1980 Koski Trailmaster #2

stanlee

BoTM Winner
I just entered this one in the BOTM and was told I should have a build thread so here we ago. 4 years ago I found a great guy who owned a shop in the early 90's and he purchased this frameset from the original owner. Through the power of the internet I contacted the original owner to get the details on his original build and that's where it all started for me. Here are the first two photos I received of what came with the sale.

phpeG8KyJAM_zpsf3a2f4b0.jpg


KoskiFork.jpg


The original owner told me that he use to deliver tofu on the bike in the early 80's and sent me this FTF cover image of him on the bike.

FTF08.jpg


He also said that the bike is buried somewhere at the bottom of both of these stacks.

stackcover.jpg


BikePileGuys5M.jpg


In the early 80's Mark Norstad re-welded the headtube as a preventative because a few of the frames had cracked in that area and then Steve Potts painted that area.

TrailMaster-2.jpg


Last year around this time I received an email from the SFO airport stating that they were going to put on an exhibit of early MTB's and they had heard I had a Trailmaster and wanted to know if I'd be willing to loan it. Obviously I was beside myself but I knew it was not complete so I loaned it with that understanding. This is how it sat at that point.

0120ed29.jpg


The bike went directly from the shop to Joe Breezes house. Joe is good friends with both the original owner and Erik Koski so he wanted the bike completely restored as much as I did. Joe was a HUGE part of the exhibit and he has to be one of the nicest guys out there! He contacted Marc Horwitz again(the original owner) and Marc sent out the original Philwood wheels that Koski built for the bike. Joe also went to Erik's place and picked up a set of decals. I bought a period correct Suntour front der and Joe said Erik use to just beat the clamps over a 1-1/4” mandrel and added a longer 5mm bolt...so he went to it.

IMG_9346.jpg


Some of the good guys from this forum helped with a couple more parts and we were set, here are a couple of photos from Joes stand.

IMG_9304.jpg


IMG_9173_2.jpg


From Joes the bike went to SFO, here are a few photos from the bike room there, some truly amazing bikes!

MJanike_DL1.jpg


MJanike_DL3.jpg


MJanike_DL2.jpg


I know the bike doesn't look like much but it's always been a cool part of the early MTB history to me because it has to be one of the first purposely built MTB's and the only other one I've seen in all these years was a frameset in the Crested Butte MTB hall of fame. Anyway, I'm glad the bike made the show because Erik is an extremely quiet guy and he deserves the credit and recognition for being on the scene at that time, he and his family were significant contributers to the early days of MTB's in CA.
 
Great story - this did catch my eye at SFO, especially the drop-outs and the TA chainset.
 
Thanks for posting up the story of your bike, and those pics :) It's great when a bike has so much history behind it (like it was once used to deliver Tofu!!! :shock: how "hippy" is that :LOL: ).

Great stuff :)
 
jimo746":1vi2hsjn said:
It's great when a bike has so much history behind it (like it was once used to deliver Tofu!!! :shock: how "hippy" is that :LOL: ).


He also mentioned that he traded Erik two "big" bags of pot for the first Trailmaster in 1978 but he received this one (#2) :D
 
Awesome!! You really can't get much better pedigree than that, a really really cool bike.
 
Great to hear the story behind this bike. Loved the exhibition at SFO and remember this bike catching my eye :D

dscn5362l.jpg


Nik
 
Rad rad bike. And so cool that Joe Breeze lent his hand to getting everything period correct--scratch, to get *the actual wheels*. Hot damn.

Certainly was one of the highlights of the SFO show. Here are a few of my pics:

IMG_2899.jpg

IMG_2892.jpg

IMG_2891.jpg

IMG_2906.jpg
 
Back
Top