Lighthouse Cycles Overview

Tim Neenan built mostly road frames and bikes from his shop in Santa Cruz. After designing a number of road frames for Specialized, he designed Specialized's first mountain bike, the Stumpjumper. It is likely he made very few mountain bikes over his entire career. He certainly deserves his spot in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame:

“without [Neenan] guiding this first effort the entire launch of mountain bikes might have taken a very different track.” mmbhof

Time Neenan jseephoto.com

1979 Chaparral

Supposedly the similarity to a Ritchey Everest is coincidental. Only small quantities produced over a few years.

I built the first Chaparral when I was living in Santa Barbara before moving up to San Jose to take a full-time design and sales position as the first Specialized employee. This was around 1979. The Chaparral was the prototype for what became the Stumpjumper. Tim Neenan, in mbaction

1979 Chaparral mbaction

1981 Chaparral

If this is all original, except perhaps for the tires, then the date for this is 1980-81. The shifters and handlebars are 1980+. Some of the parts are much older and wouldn't make much sense to use in a world with SunTour MounTech (1982+) or Shimano XT (1982+). The DuoPar was, according to Disraeli Gears, “a fragile design”, “disastrous”, “distressing” and “incomprehensible.” Tim Neenan would never spec this on a MTB if better components were available.

Fillet brazed by Tim Neenan. SunTour Mighty Shifter II (1980-86), MAFAC brakes w/Matthauser finned brake shoes (1975-82), Huret Duopar rear derailleur (1975-80), Avocet touring cranks (??), Phil Wood hubs, Ritchey? fillet brazed bullmoose bars (1980-87).

1981 Chaparral archive of Velocult

Designed by Tim Neenen

It is unknown how many mountain bikes Neenan ever put a torch to. But his name is stickered across more mountain bikes than any other: the Specialized Stumpjumper, Stumper Sport and the Sequoia. Plus his signature is on the Specialized Allez road bike and his own Lighthouse Cycles.

de-signed chiefcyclery

2013 Lighthouse mountain bike

A 2013 Lighthouse custom mountain frame. They exist.

2013 Lighthouse columbusmaxbikes