CHUMBA Racing

History

The company was founded in 1993 by Ted Tanouye. Ted tanouye went to USC and graduated with an accounting degree. Theodore Tanouye is the father, and is an aerospace engineer. Ted started out designing, prototyping in his parents garage in Santa Barbara, Ca., and later owned a bike shop named the Bike Beat. At his Bike shop, he sold Mountain Bikes and Mountain Biking gear. Ted Then began to embark on a mountain bike building journey, and began manufacturing frames in his shop. Ted sold his bike shop location, and moved into another location in Anaheim, Ca. Ted still had a small Mountain biking gear shop in the front of the business, while in the back, had a full on manufacturing facility. Ted and CHUMBA first achieved fame with the production of the CHUMBA Zulu, an award-winning downhill bike.

CHUMBA later went on to produce trail bikes, applying techniques and design philosophies borrowed from Ted's downhill designs, such as "slack geometry" (the angles between tubes in the frame are slack as opposed to steep), lateral stiffness in the frame, and a fully active suspension. This resulted in the company's first trail bike, the "XCL", which was praised by Mountain Bike Action [1] saying it "could turn circles around any bikes out there" with "razor-sharp handling". CHUMBA soon thereafter introduced the celebrated EVO which, widely derided for poor aesthetics, nevertheless went on to receive one of the highest user ratings on MTBR.com, including the "MTBR Best Of" Award.

CHUMBA Models

Notable CHUMBA Racers

The CHUMBA Racing Team has fielded several notable mountain bikers including: