Pink Stumpjumper

This shot is from the Gant Challenge race in Chicago’s Lincoln Park back in 1984. The bike pictured is the first Team (pink) Stumpjumper ever built. It was custom made for me by Jim Merz with Tange tubing and raced with 26×1.75” tires. When I joined Specialized/Team Stumpjumper, the bikes available were limited to off-the-shelf Stumpjumpers. Prior to this we had all been riding Ritchey’s and by comparison, there was no comparison. To bridge this technology gap for Specialized, Merz designed the Team Stumpjumper, commonly referred to as, the “Pink Stumpjumper.” Although it looks more like a modern gravel bike than a mountain bike, these were cutting edge back then.

At the time we were contesting a series of races called “The Gant Challenge,” sponsored by the Gant clothing company, which were basically dirt criteriums run in city parks across the country. As road racers we figured out that a drop bar setup would be better suited to the task than flat bars, so the night before this picture was taken we swapped our flat bars for drops with the help of Mike King and Turin Bicycles. We took some serious flak for this when Specialized got wind of it because flat bars were a defining characteristic of mountain bikes. However, when viewed through today’s lens it just proves that Specialized had incredible foresight into future cycling trends and “invented” gravel bikes long before it was a thing.

Gavin Chilcott and Laurence Malone are the other two guys in the shot. Gavin — a respected road racer — went on to become the founder and COO of the BMC Racing Team, now known as the CCC Racing Team. Laurence is a five-time U.S. National ‘cross champion who earned the nickname, “Der Springer” as the first person to bunny hop the barriers in a world cyclo-cross championship.