Otis Guy: 70s Repack Racer, Frame Builder, and MTB Coach

Otis Guy started racing mountain bikes at Repack in the late 1970s and competed at the first mountain bike World Championships in 1990. He’s also been a frame builder since the 1980s and currently works as a youth cycling coach in Northern California.

In this interview we ask Otis:

• How did you get introduced to mountain bikes and mountain biking?
• What appealed to you about riding off road?
• How do the early trails on Mt. Tam compare to the purpose-built mountain bike trails being created today?
• Are you still building bike frames today? What do you think about the current trend toward slacker MTB head tube angles?
• What were the mountain bike race courses like in the 1990s? Did your pro team, racing full suspension bikes, have a big advantage over other teams at the time?
• Did you and Joe Breeze ever complete the tandem bike ride from San Francisco to New York?
• How did you learn mountain bike skills? Did you have a coach?What is the focus of your youth MTB camps? What do you hope kids will get out of mountain biking?
• What’s one thing you want today’s mountain bikers to know about the history of our sport?

To learn more about his frame building business and coaching visit otisguycycles.com.

✏️ A written transcript of this conversation is available to Singletracks Pro supporters: singletracks.com/support

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