> Thanks to listmembers Dan Kehew and Robert St. Cyr, Tuesday evening I spent
> drowning in the collections at Davis.
Our pleasure, Harv. Anyone else dropping through, if we can arrange things, same deal. The public display is open to the public on Saturday mornings. We're in the Third and B building in Davis' Central Park, right next to the famous Davis Farmers Market. The current display will be in place at least through the Amgen Tour of California stage that starts here on February 15, 2009. If you are only around on another day, as Harvey was, contact me and we'll try our best to sort it.
As Harvey describes, our stuff is mostly Off-Topic -- as far as 75 years Off-Topic. But we do have several hundred thousand dollars in machines already, including a number of on-topic gems donated outright by CR's Hon Lee of Stockton. Right now, we're also showing off some impressive loaners, including the Hall of Fame's Major Taylor bike, Eric Heiden's TdF-raced Cinelli Laser TT bike, the modified Cervelo R3 that Stuart O'Grady raced to a breakaway win a couple years back in Paris-Roubaix, and the tandem that finished the most recent P-B-P ahead of every other bike.
But we do have gaps and your assistance is welcome. It's legit, folks. The California Bicycle Museum is an incorporated nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status. We're partnered with UC Davis and the City of Davis, so this museum isn't going to disappear -- even if the most bike crazy town in the country would let it.
Like Harvey says, we are woefully underrepresented in the 1920s to 1960s era regarding all sorts of bikes. We DO want bikes that are strictly off of CR's scope (pardon me, Dale). I put it this way: Whatever the visitor's first mental image of a bicycle might be, I'd like to see it well represented when that visitor arrives. And then we'll turn them onto the bikes they know nothing about.
We've become good friends with Scott Barrette at Patriot Cycles in Citrus Heights, CA -- and he's got the best of the best in BMX world. (Dude has a perfect Cinelli BMX racer with the full Campy off-road groupo, and he's loaned us a bike he built to replicate Cheri Elliott's racing bike.) We're looking forward to making room for Scott to show more of his collection in the Davis museum on a rotating basis. So, the BMX gap isn't what it might otherwise appear at the moment.
I haven't even mentioned Frank Berto, who has committed to sending his collection of source materials to UC Davis Special Collections' archival care. If you're an ephemera, photos or documents collector, and want your stuff to stay together (and enjoy the combined power of joining the UC library system), we think we're a good choice!
E-mail me, my dear prospective donors. Or, like I said at the top, holler if you're just dropping through and want to poke around. You may spend as much time as Harvey did uncontrollably chuckling at finding yourself nose-to-nose with a genuine Dursley-Pedersen.
Dan Kehew
(el presidente, California Bicycle Museum)
Davis, California USA