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Keith Bontrager (born December 18, 1954) was a successful motorcycle racer turned pioneer in the development of modern mountain bike.
Between 1980 and 1995 he was president of Bontrager Cycles, prior to a buy out by the Trek Bicycle Corporation.
Keith continues to develop advanced components for Trek.
Career
Motorcycles
Keith started his two wheeled career in 1965 by building lawnmower powered mini-bikes.In 1969 Keith began a motocross career, funding his racing through odd-jobs and motorcyle repair work. He won several national road racing titles in production classes and 250GP.
Between 1975 and 1981 Keith designed, built and tuned motocross and road racing motorcycles.
Cycling
In 1978 Keith became attracted to cycling, and in 1979 built his first road bike. With his motocross background it was natural that he should become attracted to the growing mountain bike scene. In 1980 he built his first mountain bike frame. It was also this year that he started Bontrager Cycles, out of Sunnyvale, California, offering custom road, track, tandem and mountain bike frames.In 1984 Keith came up with the idea of cutting 700C (ISO 622) 40-hole Mavic MA-2 tandem rims down to the circumference of a 26" rim, and re-rolling them and to create 32-hole 26" rim.
Special purpose mountain bike rims at that time were scarce and/or heavy. The Bontrager rims (later using the hard anodized MA-40 profile) were the first lightweight yet strong mountain bike rims though made out of profile intended for road racing bicycles, predating lightweight rims by Specialized (designed by Wilderness Trail Bikes), Sun Metal, Ritchey or even Mavic themselves.
Mavic provided the MA-40 MTB rims for some time on their own. Keith went on designing lightweight rims, manufactured by Weinmann USA. Several models were introduced but never went into high volume production as the Weinmann plant suffered from a fire.
The design of Bontrager frames was based on results of his studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and experience as motocross bike mechanic. While other manufacturers developed frames out of seemingly innovative materials like (oversized) aluminium, titanium or carbon-fibre Keith's opinion was that steel was not outdated as a material but rather design and production methods could be improved. Keith determined that frame joints could be strengthened by the use of gussets, which would provide better distribution of loads around the joints and reduce the weakening effects of brazing and welding on the tubing. He even found areas in which joints could be made by bonding and riveting, i.e. the frames made between 1989 and 1994 had cable stops milled out of Aluminum that were bonded and riveted to the top tube, all frames made at Bontrager's workshop in Santa Cruz had two-piece seat stays made out of larger diameter tubes in the upper area which added torsional stiffness around the brake-bosses while the smaller tubes in the lower area reduced weight and vertical stiffness of the rear triangle leading to better dampening of hits.
Keith also published several articles on bicycle design and construction, ranging from the effects of TIG welding on the tubes to the flaws in the accepted sizing methods of the day. Keiths analytical approach led to his nickname amongst some mountain bike magazines of "The Professor".
In 1987 he designed and patented the composite fork crown. This used an aluminium fork crown that clamped the fork blades and the steerer instead of using welds or brazing. This crown design was used on the Rock Shox RS1 suspension fork, and Bontrager's own rigid fork, the Switchblade. Keith's belief in avoiding heat affection of the tubes wherever possible led to versions of the Switchblade with bonded and riveted dropouts and brake bosses leading to a fork with no welding or brazing at all. This retained all the strength gained by tempering the tubing.
In 1992 Bontrager Cycles expanded from a one-man custom frame shop to a limited production facility. In 1993 they started to produce handlebar stems besides frames which were among the lightest on the market while being proven durable by Keith's testing procedures. Around the same time a range of components designed by Keith and produced externally were brought to the market, there were very lightweight yet strong handlebars, bar ends and seatposts marketed by the Titec brand and a saddle made by Selle san Marco.
In 1995 Keith's business partner Hans Heim left to join Santa Cruz Cycles, and put his share of Bontrager Cycles up for sale. Trek acquired Bontrager Cycles in its entirety and hired Keith as president.
After the Trek buy-out Bontrager production split into two distinct lines. The frameshop in Santa Cruz continued to make the high end frames. They made road race and cyclo-cross frames, later even a BMX frame. Also a titanium frame made by tubing manufacturer Sandvik was available. As usual its design showed subtle differences to other frames on the market. At the same time, in order to broaden their market 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, Wisconsin with some small design changes in order to make them easier to produce, i.e. the two-piece seat stays were dropped.
Keith took on a product development role at Trek. Besides designing handlebars, handlebar stems, bar ends and seatposts he got into designing tires, cranksets and again into rims and complete wheels.
By the end of the 90's production techniques for aluminium frames had advanced to a point that allowed cheap mass-production of reliable frames. Consequently hardtail steel frames went out of fashion for mass production. The production of Bontrager frames in Santa Cruz ceased as it did in Trek's Wisconsin plant.
Keith continues to work with Trek to develop premium quality wheels and components for road and mountain bikes. These wheels have proven themselves in the Tour De France where they were ridden by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal (later Discovery) Team.
Keith has a hands-on approach to product development and has competed in over fifty 24 hour mountain bike races and other events such as the Three Peaks cyclo-cross race in order to test his products in the real world.
Education
Keith majored in Physics at UCSC.
Awards and Recognition
Keith was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1994.
Personal life
Keith is married to Laura and is the father of three children.
External links
"Keith Bontrager"