Hans Rey and Why the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame Matters
A couple of weekends ago, the 2016 Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductions were held at the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax, California. Right there near Mount Tam, where this whole mountain biking thing started some 40 years ago with a bunch of hippies and the Repack Downhill race on Klunker bikes.
In the past 18 years, the inductions were held during Interbike in Vegas. It often wasn’t the right setting or timing. People were too busy with other Interbike events and the Las Vegas ballroom setting wasn't inspiring. The museum in Fairfax gave the inductions historic glamor. We spent a whole weekend in the midst of legendary bikes whilst riding and rubbing elbows with the pioneers of our sport.
The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame has been around for 28 years and has to date almost 150 inductees. It used to be run out of Crested Butte, Colorado by Don & Kay Cook. Two years ago they passed the duties on to the guys in Fairfax, including Joe Breeze, Otis Guy and the rest of the Museum/ Hall of Fame board.
With the new board, a new approach has begun. A nomination committee with several experts and industry veterans has been created to vet applications and ultimately nominate the candidates that will be up for voting to be added to the Hall of Fame. Every nominee has to be shown as worthy of induction. Some folks that have been inducted in the past might not have got in by the new standards. Now the whole process has a much more global approach. It is important to make sure that nobody has been overlooked. Each nominee should have had a major impact on the sport or industry, a lasting ripple effect on a national or international level.
The Hall of Fame is not just for early bike designers, builders, and racers. It includes advocates, influencers, journalists, promoters, industry folks and Freeriders. Yes, Freeriders. The time has come to recognize the next generation of mountain bikers. Several persons and groups whose roots influenced or ignited Freeride have already been recognized. Others will follow in the years to come, not limited to shredders, but also filmmakers, promoters and other key figures who had a breakthrough and lasting influences on the scene.
The likes of The Laguna Rads Club, often recognized as the original Freeriders, and the Froriders (Wade, Richie and Tippie), the North Shore Builders (Dangerous Dan & Digger), Glen Jacobs (early Mudcow video, trail designer, Minjin Club, Inventor of 4 Cross), and yours truly have already been inducted.
More will follow in the years to come, but the active support and involvement of the Freeride/Gravity community are important. Once a person is nominated he or she is up for voting. Anybody can join the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame with a yearly voting membership ($30) to become eligible to cast a vote. For the last two years, Josh Bender has been nominated, but he hasn’t received enough votes to make the cut. His nomination will be up for voting one last time in 2017.
The Hall of Fame is also encouraging more international entries. That effort started in 1999 when they held the inductions in Italy, and it regained momentum in 2015 when the likes of Horst Leitner (Austria), Uli Stanciu (Germany), Glen Jacobs (Australia) and The North Shore Builders (Canada) got inducted.
There are a lot of people that most of us have never heard of, but when reading their bios and accomplishment, one quickly realizes that without them a lot of things would be different today or wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
It is time to preserve our history and honor our peers, those that have made a difference. Mountain Biking is only 40 years old and already so many people, trends, brands and ideas have come and gone. Let’s remember those folks that stand out and have led the way for many of us, helping us to fall in love with this sport or making it a little bit better.
This year’s list of inductees included none other than Missy Giove, one of the brightest characters and racers our sport has seen. Her personality and style changed our sport. Hank Barlow was an early Crested Butte Pioneer. He started Mountain Bike magazine and took journalism to the next level after Fat Tire Flyer. Hank's magazine helped shape our sport, trends, bikes and philosophy—not to mention that they put Moab on the MTB map. Roman Urbina started the epic stage-race La Ruta in Costa Rica 24 years ago. La Ruta was the first of its kind and has inspired many events in that genre around the world. Matt Fritzinger started NICA, the US high school mountain bike league. This has been the best thing to happen to American racing and the bike industry in many years. Over 11,000 kids are racing now in 18 different states. And last but not least, Jeff Archer, who was tragically killed this summer. Jeff was an advocate and bike shop owner, but most of all, a true historian, a collector of everything mountain bike who created his own museum.
It’s these kinds of people who are being honored and who have made a difference. Some of them are famous, others less so, but their contributions have influenced our sport and the way we ride.
If you are ever in the Bay Area, make sure you visit the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax and see the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Support their cause by becoming a member —keep the museum going and help shape the history of our sport.
Happy Trails,
Hans Rey
MENTIONS: @GTBicycles
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
More importantly, as egotistical as he is, he belongs in 'ere as much as anyone & more than most.
one of the friendliest pro riders I've met, and I've met and ridden with many
nothing but respect from me for Bender
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO-Au32jj0I
ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb391886/p4pb391886.jpg
In general, if someone feels the need to write a 'why x matters' essay, it's usually safe to say it does not (if it did matter, the fact would be obvious).
It would be cool to see what someone riding hard for so long chooses in their setup.
first one.
I understand the question about fame...just think of it as a group of 'insert xyz sport/subject' whom accomplished great things.
Having a cool place to meet, ride, and party is rad
The big problem though is their US-centric look on the past when viewed as an outsider. Understandable as the US and Canada are big countries with lots of mtb legacy stories to tell, but they do seem to forget that other parts of the world were innovating and pushing boundaries too. The UK has a different look on things for example with purpose-built trail centres for all abilities and our 'unique' climate dictating bikes be a lot more waterproof than ones used elsewhere. The L/T hardtail used in all weathers is a pretty UK-specific bike!
The main difference though is that the US is good at patting itself on the back and shouting 'Look what we did!' whereas we're a bit more reserved when it comes to that sort of thing. For example the original trail centre in the UK just celebrated it's 25th anniversary, that's 7 years older than Whistler Bike Park but I doubt many people over the other side of the Atlantic know where it is. The US and Canada would have a massive party with it being all over the media, bid 'edits' etc whereas we had a get-together, a race or two and that was it. Just different cultures.
One could argue that just like there is no one definitive, all-encompassing museum (Hall of Fame happens to attract more of the populace than museum in the US) of anything within the world, there is no equivalent in the cycling, let alone, the mountain bike world. This locale happens to be one of the birthplaces of this idea, and has people and a community (despite many reports to the contrary) willing to support it and the sport it cherishes.
"Where is your Hall of Fame?"...does your local shop, park, or town celebrate its history, or do they allocate it to a corner because it's not important right this second? All the more reason to celebrate and share those places that put it front and center.
Personally, it's more impactful to be located where the action started, is dealing with many of the same access issues we all see, and where you can actually go for a ride (Crested Butte and Fairfax fit both of these molds, as do many other places.)
Again, "Where is your Hall of Fame?"
Funny that a biker, whose bike stops moving when the rider does, is looked down upon by someone who may or may not be able to stop the huge animal they've shackled themselves to and forced to trot around the woods with some fatass on their spine.
Every weekend I see hundreds of mountain bikers in Fairfax, there to take advantage of the bicycle only singletrack and flow trail at Tamarancho. The town economy runs on bicycles, with two big bike shops and two bars that cater to the mountain bike crowd. Plus, of course, a museum of bicycling that a passionate cyclist could spend all day in.
You're right, mountain biking in Marin is so popular that nobody goes there any more.
Funny how so many people who never ride in Marin have a low opinion of stuff they have no experience with.
www.pinkbike.com/news/cut-the-crap-opinion-2016.html