Brand history

Doug Bradbury founded Manitou in 1986 and began building Aluminum mountain bikes in his shop in Colorado Springs. While mountain bikes, and even aluminum mountain bikes were not brand new at that time Doug went at it from a slightly different vantage point and applied his background in trials motorcycle riding to develop his own style of bikes. His earliest bikes were basically trials bikes with larger wheels and gears. In a time when the majority of mountain bikes were constructed of small diameter steel tubing, had long wheelbases and very slack geometry Doug’s Manitous stood out

Doug’s first mountain bike, April 1986