dirty sundays

This Curtlo is a former Team Cycle World team bike, raced by Anna Huber.

Cycle World was a bike shop based in L.A. and their Team was supported by Curtlo Cycles, Action-Tec, Fast Feather and others.

HOW IT WAS FOUND:

In 2015 we moved to California and this bike showed up on ebay, being sold in the US. I thought it looked cool and had some good parts, so I was bidding on it and got it for a fair price. (I actually set my alarm to stop on a training ride to put my bid in). 

Curtlo wasn't a big name in Europe, only very few might know them at all, so I had no idea what I got. Unpacking the bike a few years later, I realized there was the name "ANNA HUBER" stamped under the bottom bracket, instead of a serial number. I probably bought the bike directly from her, but I missed to save her ebay seller name and meanwhile the listing had already disappeared. 

The bike came what I believe is mostly original and according to the Shimano date stamps it should have been built around 1992.

I just changed the grips, a period correct set of Smoke/Dart tires and Shimano 737 SPD pedals. Tom from Germany sponsored a set of original Action-Tec titanium chainring bolts.

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SKY BOYER, TEAM CYCLEWORLD MEMBER:

Yeah, I sure was on that team. We had quite a few sponsors including Action Tec and Curtlo. At the time Curtlo was just a few miles outside of LA county, about 10 miles from Cycle World. For that year 7 frames were floated to the team, I got one too. All had custom Shades paint jobs. Shades worked out of the same barn as Doug Curtiss.

As for Anna, I remember the name but that’s about all. I was 16 at that time. I have the same bike but mine is beat to shit in comparison, Anna’s look really good still. I can’t remember how many years we got 7 frames but it was at least 2 years. 

Sorry I don’t know much of anything about Anna. 

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After about 7 years that I owned the bike and having just finished restoring it, I got a surprise message from Anna herself:

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ANNA HUBER:

Hi Laurent,

Just for fun, I googled "vintage Curtlo" today because I was feeling a bit sentimental about my old bike. Much to my surprise, there was your website with photos! So yes, you did buy the bike directly from me. I'm also still friends with Linda Peace, the former owner of the bike Daniel has, and with Richard Flores our old team manager. If you ever feel that you might want to part ways with the bike, please let me know.

...

You certainly have a wonderful collection of bikes and I hope you're able to realize your dream to someday have your own bike museum. :) I must say that it's a bit surreal to hear that my bike was almost on loan to the MTB Hall of Fame! Funny too to read that Kathy Sessler beat me...that would be AGAIN, lol. She and I often did the same races and she was generally faster than me. I finally narrowed that gap once I started road-riding to cross-train, and she noticed. :) 

I still live in Thousand Oaks, CA. I'm originally from southern CA, but German is my first language (these days I understand it better than I speak it though) because my parents emigrated from Germany and settled in southern CA.

I started mountain biking in the mid-80's, and I raced from 1990 through about mid-1992. My first MTB was a mint green KHS that a high school friend gave (or sold) to me. I then upgraded to a red Trek 970, and it was the bike I started racing on. At some point in my early mountain bike days I learned about WOMBATS, the Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society. As you might know, it was founded by Jacquie Phelan and was a women's mountain biking group. There weren't too many of us out there at the time and it was always fun to go out on a girls' ride, or to go to one of Jacquie's skills camps. Anyway, I eventually became a co-leader of the southern CA chapter and learned about Cycle World through an attendee on one of our rides. Cycle World was her local bike shop. She said they were starting a team and looking for riders. In I went and was signed up in a pretty short amount of time.

In late 1991, Richard Flores (CycleWorld team manager) developed a Portfolio & Proposal (pictures of cover [that's me] and first two pages attached), which I printed at the print shop where I worked at the time, highlighting the team's accomplishments from that year to send to Doug seeking his sponsorship. We were successful!

The bike arrived at some point in 1992, but Doug Curtiss could probably verify that for sure.

The parts on the bike are all original - many of them were from sponsors the team had at the time. I recall that I described it as a "time capsule" in the e-Bay listing. :) I think the tires as well. Panaracer's Smoke and Dart combination were popular then and I think those are what the bike still had on it, yes? :)

I raced the 1990 Big Bear Mountain Bike Series at Bear Mountain in Big Bear, CA; a 1991 NORBA race (the award doesn't name a location); the 1991 Amateur Cup Series at Snow Summit in Big Bear, CA; the 1991 California State Championship Series (which was at various locations throughout the state; a photo of me on the cover of the Single Track 'zine from the event in Julian, CA); the first and second annual Ridgecrest Desert Classic (1991 and '92?); and a variety of other small races. I'd been planning on racing the 1992 NORBA event in Mammoth, but crashed during a recon ride and ultimately wasn't able to take part. 

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Cheers!

Anna

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Daniel from Germany owns another Cycle World team bike that was raced by Linda Peace:

https://www.cultmtb.com/Bikes/Curtlo-Mountaineer-1992-Linda-Peace-Cycle-World-Team/