The origin story has two settings: In Colorado, a gang of riders had the tenacity to conquer a treacherous terrain, and in California, others had the technology to design the ideal ride

Breeze’s earlier conceptual drawing for the Breezer 1 prototype.

In the 1960s and ’70s, a countercultural movement drew a new generation of pioneers to the West. Suddenly, ski bums, scofflaws, draft dodgers and hippie homesteaders were joining the miners and hardscrabble farmers of mountain towns like Crested Butte, Colorado. Looking for a way to navigate both the Pontiac-bedeviling potholes in town as well as the dirt roads leading into the mountains, a small crew of Crested Butte transplants began building handmade off-road-ready bikes. They used a hodgepodge of vintage parts, in particular from World War II-era Schwinn bicycles.…