"From Repack to Rwanda" -- Mountain Bike History Exhibit at the San Francisco Airport

The exhibit just opened this weekend and will run through February in the international terminal at SFO. It covers the "humble origins, evolution, and global reach" of the mountain bike. The exhibit mainly tracks the evolution from the Northern California beginnings, though guest curator Joe Breeze would be the first to admit that the people came up with the idea of mountain biking in different parts of the country.

The SFO Museum has really come up with an entertaining and informative exhibit that will appeal to the historian and people just on their way out of the country. Definitely try to check it out if you are visiting the Bay Area.

We were able to be at the opening and hang out and eat coconut shrimp with some of the luminaries of early mountain bike development.  Photos below. More on our Facebook page.

Schwinn Admiral DX: A proto-typical cruiser before
being stripped and "klunkerfied" for Repack glory

Mountain biking started as a way to have fun. But in 2005, Tom Ritchey
was inspired to repurpose the mountain bike into something that would
hopefully help people in Rwanda. In back of the bike is one of the wooden
work bikes that the Rwandans would put together if they didn't have money
to buy a bike. www.projectrwanda.org

On display through February.

 

John Castellano's sketches for the Sweet Spot suspension design.
FYI: Castellano's current iteration of the Sweet Spot is a great platform
for a single speed MTB. Check out the Zorro.

Joe Breeze and Merry Sales Co.'s Jim and John Porter. Merry Sales was one
of the distributors for Joe Breeze Cycles in the 90's and are also responsible
for birthing Soma Fabrications. The Soma Groove frame was
partially inspired by Breeze's hardtail geometry.

TrailMaster #2 by Eric Koski improved on the Pro Cruiser design that
brother Don Koski built for Mert Lawwill. Among the improvements was
changing the 66.5° head angle to 70° which is still common today.

The Kestrel Nitro was hardest piece to secure for the exhibit.

In the Aviation Museum where the reception was held. Among those
attending were Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey, Charlie Kelly,
Wende Cragg, Charlie Cunningham, the Koski Bros., Otis Guy,
Steve Potts, John Castellano, and Jackie Phelan.

Photo opp at the display itself.

This is a public service announcement..

sponsored by the good folks at Do the Wiggle"bike route to the stars"!. Calling all you Bay Area cyclists, this Sunday at Duboce and Steiner (Wiggle launchpad) at 2pm, a motley(think tree bikes with speakers and bubble spewing bikes) crew is gathering to shoot a PSA promoting The Wiggle. They are calling for more cyclists, you too could be a star on the small screen! Come to support The Wiggle, come for some excellent people-watching, come because its supposed to be sunny! Check out the Do the Wiggle website, its pretty awesome..has a really cute, catchy(maybe too much so) ditty about The Wiggle that should inspire you.

Red Bull Ride + Style Report

Josh Boothby

The Red Bull Ride + Style was a fixed gear event like no other I've been to. Sure there was racing and trick comps, sure there were bikes, bikes everywhere of all shapes and colors. But since Red Bull picked Justin Herman Plaza, it drew a very diverse crowd. Some fans were new to riding fixed gear and never heard of any of the competing athletes at all. Many were not cyclists at all. You got tourists and just locals who came to enjoy the Embarcadero, the arts and craft fair and the farmer's market. It felt a little more like the expo at the SF Grand Prix a while back. At one point I was viewing the trick comp next to a 50-ish year old couple who were into it just as much as everyone else. And the crowd just generally thick for most of the day. Good job Red Bull.

The thing that stoked us the most was that our rider Jason Clary said he got the nod earlier in the week to be in this by-invitation event. Imagine how we were feeling when we saw him survive heat after heat in the 2-person track race around a narrow curvy track set up on the plaza and then take the trophy. Pake Bikes and us did a quick little video to congratulate him....

PAKE BIKES - THANK U JASON from somafab on Vimeo.

For a list of the winners go here.


Cutest top tube pad ever.


Some ladies brought out chalk and started writing
bike haiku. More pictures here.