Biking in the snow in Alaska has a history dating back to at least the Klondike Gold Rush. It was the beginning of the Victorian bicycle boom and some gold prospectors coming to Alaska and Canada went with bikes for transportation instead of investing in a much more expensive dog team. One route, the 400-mile trail from Dawson to Whitehorse, well-maintained by dog-sled travel, saw at least 250 cyclists in a single season during the gold rush. Bikes were a single fixed gear with skinny tires. While road bikes changed over the decades, the first new type of bike didn’t evolve until the mountain bike hit the trails in the late 1970s. Within ten years of their introduction, Alaskans were tinkering with the mountain bike design to allow better travel over snowy surfaces. Our guest for this show, Greg Matyas, followed this evolution of the bike from the road to the trails to the snow. He is the owner of Speedway Cycles and the changes he made while developing his fat bike, called the Fatback, earned him the moniker “father of the modern fat bike.”
GUEST:
Greg Matyas, father of the modern fat bike and owner of Speedway Cycles
LINKS:
- “Crossing frozen Alaska by bike – a hundred years ago,”
- “Alaska’s Gold Rush cyclists: Some things don’t change,”
- Anchorage Museum Exhibit, Snow Flyers, through April 5, 2020
- Speedway Cycles, home of the Fatback
BROADCAST: Thursday, January 16th, 2020. 2:00 pm – 3:00 p.m. AKT
REPEAT BROADCAST: Thursday, January 16th, 2020. 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. AKT
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