So what is the state of the bike industry as of 2025 ? Looks like a lot going on- not much has changed on the surface. There's new people coming up- old folks that either have been relegated to 'brand representative' or maybe they are just somewhere else living out their years in peace - away from the grinding world of bicycle commerce. What is my place in all this ? I'm just passing through , taking time away from what I have been doing for decades- building the bikes. I'm trying to think of anyone else -a frame builder of course- who has had a sustainable shop as long as I have-can't think of anyone who was at the Sea Otter. Sure, there's a few scattered across the country but at this circus , nope. All the old frame builders have quit, died or been co-opted to appear in ads or at events like this - no longer building bikes.....they are building marketing instead. It's a good gig if you can get it.
This brings me to my experience-one that will stick with me , along with all the great chance meetings with old friends. I was introduced to a young man who, upon hearing that I was indeed that aged frame builder from Santa Cruz invited me to come to the booth where he was working - the Marin Bicycle history museum and MTB hall of fame. I have never been to the museum and have been well outside of the crew of folks who are honored there-I just wasn't there when it all began on Mt. Tam....at the time I was a minimum wage bicycle mechanic and hobby frame builder. I got to ride a very early mountain bike and decided that it was not my thing.......guess I was not very open minded at the time. So...when this young nice man said that I should check out the collection at the booth I told him that I had the first MTB (1984) I had ever built and asked if the museum would like to have it for display . The young man was super receptive to the idea and told me that I should talk to the head man ( Really famous guy in MTB history ) and ask him.
After walking around for another hour I had forgotten about the whole exchange and was trying to find the exit from the expo so that I could beat traffic home. One friend of mine showed up and said "Hey-have you been to the MTB hall of fame booth yet ?" I had not so we made our way over. At the booth we found a number of folks crowded around a small tent filled with the most primitive and historically significant MTB's in the whole Sea Otter. The curator, actually someone I had met a few years earlier -a meeting that he did not remember- was ushered over to talk to me about MTB # 1. The curator held out his hand to shake mine as if we were meeting for the first time- I guess that is indicator # 1 of my lack of historical significance . Indicator # 2 was when the curator kindly said to me that there was no room at the museum for my MTB # 1 . To me it was just another case of not being one of the cool kids- "Sorry, son. There isn't room for you ......and who did you say you were , anyway ?" Yes- of course I'm taking this like I normally do- much to personally- but it does feel personal. While these folks who are celebrated in the museum may be historically significant-and they really are- I think that the great bulk of them did their main work many years ago for a short time frame. I'm not asking for an award for my lengthy participation in this line of work but a small nod to my existence for all these decades might be nice. I did start building at a time that few if any were doing it. And those few have not kept at it - I guess I get a bit upset thinking that I have repaired and fixed a lot of these famous people's boo-boos over the decades and that all that I have done is nothing compared to the legacy of a bunch of folks honored at the museum.
Don't get me wrong-I'm not asking for n award-I don't have any illusion about being in any MTB hall of fame-I never belonged there and I know that. But I think that my first mountain bike does belong in the museum as it is one of the very first from Santa Cruz and represents the start of the second wave of MTB design- the period when cross country racing was really getting going and bikes had to steer and be light and lively and not just a copy of a late '40's Schwinn. Call me crazy but Salsa , Bontrager , Hoover and myself were building MTB's that were in our opinion much better suited to the singletrack of our forests than anything coming out of Marin.....just sayin'. Maybe our bikes would be shit on MT. Tam.....didn't matter-we were not riding there.
So....I guess my bike will not be in the museum. Am I writing way too much about this ? Yes....after the exchange at the Marin bike history tent I left the Sea Otter in a pretty bad mood-I had forgotten all of the great meetings I had with old friends and had also stopped being happy about how lucky I was to be in such a great community of people who dedicate their lives to bikes and making people happy with them. I own this weakness and inability not to take offense when I seemingly get dismissed by someone of elevated fame status in the bike world. This is me keeping me down - not able to see things for what they really are. None of this matters and it should not matter to me. What does matter is that I'm doing my job to the best of my ability and that the people who keep me working are happy with what I do. There's no museum for that and there can't be- the display is the world at large. The exhibit is a road, a path, a velodrome.....anywhere the wheels touch the ground. That's the big display where all the hand built bikes reside- and it isn't static-it is in constant motion- as it should be. The bikes keep rolling.......and so should we all.
In closing I really need to urge all to check out the museum-there truly are some great things there and really great stories. The young folks that are helping keep the place alive are motivated and very positive. Without the public's interest something like this collection will wind up going away -it's a slice of bicycle history crowded into a small building that is like no other. Am I bummed not to have my first bike there ? Sure, but it's just one bike out of so many that shaped the sport as it is today. You never know.....I might even go up there to check it out- but not if the trip gets in the way of a good bike ride........
