When the Marin Museum of Bicycling opens June 6 at the former Good Earth market building in Fairfax, organizers hope it will serve as a bicycle cultural center for locals and tourists alike.
“We really hope to have a creative venue here where people can learn how wonderful bicycles are and how they perhaps can enjoy them more often,” said Marc Vendetti, a former racer and president of the museum’s board of directors.
For the past three years Vendetti and other Marin mountain biking enthusiasts have been collecting bicycles and artifacts to display in the 3,000-square-foot building at 1966 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. In 2013 the group announced the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, established 27 years ago, would move from the small city of Crested Butte, Colorado, to Fairfax to be part of the museum’s collection.
Now, two years later, the finishing touches are being put on the museum, and bicycling enthusiasts are invited to hear British author Carlton Reid speak at 7 p.m. Monday night about his latest book “Roads Were Not Built For Cars.” Reid’s talk at the museum will focus on the pivotal and largely unrecognized role that bicyclists played in the development of modern roadways, essentially paving the way for cars.
Joe Breeze, a 1988 Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee and one of the museum’s directors, said he’s excited about Reid’s talk and the chance for people to get a sneak peek of the museum.
“It’s like a dream to me,” Breeze said. “Reid has been to the Library of Congress and all over the Western world unveiling lost history about bicycles. In the 1920s they were essentially written out of history because of automobiles.”
As one of the bike builders and designers who developed the modern high-tech mountain bike, Breeze can’t wait for people to see the museum’s bicycles, which date from 1868 to present day. After curating an installation on Northern California contributions to mountain biking in 2012 at the San Francisco Airport’s International Terminal, Breeze made the move to start a museum in Fairfax and have the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame transferred to a larger, more accessible location.
Bicycle evolution
Breeze said he wants people to see for themselves how bicycles have evolved over time.
“It’s an amazing vehicle with an amazing past and it’s largely unknown,” Breeze said.
The same goes for Otis Guy, a 1993 Hall of Fame inductee and one of the museum’s directors. Guy raced in the Repack race in Fairfax, which was the first-ever timed mountain bike race, and his bicycle is on display at the museum. He said people are going to be blown away by the changes bicycles have undergone over the years.
Part of the display features 19th century bicycles on loan from the family of Ralph Igler, who was a NASA engineer based in Palo Alto. Igler traveled the world collecting pieces that highlighted the developments of bicycles over the years, such as the switch from hard rubber to pneumatic tires and the creation of brakes. He died in 2004, leaving the collection to his son David, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine.
“My father started collecting in the early 1960s,” David Igler said. “He was always interested in having the public see this great collection but he never found the right opportunity.”
That was until Breeze got David Igler on the phone and described the museum’s mission to show the mechanical evolution of the bicycle. The museum was a natural place to display some of David Igler’s father’s pieces.
“Showing that early history of the bicycle in comparison to the later history of mountain bikes is something my dad would have cherished,” David Igler said.
Guy said the museum has about 50 different types of bicycles on display, a screening room to watch movie reels and 80 chairs to host events. A large pull-down video screen is available so the museum can host movie nights or live-stream events such as the Tour de France. A research library, storage space for artifacts and a gift shop are all part of the set up.
“This museum will not be a static place,” Guy said. “We could have an exhibit on electric bikes or Italian bicycles of the 1970s.”
All-volunteer effort
Lena Maria Estrella, Vendetti’s wife, is heading up the effort to recruit volunteers and brainstorm ideas to keep the museum funded. As a former volunteer coordinator for a hospice program, she hopes to find people to serve as volunteer museum docents and gift shop hosts.
At this point the museum is a completely all-volunteer nonprofit effort with no paid staff. The directors hope to make enough money through memberships, fundraisers, corporate sponsors and events to keep the doors open.
“We anticipate birthday parties, wedding receptions, poetry readings, art shows and corporate events,” Estrella said.
The community is already excited about the museum as the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce started its wine stroll at the museum, the 2016 Olympic women’s cycling team held an event there and the makers of GU, a nutritional product line for athletes, held an event there for its staff.
Estrella said it’s been fun working with her husband, Guy and Breeze on the museum as all three men used to ride around the hills of Marin County together in the 1970s. She said the museum pays homage to the love and joy that comes from riding in addition to the town’s history as the birthplace of mountain biking.
“It’s about the importance of respecting and honoring what’s happened in this town,” Estrella said.
Follow Megan Hansen’s blog at http://blogs.marinij.com/bureaucratsandbaking.
