Gary Fisher is a Bike List fan!

"Choosing a bike is so confusing for people today," Gary Fisher told The Bike List when we spotted him at the Trek stand near his collection of new bikes at the 2010 Eurobike exhibition in Germany. "The Bike List sounds like a good way to make it easier for people to find a bike, give me your card I'm going to take a look at your site."

Sipping Becks at the bar in his trademark tweed suit, flat cap and diamond-shaped glasses, complete with a curled up moustache, the 'Father of Mountain Biking' may have looked like the quintessential English eccentric, but his lively conversation and attitude to getting more people cycling revealed the mind of an energetic American visionary.

Gary remains dedicated not only to creating and selling his own quality bikes but to getting more people riding. "I'm a fan of anything like The Bike List that simplifies bikes and gets more people cycling. When I first started making mountain bikes, the options were so limited, and now the technology that goes into all these different types is like rocket science - I'm not joking, we have eight former rocket scientists on our engineering team and we have more carbon engineers than most other brands."

Not being a former rocket scientist himself, Gary has stuck to what he is best at in the Trek Gary Fisher collection. "I do the geometry and the old-school stuff and the other engineers do the suspension." And they must have done a good job because the top of the range full-suspension bike turns out to be Gary's favourite. "The Superfly 100 is the happiest bike I've ever ridden. You feel like Michael J Fox riding a hover skateboard; it makes you feel like a much better rider. It's less than half the weight of the first full suss bikes I made so it shifts like a charm and you can go over rocks without shaking your hands off."

Gary still rides every day, clocking up 100 to 150 miles a week on road and trail, plus regular charity rides which he loves. "The California Aids Ride is incredible. Coastal trails with tailwinds all the way with an incredible group of people. If everyone in the world was like them - generous, giving and fun, we would solve a lot of society's problems."

Generous, giving and fun is how Gary himself comes across too. "Anyone who rides a bike is a friend of mine - that's on the website, but it's no marketing hype; I made that up myself," he says. So would he sign your bike if you met him on a ride? "Of course, I sign bikes for people all the time; if you need it I'll change your tyre." But only Gary Fisher bikes right? "No! Any make of bike! Of course, please keep me alive and feed my children, but beyond that, just ride a bike."