MTB Museum: From Klunkers to Carbon

1993 Ibis Scorcher

The sport of mountain biking is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, and leading the celebration is the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology (MOMBAT), a new museum created to preserve and chronicle the evolution of the sport, its personalities and products, located in Statesville, North Carolina.

The museum’s collection contains over 400 bicycles, including more than 250 mountain bikes. Displayed alongside the bicycles at MOMBAT are hundreds of vintage parts and accessories and thousands of pieces of literature, including period catalogs and magazines that follow the evolution of the sport. (via Bikeradar)

In the mid 1970s, the mountain bike sprang to life as a grassroots effort by a small group of riders in Marin County, California, who converted balloon-tired cruisers into trail bikes by removing superfluous equipment and installing knobby tires. The first purpose-built off road bikes were made in the late 1970s when the term “Mountain Bike’ was first used to describe them, and the sport grew rapidly worldwide in the following years.

The original mass produced mountain bike, the Specialized Stumpjumper, arrived in stores in 1982. An example of this model now resides in the Smithsonian Institution, and a similar model is displayed at MOMBAT.

If you're an afficionado, check the MOMBAT-Website, it's a goldmine! You'll not only find pictures of almost all of these rare pieces, but also historical data and information on how mountain bikes have involved in the last 27 years, including newspaper and magazine articles, even press releases, from companies like Specialized, Trek, Ibis, Shimano, and many others. Great history.