Repack Rider
06-07-2015, 01:24 PM
For two years Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Marc Vendetti and Julia Violich have worked on their dream, a museum of bicycling based in Marin County. It was only natural that the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame became part of the project. Formerly housed in a restaurant in Crested Butte, the Hall of Fame collection is now in a proper display, along with bikes dating back 150 years.
If you want to gather the most movie stars possible in one place, you have to go to Hollywood. If you want to round up the biggest crowd of well known (but aging) American mountain bikers, you have to go to Northern California. The museum opening brought them out of the woodwork.
Two years of effort came to fruition on Saturday, June 6 at the Grand Opening. An invitation only "V.I.P." took place on the previous evening, and somehow I was invited. All sorts of cool people were there, Tom Ritchey, Alan Bonds, Wende Cragg, Steve Potts, Jacquie Phelan and Scot Nicol to name a few familiar to this forum. Chris Chance was overlooked on the invitation list, but i told him to show up and dare somebody to throw him out. No one did, so Chris joined us.
The next day saw the "official" opening, which went all day and filled the parking lot with overflow from the museum. Hundreds of people showed up and apparently a significant number of them bought my book, because I signed a lot more copies. Even more glitterati showed up to add to the previous evening's list. Denise Caramagno joined us; she was my partner in the original Fat Tire Flyer magazine, and she was the person who coined the immortal phrase, "fat tire flyer." Even Charlie Cunningham made an extremely rare public appearance, a two minute bike ride from his house. The MTB press was represented by Maurice Tierney, publisher of Dirt Rag.
I signed 60 copies of my book, Fat Tire Flyer (http://www.velopress.com/books/fat-tire-flyer/) for the museum shop. I thought that was a lot of copies, but they sold out in one day!
Here is the local news coverage. (http://www.marinij.com/sports/20150606/marin-museum-of-bicycling-boosts-cycling-culture-with-grand-opening)
I can't caption the photos individually. Here's the list.
Apparently the Giant Bicycle Company is responsible for a ten-foot tall FS mountain bike. I was disappointed to find that the pedals don't rotate, so it can't actually be ridden.
Scot Nicol explains bike technology to Tom Ritchey, while George Mount pretends not to listen.
Chris Chance is baaack, with his 2015 model Fat Chance.
Here I am with Jacquie Phelan, Denise Caramagno and Charlie Cunningham, while Jacquie tries to confuse the issue of which guy named Charlie she is married to. (It isn't me.)
Chris Chance, Steve Potts and Charlie Cunningham get photobombed by Geoff Halaburt, while Jacie Phelan misses the moment.
If you want to gather the most movie stars possible in one place, you have to go to Hollywood. If you want to round up the biggest crowd of well known (but aging) American mountain bikers, you have to go to Northern California. The museum opening brought them out of the woodwork.
Two years of effort came to fruition on Saturday, June 6 at the Grand Opening. An invitation only "V.I.P." took place on the previous evening, and somehow I was invited. All sorts of cool people were there, Tom Ritchey, Alan Bonds, Wende Cragg, Steve Potts, Jacquie Phelan and Scot Nicol to name a few familiar to this forum. Chris Chance was overlooked on the invitation list, but i told him to show up and dare somebody to throw him out. No one did, so Chris joined us.
The next day saw the "official" opening, which went all day and filled the parking lot with overflow from the museum. Hundreds of people showed up and apparently a significant number of them bought my book, because I signed a lot more copies. Even more glitterati showed up to add to the previous evening's list. Denise Caramagno joined us; she was my partner in the original Fat Tire Flyer magazine, and she was the person who coined the immortal phrase, "fat tire flyer." Even Charlie Cunningham made an extremely rare public appearance, a two minute bike ride from his house. The MTB press was represented by Maurice Tierney, publisher of Dirt Rag.
I signed 60 copies of my book, Fat Tire Flyer (http://www.velopress.com/books/fat-tire-flyer/) for the museum shop. I thought that was a lot of copies, but they sold out in one day!
Here is the local news coverage. (http://www.marinij.com/sports/20150606/marin-museum-of-bicycling-boosts-cycling-culture-with-grand-opening)
I can't caption the photos individually. Here's the list.
Apparently the Giant Bicycle Company is responsible for a ten-foot tall FS mountain bike. I was disappointed to find that the pedals don't rotate, so it can't actually be ridden.
Scot Nicol explains bike technology to Tom Ritchey, while George Mount pretends not to listen.
Chris Chance is baaack, with his 2015 model Fat Chance.
Here I am with Jacquie Phelan, Denise Caramagno and Charlie Cunningham, while Jacquie tries to confuse the issue of which guy named Charlie she is married to. (It isn't me.)
Chris Chance, Steve Potts and Charlie Cunningham get photobombed by Geoff Halaburt, while Jacie Phelan misses the moment.