Philippe Perakis, the innovator

Here’s a very brief extract from a long catchup I had recently with my old friend Philippe Perakis, a mountaibike star and innovator of the 1990’s

Philippe Perakis, the Big Man on the cover of MBUK, with me having to make to with the second page ;()

ST; Right from that first race you started innovating, and in a way few will remember or even know about?

PP; I started to adapt road clipless pedals and made a few prototypes.

I was just 20 something, and I went to Nevers, to the HQ of Look. I made an appointment, and took a black briefcase with my prototype clipless pedals in, and I had a non-disclosure agreement made which I covered the pedals with, and didn’t want to show them the pedals before signing. 

It turned into a 2-day visit in the end, and at that time Shimano didn’t even have a clipless pedal that I know of. It was almost 2 years of development. 

They never signed the contract, but after 20 minutes of negotiating I signed an agreement with them based on trust. I came back with a consulting and royalty contract, and also a sponsorship contract.

They knew mountainbiking was coming, and this young guy turned up. In the end Shimano came out with a better product 6 months before us, which is why the pedal didn’t survive.

ST; You were one of, if not the first rider, using suspension – and rode some pretty crazy bikes with the ATZ forks. How did this come about?

PP; I was thinking “bloody hell we need suspension,” why did motocross have it and not us? 

It was before the World Championship in Durango (1990). Two riders had suspension forks; Greg (Herbold) with Rockshox) and me with the ATZ prototype.

About 8 months before that I knew I needed something. I’d heard about a guy who was making suspension for a solar car for Swatch. He was a bit like Doc Brown from Back to the Future and was living in the Jura Mountains. He had a workshop with all kinds of prototypes.

I worked with him on testing and advice and we developed the suspension.