Design Classic - MRP
Posted on March 21, 2007 @ 11:30 AM
It’s often quoted that the simple designs are the best. This might sound kind of obvious but these ideas are always the hardest to think of. Back in the day, as those with a desire for all things fast wanted to hit the downhills without the hassle of pedalling up, so the use of a triple chainset became redundant. With more gears on the rear cassette becoming the norm this meant the chain was moving around more and at greater angles. Add to this jumps and bumps of a downhill course and chains were bouncing about everywhere and often off the front ring. The need for the chain device was born and several developments took place during this early evolution of downhill racing, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the MRP system that things changed for the better.
The MRP is the brainchild of racer Ted Husky, who was painter by trade. He was at a two day race at Jacob’s Creek in Washington state and found himself in third place after day one but like so many others was frustrated with chain issues. On returning home he went to his garage and found a piece of aluminium and a couple of motorcycle rollers and set to work tinkering as any good home mechanic does. After a few hours the original MRP chain guide was created.
Ted returned to the race on day two pulling flawless runs and kicked arse, winning the race with no chain problems. Little changed from this point on. He found that his new creation worked superbly on his elevated chain stay rig, but it was limited to the style of bike that it would work on. It was dubbed the System One. While trucking to another race Ted was thinking the road miles away and came up with an idea that he thought might work with bikes with a lower chain stay. After the race Ted called his buddy Larry, who had some CNC machines, explained his designs and ideas. Larry set to work putting Ted’s ideas into reality. Ted then travelled the following week to the Cactus Cup (1997) with Josh Paris, then of Mountain Speed. Meanwhile Larry finished the guide and Fedex’d it to Ted at the race. It was so new that it hadn’t even been tested yet. Husky decided to call his new venture Mountain Racing Products, and that was soon abbreviated to MRP.
Like the Sea Otter of today, the Cactus Cup was a fun season opener where the industry displayed all its latest wares. This was the first time proper that the bike world got to see the new MRP design. Then along came some kid who just happened to be Eric Carter, and asked if he could use the guide for the dual slalom race. Naturally Ted agreed but informed Carter it hadn’t even been tested yet. This didn’t faze Carter who was happy to give it a shot. The newly named System Two was fitted to Carter’s bike and he went on to win the race.
Ted then spent the summer travelling to races with Paris and at the next big stop at Big Bear another kid came along showing interested. This time it was the legendary Shaun Palmer. Ted, being a small one man band, couldn’t afford to give stuff away so Jeff Steber from Intense bought one and wanted it fitting to Palmer’s bike. Ted did the honours fitting it on in Palmer’s hotel room while the man himself sat around swigging his usual Budweiser energy drink.
Palmer then went out and kicked everyone’s butt in both the dual and the downhill. There was a lot of interest and Ted hooked up with Stikman, who was wreching for Brian Lopes and Leigh Donovan as well as Toby Henderson. Things were looking good for MRP. Then at Mammoth Mike King asked Ted to build a guide for his whopping 62 tooth front ring. Naturally he obliged, satisfying Kings ego, even his legs couldn’t push such a large gear.
In ’97 Ted offered to sell the company to Carter and Henderson for $50k, who then presented the idea to Iron Horse who threw the idea straight out laughing at such an expense. Ted controlled MRP until ’99 when he sold it to his old friend Josh Paris, “Up to this point I’d helped him with developing distributors, racers and sponsorship deals,” Paris remembers. “Husky had offered it to me on several occasions over the previous two years but my business partner at Mountain Speed flatly refused,” he continues.
In the end Paris bought out his partner in the company. This solved the problem with buying his friends company and Paris took on MRP, a company that he’d been so impressed with over the years. He finished buying the patent and went on to sell thousands worldwide for the simple reason it could be fitted and would do exactly what it said on the can. Paris also hooked up with the mighty Specialized and Intense for OEM deals as it was such a highly regarded product.
Even though the design of the MRP was simple it was a quality product that took time to build and make. As a result it wasn’t cheap but those in the know were happy to throw down the cash for a chain device that worked and could change race results. It was also before the big overseas boom of copying and banging them out by the thousand for a fraction of the cost really kicked in. It all happened when mountain biking had lot of little quality cottage industries producing top end components.
In terms of changes over the years the basic MRP design hasn’t changed that much. “There have been many changes over time but mostly for fitments to the changing evolution of the bikes themselves. The basic concept has proven itself over and over,” Paris informs us. While there have been plenty of copies out there at a fraction of the price they’re never quite cut the same mustard as the original. The MRP is still going strong having stood the test of time. And it’s certainly worthy of the title design classic.
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