Now THAT Was a Bike: Bontrager Race Lite
Race Lite, circa 1996. Bontrager's orginal version, the "OR" debuted in 1989, morphed slightly into the "Race" model and then was offered in this lighter "Race Lite" version. The core features, however, were constant.
Bontrager Race Lite - 1989-1998
It’s 1993 and I’m wrestling my busted Stumpjumper through the front door of The Spokesman in downtown Santa Cruz, California, when I see it—a battered looking hardtail leaning against the bike shop’s front window.
Can a bike have a “don’t give a f*ck attitude?” Is that even possible? This being a non-sentient mass of chromoly and all, the obvious answer is “Of course not, you git”.
But I tell you, squinting and looking back through the window of time, that bike—a Bontrager Race Lite—sure seemed to be raising a rusty finger at the rest of the world.
Let me be clear. It’s not like the Bontrager was striking a typical slacker, “I can’t be bothered” pose. Exactly the opposite. This was a bike with very strong opinions. The Race Lite didn’t give a rat’s ass about the status quo in the mountain bike world. It spat in the eye of convention...and that is what made Keith Bontrager's creation the groundbreaking classic that it was.
Let me give you some context. By the mid-90s full-suspension bikes were starting to shed their Amazing Lobster Girl circus freak status and were starting to emerge as viable challengers to what was then, the Next Big Thing—fat tubed hardtails.
Big, fat aluminum tubes were The New Sexy back then. Cannondale and Klein had imbued terms like “6061” and “7005-series alloy” with an almost mythical quality. Even the big brands that had made their bones with chromoly-steel frames were taking note and rolling out extra-fat framesets. “Metal matrix”, berrylium, magnesium—we were awash in a veritable marketing orgy of splatter-paint jobs and pseudo-scientific terms...and the fall-out was that steel frames suddenly seemed as chic and edgy as your Grandpa's bed pan.
Keith Bontrager’s Race Lite, however, wasn’t having any of that mess. It was skinny and proud, and it defiantly cut against the grain. At first glance, the Race Lite might not strike you as the most sophisticated mountain bike on earth, but for awhile it was just that. You had to look closely, however, to suss out the details. We’ll get to them in a second. First, a bit about the guy behind the bike.
The professor is in...
THE PROFESSOR
Keith Bontrager was the kind of kid who tore apart perfectly good things in order to put them back together—better than before. Admittedly, his attempt to transform an old clothes dryer into a rocket ship was a bit ambitious, but by the time he hit 12, Bontrager had taken a lawnmower engine and used it to build a mini-bike from scratch. Adults started calling a teenage Bontrager "the Professor".
Bontrager built his first mountain bike frame in 1980. He quickly gained a reputation for quality, which was no small feat. That chunk of Northern California was lousy with good framebuilders: Albert Eisentraut, Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey, Scot Nicol, Charlie Cunningham… I’m leaving out a whole lot of names, but you get the idea...it took a lot to stand out in this crowd. What’s more, the Bay Area was a vertibable breeding ground for fast, angry riders who could quickly put a serious beat down on a frame. To make your bones here, your bikes had to be both ultra-light and crazy strong.
Bontrager put it this way, when he spoke to a crowd at Mission Workshop a few years back. “During all the early years in Santa Cruz,” Bontrager said, “I was mainly making frames for people who broke frames. Most of what you see on my bikes, these industrial-looking touches, was a consequence of that…if I was going to have to stand behind my work, then I was going to have to find ways to make sure those frames didn’t break.”
METAL SHOP GONE MAD
So, let’s talk about those little “industrial-looking” touches. While a lot of framebuilders were alumni of the “I want to make pretty-looking things” school of thought, Keith Bontrager was a guy who'd both earned a degree in physics and worked in the pits as a professional motocross mechanic for Fox. He was a man obsessed with making shit strong and with questioning every possible engineering assumption. Early mountain bikes owed a lot of their technology to what came before them—road bikes. And that wasn’t cutting it.
“One big stack and you’d be buying a new downtube. One big jump and the fork and the downtube would bend,” explains Bontrager. “So there was a real need for an approach to building that would actually strengthen the frame. I tried to do that everywhere on the frame.”
First things first—Bontrager TIG-welded his frames. None of that classic brazing here. Ever the professor, Bontrager compared brazed joints and TIG-welded joints and learned about what happens in the thermal history of the process. He found that adding gussets to TIG-welded frames enabled him to redistribute loads and build a much stronger bike
Which leads us to the subject of gussets: They were plastered all over the frame—what seemed, at the time, like huge slices of metal were welded to the toptube, downtube and chainstays. Gussets are de rigeur today but back then they looked positively garish. They also, however, were part of the reason the Race Lite weighed a scant (for the time) 3.9 pounds yet proved nigh bullet-proof.
To the underside of the Race Lite’s driveside chainstay, Bontrager welded an anti-chainsuck plate. Did it look pretty? It did not. Did it keep your chain from gouging the hell out of your chainstay. It sure did. He used 4130 plate drop outs, which were homely, but, he argued, stronger than the softer, forged drop outs of the day. Wait—how many forged dropouts actually broke back then? Look, the Race Lite was an exercise in overkill—a meticulous, finely-crafted exercise in overkill, which was at least half its charm.
I could go on and on here, but here’s the point—a lot of the things that seem standard today were rare back in the `90s, yet absolutely part and parcel of every Bontrager Race Lite. The gussets, the sloping top tube, the top-tube cable routing…there were other small, innovative builders (including Richard Cunningham and Charlie Cunningham) and I’m not taking anything away from any of them, but Keith Bontrager and his Race Lite deserve a heartfelt nod for carrying the banner in a very big way during the mid nineties.
The Race Lite was, simply put, years ahead of its time. It also rode a treat. Many of those sexy, beer-can aluminum bikes would rattle the prostate right out of you if the descent was rocky enough. The Race Lite was, by comparison, smooth and surefooted. The rare featherweight heavyweight, if you will.
THE TRAGIC ENDING
So, why did the bike disappear if it really was so awesomely ahead of the curve? Lots of reasons, really. For starters, Trek Bicycles had gone on a shopping spree and picked up several hot, boutique brands, including Gary Fisher, Klein, Icon and, in 1995, Bontrager.
For many riders, much of the appeal of owning a Race Lite was that they were owning something handcrafted in ever-so-hip Santa Cruz. People wanted a bike built in Keith’s garage. They didn’t want bikes built in… Waterloo, Wisconsin.
It’s worth noting that Trek employed capable welders back in the day—they made some damn fine steel frames out there in Waterloo. Moreover, the Race Lite and the slightly heavier Race models were always made in Santa Cruz (only the Privateer models were made in Wisconsin). Perception, however, can be a real bitch and the public perception in the late `90s was that Bontrager Race Lites were no longer Bontrager Race Lites. Reality be damned.
The last Race Lite frames rolled out of Santa Cruz in 1998. It was the end of an era and, you might contend, entirely inevitable. The tide was simply shifting. Hardtails, even those of the fat-tubed variety, were losing ground to full-suspension bikes, which grew progressively less sucky with each passing model year. People wanted suspension. Or they wanted inexpensive-to-produce aluminum hardtails with oversized tubing and meticulously-engineered buzzwords. Simple as that. It’s hard to argue with history.
This much is indisputable—the Race Lite was years ahead of its time and truly deserving of its cult status. To this day, Race Lites command serious dollars on the resale market.
People collect and cherish Bontragers while the vast majority of the Race Lite’s flashier contemporaries are largely forgotten, consigned to the local landfill.
That says it all.
It’s worth noting that Trek employed capable welders back in the day—they made some damn fine steel frames out there in Waterloo. Moreover, the Race Lite and the slightly heavier Race models were always made in Santa Cruz (only the Privateer models were made in Wisconsin). Perception, however, can be a real bitch and the public perception in the late `90s was that Bontrager Race Lites were no longer Bontrager Race Lites. Reality be damned.
The last Race Lite frames rolled out of Santa Cruz in 1998. It was the end of an era and, you might contend, entirely inevitable. The tide was simply shifting. Hardtails, even those of the fat-tubed variety, were losing ground to full-suspension bikes, which grew progressively less sucky with each passing model year. People wanted suspension. Or they wanted inexpensive-to-produce aluminum hardtails with oversized tubing and meticulously-engineered buzzwords. Simple as that. It’s hard to argue with history.
This much is indisputable—the Race Lite was years ahead of its time and truly deserving of its cult status. To this day, Race Lites command serious dollars on the resale market.
People collect and cherish Bontragers while the vast majority of the Race Lite’s flashier contemporaries are largely forgotten, consigned to the local landfill.
That says it all.
The Race Lite inspired devotion.
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One of my regrets is never getting one. I was a poverty-stricken mechanic with a better pro deal from ParkPre (pretty nice Tange Prestige frame!) and couldn’t justify the purchase.
Thanks for bringing back some great memories, and highlighting a man far ahead of his time!
.I then had Daggar Dan bulid me an Easton elite frame to replace what had been stolen. I appreciate the component mix on your bike.. sweet indeed.
Keep in mind - These were in the days of 125-150mm stems as a standard. I can't remember if the frames were sized to the equivalent of a 60mm or 80mm travel fork, but it was somewhere in that ballpark.
What about something on Charlie Cunningham / Jacquie Phelan?
Oversize alu tubing, 1x wide range drivetrain, "boost" hubs, sloping compact geometry, "components made to last 80 years" etc. etc. etc.
Over the last 26 years I have ridden this bike more miles than any bike in my fleet. I recall ditching my '90's "computer" (glorified odometer) from the bike after only the first two years and it had 6,000 miles on it... I commuted on it, did all the Oregon epics, raced it MTB and 'cross (profile pic is '93 Gorge Challenge), put a child's seat on it for the first baby, pulled a kids trailer for the second baby, pulled a kids tag-alone up on Surveyor's Ridge (yeah, tractor trailer on tight switchbacks), then as SS did short track. I cracked the seatpost relief slot early on and it came back from Santa Cruz with a new seat tube and another gusset in that spot.
So, here's my conclusion, pro's:
* The OP didn't include detail pictures, but there is so much going on all over the frame: gussets, slip fit dual diam. seat stays with monostay, no chainstay bridge for clearance, offset machined OD head tube, riveted aluminum top tube cable mounts, etc. etc.
* It's a great pedaling bike, still is. Consider those days MTB's biased to pedaling not jump lines.
* Supple frame = old school suspension. Consider all the big-*ss Alum. hardtails in fashion then. It was all day rough stuff capable. With Ti saddle rails I wouldn't be surprised if there was nearly an inch of travel seated.
* Handled great with the fork, even at a puny 48mm. One of the first frames to design in the HT angle and BB height for susp.
* Tiny semi-horizontal dropouts let me setup as single speed! This is an accident, nobody was planning on that in '92.
* Powder coated frame was a big deal then, no chipping/scratching. The OP is correct, industrial finish!
Con's:
* Might as well say dated geom. But with a tall short stem, wide bars a bigger 2.5" front tire it OK now. Pedals great.
* Head tube is way too short on my XL, 105mm. I think this was weight savings mistake. I had to run unique jacked up stems forever (yeah 150mm too, ha ha)
* It's a noodle. This is the downside to comfort. That Superlight tubeset (stolen from a road bike kit) needed more beef in the Large and XL sizes. The worst high speed hard sharp changes in direction, there's a bit of "spring back". Also break chatter with the later addition rigid legs in the triple clamp crown.
* That tiny horizontal dropout is too hard in 4130 CrMo to hold the wheel in place under torque. Once the powder coat wore off the wheel slipped forward. I believe they switched to vertical dropout later. I fixed this with bolt on SS hubs.
Thanks for letting prattle on here about this fantastic bike!
I was an out-of-shape, not-into-sports, teenager who never had a chance to experience the joys of mountain biking. I had signed up for the Jr. highschool mtb team, but didn't have any funds for a bike, so that never happened. My buddy went away to visit his dad for a week, and left his beautiful bike with me. Just cruising around my neighbourhood, on that thing... Amazing experience. A finely crafted and absolutely beautifully finished machine. It had a Manitou Mach 5 fork and magura hydro rim brakes. I was pulling wheelies and hopping on and off of curbs like crazy... Blown away by how fun and freeing the experience was.
20 years of mountain biking later, I still thank my buddy for lending me that bike for a week (and taking me riding for the first time, a year later, after we had graduated highschool). This bike is where it all began for me.
One which inspires me to Never sell my
'94 Univega Alpina 5.9. (with its '99 63mm SID)
I see it hanging on the wall in my Bike Room in all its Reynolds 853 glory, and I'm tempted to see what it could fetch on the resale market. But it too was way ahead of its time with its Bi Axial Power Oval downtube and top routed cables. I beat this bike repeatedly for 6+ years before I opted for a new fangled FSR; at which point, it became my Hybrid.
I haven't ridden it since Fall of 2015 but I'm going to continue to admire it, up there on the wall just the way it is. Hell, maybe I'll even air up the tires and taker' for a rip bud!
Yup, you're correct, I apologize.
The sticker has been hidden behind an Anti Suck device since new.
Still a Great BombProof Compliant Frame
@ 25lbs complete
The SID was waaaay too flexy. Night and day with a Marzocchi when it came to steering precision, and the coil just feels so much better.
Sadly, yes. And a reminder why manufacturers now make sure to keep up with changing standards, even if they don't offer any huge advantage as regards their own frames/bikes.
I used to have a Serotta mountain bike, too. That thing was also dope as hell, with a downtube that looked like a baseball bat. I sold the Serotta when I bought the Race Lite, ended up keeping the Bontrager for ~20 years. Damn I'm old. My 10 year old is outgrowing his 24" bike, so I've been thinking about modifying my Race Lite to fit him. Not sure he'll get any standover, though.
Also surprised that the article doesn’t mention the fact that Bonty was the first to mess with custom fork offsets.
Keith had very specific ideas about how bikes should handle and that, in and of itself, set him and his company apart from so many other brands that were just willy-nilly slapping shit onto their neon-colored bikes and hoping it would sell.
Bontragers are near and dear to my heart - I bought my Race Lite frame in 1998, and it sat on the futon in my college apartment for 9 months while I saved up enough scratch working at the bike shop to build it up proper.
First build was a SID, XTR shifters/levers and derailleurs, Syncros stem and Revolution cranks, Race Face 2x rings (46T and 36T) with an XT 11-30 8sp cassette, Chris King hubs laced to Sun Rhyno Lite rims with DT Revolution spokes, LP Composites Kevlar/carbon bar and seatpost, Avid Arch Supreme brakes and the Giro Fizik saddle with natural cowhide.
It was as trick as it could possibly be, and after hating the flexy SID I swapped on a Marzocchi Atom Bomb and never looked back.
To give you an idea of how bombproof these frames were - On the way to the West Virginia Fat Tire Fest one year, our second car ran into the back of my Jeep. All the bikes were fine, except my Bonty - It bent one of the Syncros cranks into the downtube and dented it. I rode it for another month before realizing the downtube was actually cracked.
I was heartbroken, thought it was a goner, but found a framebuilder in NC that would patch it. They welded a CroMo bandaid on it, and that bike was my main ride until late last year, with few changes except a swap to a Vicious Cycles rigid fork and Paul Moto Lite brakes.
Finally wanting disc brakes to avoid killing my old man self, I parted it out and now have an SB66 and a Chromag Stylus.
Still have the frame, though. It's one of the few objects/possessions that truly has meaning to me. And along the way I built up another Race Lite for my wife that's hanging out in the basement, waiting for our kids to grow a few inches taller...
Avid Arch Supremes....now you're bringing me back. Yep, between those and the Syncros crankset, that bike was dressed to the nines. Stoked to hear that you managed to wring so much life out of it. It's crazy when you consider this was the ultralight frame with the machined headtube and all. Bontrager billed the Race as the truly indestructible version and the Race Lite as the flyweight racer, but the Race Lite was still remarkably bomber.
I'm trying to divest myself of a lot of the bikes and parts I've accumulated over the years. I'm like a crazy cat lady/bike hoarder. I'm getting better about parting with stuff...it's all just material objects and I can't take it with me and so forth...but if I had a Race Lite, I'd never let it go. Glad that you still have yours. Every rider I know who sold their Bontrager now regrets it. Ride on.
Some tosser nicked it along with my DH bike, van and most of my biking kit while out in France on a road trip.
Good old bikes just live forever.
The chainsuck plate was stamped out of stainless steel and was bolted on to the frames (on mine anyway).
My build isn't retro ( I run a Thompson seat post and 90mm stem with 720mm bars) but the bike is ridden a lot and for riding on my home trails (woodland singletrack) , it's my first choice .
As far as I'm aware the Race Lite was the main inspiration behind Cy Turners COTIC soul ..a modern day Bontrager, complete with gussets!
Against the grain; One of my fave albums! Tuna m.youtube.com/watch?v=W1IiPkQa2iY