Breezer number one

[Rod_Saetan]

I thought there was one in Sharkistan?

 

[Repack Rider]

Actually, a little while before JB built his first frame, CK ordered the first custom MTB frame from another local Fairfax guy, my friend Craig Mitchell, who has, sadly, passed away. Anyway, he built the frame for CK, but Charlie didn't like the way it handled, so he sold it back to Craig and the last I heard of it was in Australia. There is a pic. of it on CK's web site.

A slight clarification. The frame built by Craig Mitchell was just that, a frame, no fork. I moved all the components including the Ashtabula fork over from my klunker.

The bikes Joe Breeze built, which truly deserve the designation as "first," were new from the ground up, including two custom machined parts. Joe made a custom adapter to fit a Campag micro-adjusting seatpost to the four-wire Brooks saddle, and he made a shim for the 7/8" bars to fit the road stem.

 

[legrandefromage]

I thoroughly recommend CK's offerings in the Richard's Mountain bike Book for what has to be the best first hand account of where it all began:

 

[FairfaxPat]

Here's a shot I took of Joe in his workshop at home, with Wendy Cragg's Mk.1 Breezer, which he now also owns. Aside from the nickel plate instead of blue finish, it's the same as Joe's first one. He's pointing at the OWMTB Poster, which I was helping publicize at the time. Notice the nice pair of Breezer road bikes hanging behind him.

 

[mechagouki]

That looks great in the nickel plate, I can see why he went for that finish on later bikes.