The Quitters

The Quitters were founded in 1908 by a ragtag group of disenchanted workers at a bicycle factory in San Francisco, California. Crammed into small working quarters, laboring over work that they admittedly loved, they saw their humble bicycle factory grow and expand at a steady clip after the 1906 earthquake, as demand for bicycles in the United States soared to an all time high.

This group was worried, though: they thought the growth was too fast, too much, and too soon for their little company. Once a tight-knit bicycle-making concern where everyone knew each other’s favorite color, the members of this group started seeing new faces around the factory floor. These were people they didn’t know, didn’t trust, and (more importantly) whose favorite color was a complete and utter mystery. It could have been chartreuse, for all they knew, and that simply would not do.

What was worse, these new faces kept appearing, and then they would have their friends hired, and then they would have their friends hired, and so on. It got to the point where nobody knew anyone anymore, and intellectual discussions about the subtle differences between turquoise and teal were no longer important.

So in the middle of a balmy February in San Francisco in 1908, a few of these once-happy malcontents lit out on their own to start anew, with a fresh focus: stick with the people you know and trust, and damn the rest.

This group became known, of course, as The Quitters, for they were the first ones with the courage to depart from the once-humble bicycle making concern that they loved in order to try something different. Others would follow, but few would have the impact of that first wave. These were the very workers who were the first to be hired at the bicycle factory, and they were now the first to depart. They knew something that others would eventually discover: the people you know are more important than the people you don’t, and nobody likes chartreuse.

The Quitters decided that they wouldn’t try to compete with their old comrades in the bicycle business, and instead formed a bicycle club to embody their ideals. Over the years, The Quitters continued to dabble in bicycles and also branched out to other two-wheel vehicles, eventually settling on scooters as a good compromise between size, weight, and ability to traverse the challenging geography of San Francisco. More importantly, though, scooters had more paintable surface area than bicycles or motorcycles, making them the perfect way for The Quitters to express their favorite color to each other and to the world.

The Quitters have kept a low profile over the last hundred years, and new members have replaced the original ones. The spirit of those original Quitters is still alive and well in the current club roster, dedicated to their mission of brightly-painted scooters and tight-knit friendship on a local scale.

The once-humble San Francisco Bicycle Company at its height, circa 1930. The factory stood in a part of San Francisco that is now known as Dogpatch, at the terminus of Marin Street. The factory was destroyed by fire shortly after this photo was taken, in 1932.