Mountain Biking
Bobby
Out of all the members of the Grateful Dead, it wasn’t hard to see that Bob Weir was the most health conscious of them all. Jerry Garcia said in an interview that Bob would go on runs everyday while on tour throughout the 70s and 80s, averaging 30 miles a week and often hitting 70 miles a week. No matter what time the show ended the night before, or what the band got up to after the show, Bobby was committed to keeping himself in shape.
Bobby’s first introduction into the cycling scene was in 1966 when the Grateful Dead, along with Quicksilver Messenger Service, were hired to play a post-race dance at the Tour Del Mar in Pescadero, California. It was here where he crossed paths with young 15 year old rider Gary Fisher and hit it off as their shared interests in psychedelics and fitness aligned. Two years later, Fisher was banned from Amateur Bicycle League of America because his hair was too long and started hanging around the Dead’s circle and started his own production company operating liquid light shows for the Grateful Dead and other bands in the San Francisco scene. In 1972, the governing body overturned the long hair rule and Fisher returned to competitive cycling eventually becoming a Category 1 racer.
Fast forward through the late 70s and the birth of mountain biking pioneered by Gary Fisher and others in Marin, California, and find Bob Weir with Kingfish on tour in Colorado the summer of 86. A local friend in Vail, along with sound engineer Howard Danchik, got Weir a bike and headed straight for the trails climbing up to 12,000 feet on his first ride. They figured he’d be a natural given his experience running and his intrigue for “tech”.
Weir returned home from tour and called his old friend Gary to get himself a proper high-tech bicycle.
Fisher set Bobby up with a top of the line rig, a handmade frame from Tom Teesdale with a custom airbrush paint job from Prairie Prince, premium parts/components, and put it to the test.
Bobby took to mountain bike as he did running, logging weeks of high-mileage with an enthusiastic energy about it. He believed that sustained aerobic exercise stimulated higher brain functions and opened creative doors that sitting around does not do. He then faced a problem, how to be in the outdoors but still able to jot down ideas being far away from a pen or a guitar. Being Bobby, he jimmy-rigged a tape recorder to his handle bars so he had the ability to record his thoughts and lyrical phrases while rhythmically climbing and descending the Marin County fire roads.
Fragments of Saint of Circumstance and Picasso Moon & Eternity are believed to be birthed on the trails.
In 1988, Bobby flew over the handle bars one day on the trail and broke his shoulder riding a new bike he had recently gotten. Jerry was also going through health issues at the time so Bobby’s accident did not disrupt any planned Dead shows at the time and the band never missed a beat.
Rest Easy Bobby
10/16/1947 - 01/10/2026