Kamloops’ role in development of mountain biking highlighted in new museum exhibit

KAMLOOPS — It’s a sport that, in part, originated in and around Kamloops. On Friday (Feb. 24), the Kamloops Museum and Archives’ newest exhibit — titled Mountain Bike Mecca — will open. Museum Curator Matt Macintosh is hard at work, preparing for that opening.

“This is kind of how it looks as the hour approaches,” Macintosh says. “We give ourselves a certain amount of time, and it’s always just enough.”

Mountain Bike Mecca features some stunning photos of dare-devilish cyclists set amongst the natural beauty of the area, as well as examples of the bikes those cyclists ride.

“I’ve been around long enough that I’ve seen — from the outside — how the bikes have developed. From being really basic to having disc brakes introduced, suspension systems introduced,” Macintosh recalls. “It wasn’t so elegant off the hop, and now it’s been streamlined. We’ve got a pretty good sampling of bikes that are in that intermediary period, and now these new ones that are just insanely light and just distilled versions of all of this activity that has to happen for these different forms of [mountain biking].”

The exhibit features submissions from notable mountain bikers like Brett Tippie and Catharine Pendrel. The museum hopes members of the mountain bike community from in and around Kamloops will come and help grow the conversation Mountain Bike Mecca starts.

“We’re going to create a lot of opportunities for people to participate, tell about their own stories and understandings of mountain biking as it progressed out BMX in the ‘80s and went on to freeriding and downhilling in the ‘90s and 2000s,” Macintosh says. “Track how that unrolled in Kamloops, what makes Kamloops an important place for this activity, and where people think it’s heading. What it means to them.”

Mountain Bike Mecca opens Friday, February 24, with a free reception from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the Kamloops Museum and Archives.