Inside the Marin Museum of Bicycling
A look at some of the bikes that made mountain biking the sport it is today
This article first appeared on BikeRadar.
Located in Fairfax, California, the Marin Museum of Bicycling sits in the shadow of Repack Road and Mount Tamalpais, where the pioneers of mountain biking raced, crashed and flew on bikes made from junkyard scrap, developing the sport into what we know today.
The museum was founded by Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Marc Vendetti, Julia Violich, Keith Hastings and Lena Maria Estrella and opened in 2015.
Featuring the evolution of the mountain bike, the museum is home to a number of ‘Clunkers’, which are junkyard 1940s Schwinn frames adapted to downhill mountain biking, all the way through to Kate Courtney’s 2018 world-championships-winning Specialized S-Works Epic.
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Many of the bikes were donated or loaned to the museum from Mountain Bike Hall of Fame members.
Alongside early and modern mountain bikes, the museum also hosts the Igler Collection, which showcases the 19th-century evolution of the bicycle and features plenty of designs that wouldn’t be out of place on a modern-day bicycle.
Vincenzo Nibali’s 2014 Tour de France Specialized S-Works Tarmac is also on display, alongside a number of other vintage road-racing bikes.
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This brief gallery cannot begin to do justice to the bicycles, components, photography, history and exhibits on display at the Marin Museum of Bicycling and if you are ever in California, making a visit to the museum is a must.
Visit the Marin Museum of Bicycling and the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame website to learn more.
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