(Robert Reisinger, original founder of Mountain Cycle with the first San Andreas circa 1991)
We are very proud of the incredible heritage that Mountain Cycle has stamped on the MTB industry, and we are conscious of this history and the task of keeping the brand alive.
If you don’t know why, then this bio from the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame about Mountain Cycles founder Robert Reisinger, the original founder, sums it all up:
“Robert Reisinger is the founder and CEO/President both Mountain Cycle and Pro Stop. Both companies were formed about 1989. Robert is an engineering graduate of Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo and a former nationally ranked motocross rider. He rode for 4 years for Team Kawasaki and did suspension, frame, engine and human factors R&D for 4 years.
The first product Mountain Cycle brought to market was the upside down fork, an industry first. This fork, named the Suspenders was coupled with the ProStop disc brake, also an industry first. Both the fork and brake are patented, and are still current.
The original fork had superior rigidity and about 2 inches of travel. Many of today’s current forks are based on this original Mountain Cycle design.
In 2000, Robert, along with four others, received an award from Mountain Bike magazine for contributions to the Bicycle industry. This award was the Mountain Bike 15th year Anniversary Award for the “Most Significant Product” in Mountain Biking.
The ProStop Disc Brake speaks for itself, after years of uphill battle in which Mountain Cycle/ProStop was not only the leader, but the founder of this technology, the disc brake has found a home in the cycling industry. A good case could be made that many present day companies would not exist in the form they do, without the influence of ProStop.
In 1991, Mountain Cycle introduced the San Andreas, the first production monocoque in the bicycle industry. A revolution ensued. A look around at today’s bicycles shows that there are few companies that have escaped the design influence of Robert Reisinger and Mountain Cycle. Monocoque frames abound. The movable sub frame, a Mountain Cycle innovation is one of the most copied features in the industry.
The sub frame was introduced by Mountain Cycle on the San Andreas in 1991 and it was 4 years before it started showing up on competitor’s bikes, now this feature is everywhere. This innovation alone is worth the price of his admission to the Hall of Fame, both as an innovative way to size a frame and as a beneficial solution to production issue.
The ShockWave DH frame was one of the first 8-inch travel frames on the market. Taking monocoque technology to a new level, it introduced an integrated chainguide, a detachable BashGuard (still the only one in the industry), replaceable dropouts and the steerer stop on the front end. This steerer stop is another masterful innovation. With the advent of triple crown forks, many frames incur damage in the area behind the head tube. The steerer stop ends this issue. Integrated into the frame and with a detachable donut type device with rubber ring, it’s simple, elegant, and effective.
Mountain Cycle was the first and is still the only company in the bicycle industry to produce a complete line of monocoque frames. With the introduction of it’s new, 2001, Tremor FR-1 it keeps this tradition going.
Robert is a consummate engineer and designer, his understanding of both kinetics and hydraulics puts him in a class that would include only a handful of others. His mastery of design, his ability to design complex shapes, beautiful and elegant, yet functional is possibly unequalled in the industry. Mountain Cycle is the only bicycle company to have a bike chosen for inclusion in the permanent collection of the world famous San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
With all this in mind and in conclusion, I nominate Robert Reisinger to membership in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. I would be delighted to answer any questions or provide further information.”
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The below piece was submitted by Steve Fleury from an article by Bridget McCrea from Entrepreneur Illustrated Magazine
“SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Turning a college project into a thriving business entity may sound far-fetched, but it can happen. Take Robert Reisinger, for example. In the spring of 1987, it suddenly dawned on this college student that bicycles had not evolved much during their 100-year history. As a ten-year motocross racer with four years of experience working in research and development for Kawasaki’s motorcycle division, he took it upon himself to do something about it.
Today, Reisinger is one of the world’s top innovators in the bicycle industry. As president and CEO of Mountain Cycle, founded in 1989, his original motivation was simple: “I got a bike, started riding it and, although I was ranked as one of the top 100 motocross racers in the nation, I couldn’t stay on top of it for the life of me,” he explains, blaming the problem on lack of suspension and decent brakes, and a high center of mass.
The original goal of Mountain Cycle was to design a full-suspension bike using the latest in motorcycle technology. From the outset, Reisinger split his time between working on the technology to suspend both the front and rear ends of the rider – a strategy that paid off. At the Interbike show in Anaheim, CA, in 1990, he sparked the largest technological wave ever to sweep mountain biking.
“I’ve always kept in mind my years of racing and working on motorcycles and how I hated things that were either hard to operate or maintain,” says Reisinger. “We try to incorporate simple designs that provide high-performance features with ease of maintenance.”
Mountain Cycle is the world’s largest producer of formed, free-flowing frames known as “monocoques.” With names like “San Andreas” and “Shockwave,” the design and structure of each frameset is unique and innovative. Outstanding benefits include a low standover height, which provides added security and allows the bike to be sized for each rider, as well as aesthetic, performance and technological features.
New, innovative products are always in the works at Mountain Cycle. With disk brakes being one of the new industry innovations, Reisinger is retooling the ProStop Disc Brake his company has made for eight years and developing new, technologically-advanced versions. The company’s products, which serve both racing and non-racing bicycle enthusiasts, start at $200 and go up to $2349.
Robert Reisinger’s company is the world’s largest producer of monocoque bike frames, and has been recognized for its innovative designs and technological advancements by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as several publications.
“We fundamentally changed the direction of the bicycling industry.”
Robert Reisinger, Mountain Cycle
Richard Lancaster of Santa Margarita, CA, a downhill, semi-pro mountain bike racer who rides a Mountain Cycle Shockwave, says: “I started out racing with their San Andreas DHS frame, then went to the Shockwave which was unbelievably different. I’d never been on a bike that felt as nice as this bike did. It changed a lot of my riding style in that I didn’t have to go around obstacles anymore – instead, I go right over them.”
Mountain Cycle, operating from a 5,000-square-foot facility and employing about 20 persons, has seen revenues grow progressively since 1994. The company’s San Andreas frameset is a permanent part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s collection and Reisinger has received recognition from industry groups for his innovative designs and technological advancements. Featured in TV commercials and on a “Ride Guide” segment of the Outdoor Life Network, the company has been featured in over 25 domestic and international publications, including: Mountain Bike Action, Tutto Mountain Bike (Italy), Dirt (UK) and Bicycling.
“We fundamentally changed the direction of the bicycling industry,” says Reisinger. “At times, our products were considered too leading edge, but today, they’re mainstream designs. Every manufacturer is trying to make a product that looks like ours.”
