Keith Bontrager (; born December 18, 1954) is a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

racer who became a pioneer in the development of the modern

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling (''mountain biking''). Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in r ...

. Between 1980 and 1995, he was president of his own Bontrager Company, which continues to develop components for

Trek Bicycle Corporation Trek Bicycle Corporation is a bicycle, cycling product and electric motorcycle manufacturer and distributor under brand names Trek, Electra Bicycle Company, Bontrager, and Diamant Bikes. The company has previously manufactured bikes under the ...

after Trek bought out Bontrager.

Career

Motorcycles

Bontrager started in 1965 by building lawnmower engine powered mini-bikes. In 1969, he began racing

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competi ...

, funding his racing through motorcycle repair work. Between 1975 and 1981 he designed, built and tuned motocross,

road racing Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a race track, closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily c ...

and drag racing motorcycles. Motorcycles he tuned won national road racing titles in production and 250 GP classes.

Bicycles

In 1978, Bontrager became attracted to

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

and in 1979, he built his first

road bike The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle. Other sources specifically exclude racing bicycles from the definition, using the term to mean a ...

. With his motocross background he was attracted to

cycling. In 1980, he built his first mountain bike

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

and founded Bontrager Cycles in

Sunnyvale Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. In 1984, he cut 700C (ISO 622) 36-hole

Mavic Mavic may refer to: * Mavic (bicycle parts company), a French manufacturer of bicycle parts * DJI ''Mavic'', a series of compact UAV drones by DJI * Mavic Chen, a fictional character in ''Doctor Who'' from the 1965 serial "The Daleks' Master Pla ...

MA-2 road rims to the circumference of a 26" rim, re-rolling them to create a 32-hole 26" rim. Bontrager rims were the first lightweight yet strong mountain bike rims, albeit using a profile intended for road racing bicycles. Mavic provided MA-40 MTB rims for some time. Bontrager went on designing lightweight rims, manufactured by Weinmann USA. Several were introduced but never went into high production because the Weinmann factory suffered a fire. The design of Bontrager frames was based on his studies at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

and experience as a motocross mechanic. While other manufacturers developed

s out of (oversized)

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

, or

carbon-fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

, Bontrager believed

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

was not outdated but that its design and production could be improved. Joints could be strengthened by

gusset In sewing, a gusset is a triangular or rhomboidal piece of textiles, fabric inserted into a seam to add breadth or reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing. Gussets were used at the shoulders, underarms, and hems of traditional shirts and chemi ...

s to distribute loads and reduce the weakening of

brazing Brazing is a metal-joining process in which two or more metal items are joined by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, with the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Brazing differs from welding in ...

and

welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melting, melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Co ...

. He found areas in which joints could be made by bonding and

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...

ing, i.e. the

s made between 1989 and 1994 had cable stops milled out of

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

that were bonded and

ed to the

top tube A bicycle frame is the main component of a bicycle, onto which wheels and other components are fitted. The modern and most common frame design for an upright bicycle is based on the safety bicycle, and consists of two triangles: a main triangle a ...

. Frames made at Bontrager's Santa Cruz workshop had two-piece seat stays made of larger

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest Chord (geometry), chord of the circle. Both definitions a ...

tubing in the upper area which added torsional

stiffness Stiffness is the extent to which an object resists deformation in response to an applied force. The complementary concept is flexibility or pliability: the more flexible an object is, the less stiff it is. Calculations The stiffness, k, of a ...

around the brake-bosses, while the smaller tubes in the lower area reduced weight and vertical stiffness of the rear

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

leading to better damping of hits. Bontrager published articles on bicycle design and construction, ranging from the effects of

TIG welding Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW, also known as tungsten inert gas welding or TIG, tungsten argon gas welding or TAG, and heliarc welding when helium is used) is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the ...

on the tubes to the flaws in the accepted sizing methods of the day. In 1987, he designed and patented the composite

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

crown. This used an aluminum fork crown that clamped the fork blades and the steerer instead of using welds or brazing. This design was used on the Rock Shox RS1 suspension fork, and Bontrager's own rigid fork, the Switchblade. Bontrager's versions of the Switchblade with bonded and

ed dropouts and brake bosses led to a fork with no

, thus retaining the strength gained by tempering the tubing. In 1992, Bontrager Cycles expanded from a one-man shop to a limited production facility. In 1993, they started to produce handlebar stems. In 1995, Bontrager's business partner, Hans Heim, left to join

Santa Cruz Bicycles Santa Cruz Bicycles, LLC is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that manufactures mountain bikes in Santa Cruz, California. They sponsor the Santa Cruz Syndicate, a downhill racing team. The company moved premises from 104 B ...

, and put his share of Bontrager Cycles up for sale. Trek acquired Bontrager Cycles and hired Bontrager as president. Bontrager production split in two. 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 Cyclo-cross (cyclocross, CX, cyclo-X or cross) is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter (the international or "World Cup" season is October–February), and consist of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5&nb ...

frames, and later a

BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ea ...

frame. At this same time, Bontrager stopped using two-piece seat stays on mountain frames in favor of a single tapered tube. The Ti Lite, a titanium version of the mountain bike frame, was made by tubing manufacturer

Sandvik Sandvik AB is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational engineering company specializing in products and services for mining, rock excavation, drilling rig, rock drilling, rock processing (crusher, crushing and mechanical screening, scre ...

. At the same time, 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 Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, with small design changes. Bontrager took on product development at Trek, designing handlebars, handlebar stems, bar ends,

seatpost A bicycle seatpost, seatpin, saddlepole, saddle pillar, or saddle pin is a tube that extends upwards from the bicycle frame to the saddle. The amount that it extends out of the frame can usually be adjusted, and there is usually a mark that indic ...

tires A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over w ...

crankset The crankset (in the US) or chainset (in the UK) is the component of a bicycle drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain or belt, which in turn drives the rear wheel ...

s and rims and

wheels A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axl ...

. By the end of the 1990s, improved production techniques for aluminium frames allowed them to be produced less expensively, and hardtail steel frames went out of fashion. Production of Bontrager frames ceased in Santa Cruz and Wisconsin. Bontrager continues to work with Trek to develop wheels and components for mountain, road and triathlon bikes. The components were used by the US Postal, Discovery Channel, Leopard Trek, Trek Livestrong, Science in Sport and Trek VW road cycling teams. Triathletes and Ironman champions have used the components and these include Chris Lieto, Normann Stadler and Julie Dibens - to name but a few.

Cycling

Bontrager has competed in many mountain bike races, including 24-hour races. He has also competed in the

Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross The Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross is an annual cyclo-cross event over the Yorkshire three peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, in Yorkshire, England. It is organised by Bradford Racing Cycling Club on the last weekend of September. Ov ...

event in England, as well as stage races such as the Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic in State College, PA.

Education

Bontrager majored in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at UCSC.

Awards and recognition

Bontrager was inducted into the

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (MBHOF) was founded in 1988 to chronicle the history of mountain biking. Formerly located in Crested Butte, Colorado, it relocated to Fairfax, California in 2014 and became part of the Marin Museum of Bicycling. Si ...

in 1994.

References

External links

Page on the MTB Hall of FameBontrager Bicycle Components
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bontrager, Keith American male cyclists Cycle designers American mountain bikers American cyclo-cross cyclists Living people 1954 births Mountain bike innovators Cycle manufacturers of the United States Sportspeople from Sunnyvale, California Cyclists from California 20th-century American sportsmen