Industry | Bicycles |
---|---|
Founded | 1982 |
Defunct | 1999 |
Fate | Bought by a Holding Company and Closed |
Successor | Independent Fabrication |
Headquarters | Somerville, Massachusetts |
Key people | Chris Chance |
Products | Mountain, Cyclocross, and Road Bicycles |
Fat City Cycles was an American bicycle manufacturing company. Fat City was started by Chris Chance in 1982. Fat City Cycles was one of the early builders of mountain bikes on the East Coast of the United States. [1] When Fat City moved from Somerville, Massachusetts to South Glens Falls, New York, many of the employees left behind went on to start Independent Fabrication. [2]
Chris Chance began building frames in 1977. The company was financed, amongst others, by his wife Wendyll's family. Chance built his first mountain bike frame in 1982, The Fat Chance.
Fat City Cycles closed its doors in Somerville in October 1994 when it was sold to a holding company that had acquired another bike company (Serotta) in South Glens Falls, New York. The holding company moved the Fat City equipment to South Glens Falls. [2] Few employees remained with the company after the move.
Below is a list of some of Fat City Cycles' bicycles.
Model | Introduced | Discontinued | Material | Type of bike | Sizes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fat Chance [3] | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | |||
Fat Chance with 24" Rear Wheel [4] | Mountain bike | ||||
Team Comp [5] | Mountain bike | ||||
Monster Fat [6] | 1991 | 1993 | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | |
Slim Chance [7] | Cro-mo steel | Road bike | |||
Shock A Billy Full [8] | 1994 | Cro-mo steel | Full suspension mountain bike | ||
Yo Eddy | 1990 | 1999 | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | |
Titanium | 1993 | 1999 | Titanium | Mountain bike | |
Yo Betty | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | |||
Buck Shaver | 1994 | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | ||
Wicked Fat Chance | 1987 | Cro-mo steel | Mountain bike | ||
Fat F*ck'n Chance | |||||
Bro Eddy | |||||
Flaming Sea Cycles | 1980 | ||||
Random Tandem | Tandem Mountain Bike | ||||
Edmund ("Ned") Overend is an American former professional cross-country mountain bike racer. He is a six-time NORBA cross-country mountain bike national champion who became the first-ever cross-country world champion by winning the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in 1990. Overend was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2001.
Bicycle messengers are people who work for courier companies carrying and delivering items by bicycle. Bicycle messengers are most often found in the central business districts of metropolitan areas. Courier companies use bike messengers because bicycle travel is less subject to unexpected holdups in city traffic jams, and is not deterred by parking limitations, fees or fines in high-density development that can hinder or prevent delivery by motor vehicle, thereby offering a predictable delivery time.
Juliana "Juli" Furtado is a retired American professional mountain biker, who began her sports career in skiing.
The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, located in Davis, California, is a private 501c3 non-profit organization formed to preserve and promote the sport of cycling. The organization was founded in 1986 in Somerville, New Jersey and has inducted cyclists who have "achieved tremendous success in racing or have enhanced the sport" since 1987. It has operated a museum in Davis since 2009.
Independent Fabrication (IF) is a bicycle company located in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. IF fabricates bicycle frames from steel, titanium and carbon fiber. Independent Fabrication has twice won the Bicycling Magazine "Dream Bike of the Year" with its carbon-tubed, titanium-lugged XS road frame. Independent Fabrication was founded by and is owned by its employees. In 2005, the company took part in a CNN television program called The TurnAround. The show paired a growing business with a mentor from a more successful company. Independent Fabrication was paired with Jeff Swartz, chief executive of Timberland.
Tom Ritchey is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport. He is an innovator of bicycle components that have been used in winning some of the biggest cycling competitions in the world including the UCI World Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympics. In 1988, Ritchey was inducted into the inaugural Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado : and 2012, inducted to the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame in Davis, California.
John Tomac is an American former professional cyclist who competed from 1985 to 2005. He was a versatile rider who competed in multiple disciplines including; BMX racing, cross-country, road racing, trials riding and downhill racing. Tomac became a mountain bike racing icon in the late 1980s as the sport began to develop beyond its formative years. At the time of his retirement in 2005, he had won more mountain bike races than anyone in the sport. In 1991 he was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and, in 2004 he was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.
Jacquie Phelan is an American road and cyclocross racer, and was the NORBA champion three consecutive years—1983, 1984, and 1985.
Charles Richard Kelly was an early pioneer in the development of modern mountain bicycles.
Joe Breeze is an American bicycle framebuilder, designer and advocate from Marin County, California. An early participant in the sport of mountain biking, Breeze, along with other pioneers including Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Tom Ritchey, is known for his central role in developing the mountain bike. Breeze is credited with designing and building the first all-new mountain bikes, which riders colloquially called Breezers. He built the prototype, known as Breezer #1, in 1977 and completed nine more Series I Breezers by early 1978. Breezer #1 is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
Keith Bontrager is a motorcycle racer who became a pioneer in the development of the modern mountain bike. Between 1980 and 1995, he was president of his own Bontrager Company, which continues to develop components for Trek Bicycle Corporation after Trek bought out Bontrager.
David "Tinker" Juarez is an American former professional BMX and cross-country mountain bike racer. His prime competitive years in BMX were from 1978 to 1984 and in mountain bike racing 1986 to 2005. Since late 2005, he has competed as a Marathon mountain bike racer. In all three disciplines, he has won numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, Juarez finished third in the 2006 Race Across America Endurance bicycle race.
Ross Bicycles Inc. manufactured over 15 million bicycles under the Ross brand between 1946 and 1988. The company began in Williamsburg, New York, United States, later moving its headquarters and manufacturing to Rockaway Beach, Queens. The headquarters remained in Rockaway when manufacturing was later moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania where Sherwood could focus on designing his high end Gran Eurosport model which featured synthetic grease, polished bearings, and 26 skip tooth front sprocket for friction reduction. Sherwood Ross, against the advice of his vice president Randy Ross, retooled the Allentown factory and experimented in unrelated bicycle endeavors involving government contracts. Randy Ross moved Ross bicycles manufacturing to Taiwan to keep margins competitive and bicycle manufacturing profitable, but Sherwood Ross's decision to keep the Allentown factory working on government contracts ultimately led to the company having to file for bankruptcy protection in 1988 Ross Bicycles was re-established on July 31, 2017 by Shaun Ross, the current CEO of Ross Bicycles.
Mike Sinyard is the founder and chairman of Specialized Bicycle Components, an American manufacturer of bicycles and cycling components. In 2022, he retired as the CEO of Specialized Bicycle Components, a company he had led for 48 years.
RockShox Inc. is an American company founded by Paul Turner in 1989, that develops and manufactures bicycle suspensions. The company led in the development of mountain bikes. It is now part of SRAM Corporation.
Merlin Metalworks, Inc. was a pioneer in titanium bicycle design and construction. Merlin introduced the first titanium alloy mountain bike, oversized tubesets, s-bend chain and seat stays for mountain bikes. For road bikes, Merlin commercialized the first titanium butted tubing and many other innovations.
Giana Roberge is an American female road cycle racer from who, after retiring from professional cycling in 1999 due to a heart condition, began another successful career as a team director, leading the Saturn Women's road team to become one of the most successful teams in the world. In 2003, she returned to cycle racing and has now competed in every major women's one-day and stage race in the world.
Geoffrey Cleland Apps is an English pioneer of all-terrain bicycles.
Yeti Cycles is an American bicycle manufacturer located in Golden, Colorado.
R + E Cycles, also known as Rodriguez Bicycles, is an American manufacturer of tandem bicycles, cyclocross, mountain (MTB), and road bicycles and components that is currently owned and operated by R + E Bicycle Company in Seattle, Washington. The majority of the bikes sold are custom orders using pre-drawn plans tailored to fit individuals. Their shop tools are all made on-site by their staff and they are the designers of a bicycle fitting system, including software, called Next-fit™. The shop is located on the Ave in Seattle's University District, a few blocks from the University of Washington campus.