He's Baaaack

[Repack Rider]

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. Even more glitterati showed up to add to the previous evening's list, including Gary Helfrich and Steve Potts. 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.

Chris came to the "official" opening with his newest 2015 model.

Too bad I can't caption these photos. Everyone will recognize Chris, Also pictured are Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductees including myself, Jacquie Phelan, Charlie Cunningham, Steve Potts, Scot Nicol, Denise Caramagno, Tom Ritchey, and non-mountain biker George Mount.

The museum ordered 60 copies of my book, Fat Tire Flyer. I thought they had gone a little crazy on that, but they sold out and I signed copies for hours.

[chefmiguel]

Looks like a good time was had. Thanks for posting pictures. I like the Cunningham/Potts t-shirt in the back

[DocChill]

...great photos and a nice story - many thanks for sharing !!! Will your book also be available in Germany (maybe signed)?

Cheers,
Daniel

[mainlyfats]

Really hope I can get to the museum some day soon. Looks amazing. Thanks for the pics!

[Repack Rider]

Originally Posted by DocChill

...great photos and a nice story - many thanks for sharing !!! Will your book also be available in Germany (maybe signed)?

Cheers,
Daniel

It's available online all over the world, but it has not yet been translated. My publisher tell me that translation is the easy part. The hard part is doing an entirely new layout to deal with the modified text.

[DocChill]

Originally Posted by Repack Rider

It's available online all over the world...

That sound's great to me - I think I'll try to get one !

[Repack Rider]

Yesterday Fairfax hosted Biketoberfest. Beer and bikes, a strange combination. I ran the booth for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and the Marin Museum of Bicycling. While we selected bikes to bring to the booth, I suggested the 1990 Fat Chance, bceause I had already told Chris to come down.

Chris came down, and brought a new bike with him, ended up sitting in our booth all day and greeting his adoring fans. Several other Fat Chance owners showed up to meet their avatar.

[chefmiguel]

Cool Cunningham in the back

[fat-tony]

Originally Posted by repack rider

yesterday fairfax hosted biketoberfest. Beer and bikes, a strange combination. I ran the booth for the mountain bike hall of fame and the marin museum of bicycling. While we selected bikes to bring to the booth, i suggested the 1990 fat chance, bceause i had already told chris to come down.

Chris came down, and brought a new bike with him, ended up sitting in our booth all day and greeting his adoring fans. Several other fat chance owners showed up to meet their avatar.

awesome!