largest in the sports history. In 1993 James sold the ‘Fat Tire Journal’ television show to the cycling trade. The Journal won Velo News’s ‘Video of the Year’ as America’’s first off-road cycling feature the following year. James was a private guest of the White House in 1994 for recognition of his accomplishments in cycling. He can be seen in the documentary film 'Klunkerz' released in 2006.
James McLean now resides in Santa Barbara, Ca.
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