Butch Gaudy first saw the bikes with lots of speeds and chunky, wide tires at the end of the 70ies in Northern California. When Gaudy showed such bikes to Swiss bicylcle dealers upon his return to Switzerland at the beginning of the 80ies, he was met with lots sceptical reactions. Gaudy wasn't discouraged and instead looked for other distribution channels. This was the beginning of MTB Cycletech: By the time the established manufacturers realized that this was gonna be big, Gaudy had cut himself a big slice of the mountain bike pie for himself. And he has been defending it by fine-tuning his bike models year after year.