- Keith Bontrager
Keith Bontrager (born
December 18 ,1954 ) is a successfulmotorcycle racer turned pioneer in the development of the modernmountain bike .Between
1980 and1995 he was president ofBontrager Cycles , prior to a buy out by theTrek Bicycle Corporation .Keith continues to develop advanced components for Trek.
Career
Motorcycles
Keith started his two wheeled career in
1965 by building lawnmower engine powered mini-bikes.In
1969 Keith began amotocross career, funding his racing through odd-jobs andmotorcycle repair work. He won several national road racing titles in production and 250 GP classes.Between
1975 and1981 Keith designed, built and tuned motocross androad racing motorcycles.Cycling
In
1978 Keith became attracted tocycling , and in1979 built his first road bike. With his motocross background it was natural that he should become attracted to the growingmountain bike scene. In1980 he built his first mountain bike frame and foundedBontrager Cycles , out of Sunnyvale,California , offering custom road, track, tandem and mountain bike frames.In
1984 Keith came up with the idea of cutting 700C (ISO 622) 40-holeMavic MA-2 tandem rims down to the circumference of a 26" rim, and re-rolling them to create a 32-hole 26" rim.Special purpose mountain bike rims at that time were scarce and/or heavy. The Bontrager rims (later using the hard anodized MA-40 profile) were the first lightweight yet strong mountain bike rims, albeit using a profile intended for road racing bicycles, predating lightweight rims by Specialized (designed by
Wilderness Trail Bikes ),Sun Metal , Ritchey or even Mavic themselves.Mavic provided the MA-40 MTB rims for some time on their own. Keith went on designing lightweight rims, manufactured by
Weinmann USA . Several models were introduced but never went into high volume production as the Weinmann plant suffered a fire.The design of Bontrager frames was based on results of his studies at the
University of California, Santa Cruz and experience as a motocross bike mechanic. While other manufacturers developed frames out of seemingly innovative materials like (oversized)aluminium ,titanium , orcarbon-fibre , Keith's opinion was thatsteel was not outdated as a material but rather design and production methods could be improved. Keith determined that frame joints could be strengthened by the use ofgusset s, which would provide better distribution of loads around the joints and reduce the weakening effects ofbrazing andwelding on the tubing. He even found areas in which joints could be made by bonding andrivet ing, i.e. the frames made between1989 and1994 had cable stops milled out ofAluminum that were bonded andrivet ed to the top tube. All frames made at Bontrager's Santa Cruz workshop had two-piece seat stays made of largerdiameter tubing in the upper area which added torsionalstiffness around the brake-bosses, while the smaller tubes in the lower area reduced weight and vertical stiffness of the reartriangle leading to better damping of hits.Keith also published several articles on bicycle design and construction, ranging from the effects of TIG welding on the tubes to the flaws in the accepted sizing methods of the day. Keiths analytical approach led to his nickname amongst some mountain bike
magazine s of "The Professor".In
1987 he designed and patented the composite fork crown. This used an aluminum fork crown that clamped the fork blades and the steerer instead of using welds or brazing. This crown design was used on theRock Shox RS1 suspension fork, and Bontrager's own rigid fork, the "Switchblade". Keith's belief in avoiding heat affection of the tubes wherever possible led to versions of the "Switchblade" with bonded andrivet ed dropouts and brake bosses leading to a fork with nowelding orbrazing at all. This retained all the strength gained bytempering the tubing.In
1992 Bontrager Cycles expanded from a one-man custom frame shop to a limited production facility. In1993 they also started to producehandlebar stems which were among the lightest on the market while being proven durable by Keith's testing procedures. Around the same time a range of components designed by Keith and produced externally were brought to the market, including very lightweight yet stronghandlebar s,bar end s andseatpost s marketed by theTitec brand, and a saddle made by Selle san Marco.In
1995 Keith's business partnerHans Heim left to joinSanta Cruz Cycles , and put his share of Bontrager Cycles up for sale. Trek acquired Bontrager Cycles in its entirety and hired Keith as president.After the Trek buy-out Bontrager production split into two distinct lines. The frameshop in Santa Cruz continued to manufacture the high-end mountain bike frames (the Race and Race Lite models), the Road Lite (road race), the
cyclo-cross frames, and later aBMX frame. At about this same time, Bontrager stopped using two-piece seat stays on their mountain frames in favor of a single tapered tube. The Ti Lite, a titanium version of the mountain bike frame, was made by tubing manufacturerSandvik . At the same time, in order to broaden their market, the Privateer, an entry-level frame, was designed using the same True Temper tubing as the Santa Cruz-made-frames but made at Trek's plant in Waterloo,Wisconsin with some small design changes in order to make them easier to produce.Keith took on a product development role at Trek. Besides designing
handlebar s,handlebar stems,bar end s andseatpost s he got into designingtires ,crankset s and again into rims and complete wheels.By the end of the 90's production techniques for aluminium frames had advanced to a point that allowed cheap mass-production of reliable frames. Consequently hardtail steel frames went out of fashion for mass production. The production of Bontrager frames in Santa Cruz ceased as it did in Trek's Wisconsin plant.
Keith continues to work with Trek to develop premium quality wheels and components for road and mountain bikes. These wheels have proven themselves in the
Tour de France where they were ridden byLance Armstrong and the US Postal (later Discovery) Team.Keith has a hands-on approach to product development and has competed in over fifty 24-hour mountain bike races and other events such as the Three Peaks
cyclo-cross race in order to test his products in the real world.Education
Keith majored in
Physics at UCSC.Awards and Recognition
Keith was inducted into the
Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1994.Personal life
Keith is married to Laura and is the father of three daughters: Megan, Anna, and Juliana.
External links
* [http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/page.cfm?pageid=6&memberid=47 Page on the MTB Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.bontrager.com/ Bontrager Bicycle Components]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.