“World Class” Bicycle Museum Planned for Davis

Officials with the City of Davis and the University of California at Davis announced plans Tuesday to establish a California Bicycle Museum that would hold a rare collection of bicycles dating back to the 1840s.

Published February 19, 2008 by News10.net 

Officials with the City of Davis and the University of California at Davis announced plans Tuesday to establish a California Bicycle Museum that would hold a rare collection of bicycles dating back to the 1840s.

"This will be not only a nation-wide, but a world-wide resource to find out the history of that invention we know as the bicycle," said Davis Public Relations Manager Bob Bowen. "And what better place than Davis for such a museum."

Bowen said the city has more bicycles than people. "The city of Davis has 100 miles of bike paths and bike lanes and that doesn't even include the university," he said. "It's the only town in the country whose logo is a high wheel bike."

Several years ago, UC Davis purchased a collection of 70 bicycles from the family of a Modesto rancher named Pierce Miller. "Having the stewardship responsibility for the collection is awesome for the university," said UC Davis Vice Chancellor Stan Nosek. "This collection here is just another extension of our ability to partner with the city."

The city will donate a site for the museum, but the site has not been announced.

The Pierce Miller collection is the largest public collection of bikes in the country. "This will be more than just a museum where you look at wonderful bikes," said Bowen. "Kids will be coming in and learning about the history and physics of bicycling. We'll have world class conferences on designing bikeways in cities. We hope to draw people from all over the world."

Robert St. Cyr, the General Manager of the UC Davis Bike Barn, is part of the team that will help preserve or restore the Pierce Miller collection. "Just to be able to touch and play with this stuff and work on it and have fun with it is a blast," said St. Cyr. "These bicycles have been untouched so you're still looking at the original paint, the original tires, the original leather seats."

St. Cyr is like a kid in a candy store. He gave News10 a sneak peek at the rare bicycles. His enthusiasm is evident when he begins to explain the history and significance of various bikes in the collection.

"This bicycle is believed to have belonged to a gentleman named Diamond Jim Brady," said St. Cyr as he showed off a two-seater. "Diamond Jim Brady was a wealthy and famous flamboyant railroad tycoon famous for giving fabulous gifts to people and covering himself in a variety of jewels."

St. Cyr then pointed out that Diamond Jim's bike is covered in mother of pearl inlays. "Oh, it's beautiful," he said. "You could just look at it for hours."

St. Cyr said Miller used the collection as a road-side attraction in the 1960s. "People on their way to Yosemite would stop at his farm and country store and see these bikes," said St. Cyr. "But since the 1960s they've been tucked away in a barn."

An exhibit of a portion of the historic bicycles is planned in the downtown for fall 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the UC Davis campus.