A look at some of the bikes that made mountain biking the sport it is today
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This 1941 Schwinn DX Excelsior was rescued by Otis Guy from a junkyard in 1974 and was one of the many 'clunkers' used in 1970s(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
An Otis Guy Softride, built buy Otis Guy in Marin County(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Kate Courtney's 2018 world championships winning S-Works Epic(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Courtney lives a short drive away from the Marin Museum of Bicycling(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
The 'Safety Bicycle' was built between 1885 and 1892 and shares many design features from today's bicycles(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Vincenzo Nibali's 2014 Tour de France winning S-Works Tarmac(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Juli Furtado's Team GT 1996 GT Xizang featuring titanium tubing(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
The 1999 Moots YBB 29er was one of the very first, if not the first, 29-inch mountain bikes with full two-inch tyres, according to the Museum(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
1995 Trek Y-33 features a carbon monocoque front section and an aluminium rear tubed section(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Jimmy Deaton's 1992 Yeti ARC-AS, which one the 1993 Mammoth Mountain Kamikaze downhill race, the front chainring has 66-teeth(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
Foes Racing 1992 USA LTS 18 Prototype(Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
1993 Bruce Gordon Rock'n Road (Image credit: Josh Evans/Immediate Media)
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.
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.
