MTB Hall of Fame moves to Fairfax, CA

[Repack Rider]

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame has been located in Crested Butte since its inception in 1987. This fall it will be moving to Fairfax, California, a town long associated with the history of the sport.

News article. (http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_23871593/mountain-bike-hall-fame-moving-fairfax-birthplace-sport?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com)

[pdmtong]

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame has been located in Crested Butte since its inception in 1987. This fall it will be moving to Fairfax, California, a town long associated with the history of the sport.

News article. (http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_23871593/mountain-bike-hall-fame-moving-fairfax-birthplace-sport?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com)

If you had a hand in making this happen...thank you.

Same thing with the SFO exhibit...any influence there? That was a museum quality retrospective. I only wish it could be permanent somewhere.

[Repack Rider]

If you had a hand in making this happen...thank you.

Same thing with the SFO exhibit...any influence there? That was a museum quality retrospective. I only wish it could be permanent somewhere.

The backdrop used at SFO will be moved to the new location. Many of the bikes will also be on display.

I had nothing to do with the fact of the move, but I am eager to contribute from my vast library of relevant material. Gary Fisher called today to offer his own trove.

[kgreene10]

Fairfax, my hometown.

Growing up one block from Deer Park School in the 1970s and 1980s, I rode BMX bikes with my friends on the fire trails. We would set up jumps and bomb down the wide dirt paths, sometimes venturing off onto singletrack. Over the years, we started to see adults (er, big kids) with a jealous look on their faces, join us on the trails with modified cruiser bikes. The rest is history.

I also used to deliver newspapers to Charlie Cunningham when he was fabricating the Indian in his tiny garage. He was one of the only people home during the late afternoon when I would come by, again on my BMX bike, with newspaper bags wrapped around the grips.

Those were the days when it felt like you could live on your bike all day long.

Fairfax was a pretty great place to grow up. I can't wait to come back for a visit and see the Hall of Fame.

[pdmtong]

The backdrop used at SFO will be moved to the new location. Many of the bikes will also be on display.

I had nothing to do with the fact of the move, but I am eager to contribute from my vast library of relevant material. Gary Fisher called today to offer his own trove.


The SFO exhibit was one of the few times I have seen a museum display on a subject that I actually knew something in-depth about. The level of detail and items displayed were just right to satisfy both the aficionado and the casual traveler with no background. In fact i viewed the Shaker furniture exhibit that followed with a different level of acknowledgement based on the mtb display I had seen previously.

It is amazing to me that these items still exist in attic shoe boxes, let alone the bikes in the condition that were displayed.

While I cant claim early pioneer status, I did spend $750 on a fisher in the 80's - an un-godly sum to me at the time - and with my toe clips, bell v1-pro and tee shirt went forth. thirty years later riding with my wife on our full-suspension tandem pegs the fun meter at 11. in fact way back when a fisher gemini tandem was our wedding present to each other.

I look forward to seeing whatever you and Gary and others bring out to share.

I ran into ritchey and potts at NAHBS Sacramento. Tom rode past me on his tandem earlier this month.

Glad you are involved.

[pbarry]

Very cool! That's a big space they're moving into. They'll have no problem filling it tho.

[plattyjo]

Awesome - we ride through there all the time (even today, in fact) and it'll be great to check it out when it opens!

[victoryfactory]

Fairfax, my hometown.

Growing up one block from Deer Park School in the 1970s and 1980s, I rode BMX bikes with my friends on the fire trails. We would set up jumps and bomb down the wide dirt paths, sometimes venturing off onto singletrack. Over the years, we started to see adults (er, big kids) with a jealous look on their faces, join us on the trails with modified cruiser bikes. The rest is history

1970s and 1980s????
We were taking our balloon tire Royce Unions and Columbias off road
through the woods and mud of CT in 1960. We created our own trails
and jumps and left a pile of broken bikes.
We just don't have any pictures. The mods we did on our bikes were
totally useless and made them ride worse. We were totally clueless
10 year olds. But in our minds, we thought we invented a new sport.
The rest is history....
VF

[Repack Rider]

The building which will house the MTBHoF was once an organic grocery store, which moved into larger quarters. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead had wanted to put a music venue there, but a few vocal residents objected to the crowds that might appear (duh) and he was denied the permit.

The sign has gone up on the building.

http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp271/repackrider/Miscellaneous%20images/MTB_Hall_zps8c2c781d.jpg

[blessthismess]

Looking forward to checking this out! Does anyone know when it will be finished?

[John H.]

Actually Phil wanted to buy the gas station property next door-not the actual Good Earth site, and then build a 2 story building that took up every inch of that property. Parking issue was huge as well- because there was no parking. It would have been Grateful Dead parking lot in Fairfax every time there was a show.
More than a few residents objected and rigtly so, it was a bad idea.
Phil is way better of with the venue that he ended up with in San Rafael.
It was up and running in no time. He would still be fighting permits, and impact studies for a venue in Fairfax.
He is an old man- he does not have time to waste.
MTB hall of fame is way better use of that space.

The building which will house the MTBHoF was once an organic grocery store, which moved into larger quarters. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead had wanted to put a music venue there, but a few vocal residents objected to the crowds that might appear (duh) and he was denied the permit.

The sign has gone up on the building.

http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp271/repackrider/Miscellaneous%20images/MTB_Hall_zps8c2c781d.jpg

[Repack Rider]

Here is an update on the progress of the Marin Museum of Bicycling.

MARIN MUSEUM OF BICYCLING TO FEATURE
IGLER COLLECTION OF HISTORIC BICYCLES

(Fairfax, CA) March 5, 2014 – The Marin Museum of Bicycling announced today that it will display a selection of bikes from the Igler Collection, a comprehensive collection of bicycles dating back to the 1860s.

The Igler Collection will form one of two permanent displays at the Marin Museum of Bicycling, the other being the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Last August, the museum announced the relocation to Fairfax of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, founded 25 years ago in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Marin Museum of Bicycling curator Joe Breeze said, “The Igler Collection documents the birth of the bicycle and its “Golden Age,” when the sharpest minds of the day were focused on perfecting the most efficient machine of personal transport ever devised.”

Ralph Igler, a NASA engineer based in Palo Alto, started his collection in 1960, traveling extensively to build a group of key examples in the development of the bicycle. Bicycles from his collection have been featured in museums in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ralph Igler died in 2004, leaving the collection to his son, David Igler, Professor of History at UC Irvine. David Igler said, “The Marin Museum of Bicycling’s devotion to telling the unsung history of this extraordinary vehicle would have pleased my dad.”

Museum president Marc Vendetti said, “The Marin Museum of Bicycling is thrilled and honored to receive this long-term loan of bikes from the Igler collection. The collection’s wide range of bikes enables us to tell many interesting stories. We can feature a “chronology of technology” and rotate other bikes in for special exhibits.”

Among the collection is an 1868 “boneshaker” velocipede from the first bicycle builder, Ernest Michaux of Paris. Also included is an 1880s Coventry Rotary tricycle, the design that held human-powered speed records until improved high-wheel bicycles, such as the collection’s 1886 Rudge, took over as speed king. There’s even an 1898 Pierce shaft-drive bike, which was that company’s top model until it launched its Pierce Arrow automobile.

The Marin Museum of Bicycling, which will double as a cultural center for Marin cyclists, expects to open its doors to the public in mid-2014. Museum construction is underway in downtown Fairfax at 1966 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, former location of the Good Earth grocery store.

To raise funds for the museum, the Marin Museum of Bicycling is building a low wall at the property's corner, with the profile of Mount Tamalpais. Donors can purchase personalized tiles for this “Mt. Tam Legacy Wall” to help support the museum, on the museum's web site: http://mmbhof.org .

# # #
FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES, please contact:
Joe Breeze
Marin Museum of Bicycling
415.454.6536
joe@mmbhof.org