Fairfax is an incorporated town in Marin County, California, United States. Fairfax is located 3.25 miles (5.2 km) west-northwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 115 feet (35 m). The population was 7,605 at the 2020 census.
A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which often makes them heavier, more complex and less efficient on smooth surfaces. These typically include a suspension fork, large knobby tires, more durable wheels, more powerful brakes, straight, extra wide handlebars to improve balance and comfort over rough terrain, and wide-ratio gearing optimised for topography, application and a frame with a suspension mechanism for the rear wheel. Rear suspension is ubiquitous in heavier-duty bikes and now common even in lighter bikes. Dropper seat posts can be installed to allow the rider to quickly adjust the seat height.
Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, such as air or coil-sprung shocks used as suspension, larger and wider wheels and tires, stronger frame materials, and mechanically or hydraulically actuated disc brakes. Mountain biking can generally be broken down into distinct categories: cross country, trail, all mountain, enduro, downhill and freeride.
Melissa 'The Missile' Giove is an American professional downhill mountain biker. Throughout her career she won 14 NORBA downhill titles and 11 world cups. Giove's other accomplishments include three overall NORBA downhill crowns, two World Cup overalls, and the 1994 World Championship title.
Tom Ritchey is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport. He is an innovator of bicycle components that have been used in winning some of the biggest cycling competitions in the world including the UCI World Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympics. In 1988, Ritchey was inducted into the inaugural Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado : and 2012, inducted to the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame in Davis, California.
Charlie Cunningham is a mountain biker from Fairfax, California.
Joe Breeze is an American bicycle framebuilder, designer and advocate from Marin County, California. An early participant in the sport of mountain biking, Breeze, along with other pioneers including Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Tom Ritchey, is known for his central role in developing the mountain bike. Breeze is credited with designing and building the first all-new mountain bikes, which riders colloquially called Breezers. He built the prototype, known as Breezer #1, in 1977 and completed nine more Series I Breezers by early 1978. Breezer #1 is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
Joe Murray is an American pioneer in the mountain bike movement. Starting out as a professional mountain bike racer, he later moved into bicycle design. Murray was one of the original inductees (1988) into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. He was the first mountain biker inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1999.
Mert Lawwill is an American professional motorcycle racer, race team owner and mountain bike designer. He competed in the AMA Grand National Championship from 1962 to 1977. Lawwill is notable for winning the 1969 AMA Grand National Championship as a member of the Harley-Davidson factory racing team. After his motorcycle racing career, Lawwill became one of the top motorcycle racing frame designers and builders. Lawwill then used his experience as a motorcycle frame builder to become an innovative mountain bike designer, developing one of the first bicycle suspensions. He also developed prosthetic limbs for amputees. Lawwill was inducted in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
Russ Mahon is an avid cyclist and founder of a cycling group of about 10 riders known as The Morrow Dirt Club, named after a model of coaster brakes produced by Bendix Corporation. Originally based in Cupertino, California, The Morrow Dirt Club were, arguably, the first to put 10 speeds, drum brakes, and tall handlebars on pre-World War II balloon-tired bicycles for use off-road. These bicycles were the precursor to the modern mountain bike. Russ, along with Tom and Carter Cox, competed in a cyclo-cross race in Mill Valley, California in 1974 on these bikes. It was there that Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, and Joe Breeze, among others, were inspired by these bikes and developed them into the worldwide phenomenon known as mountain biking. Mahon's bike was considerably more advanced than the largely stock single-speed bikes used by the Larkspur riders. Shortly afterward, most of the Morrow Dirt Club Members moved away and Mahon left the nascent mountain biking scene, not getting reconnected with the other pioneers until a friend brought him into contact with Tom Ritchey in the 1990s. In 2007, Russ Mahon was profiled in the documentary film, Klunkerz: A Film About Mountain Bikes.
Wilderness Trail Bikes is a privately owned company based in Marin County, California, USA. Founded in 1982 as a company that specialized in mountain bike parts, today WTB sources and sells its product worldwide supplying bike manufacturers and bike shops with components including tires, saddles, rims and grips.
Mike Sinyard is the founder and chairman of Specialized Bicycle Components, an American manufacturer of bicycles and cycling components. In 2022, he retired as the CEO of Specialized Bicycle Components, a company he had led for 48 years.
Saracen Cycles, known simply as "Saracen" is a bicycle brand sold in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Originally based in Warwick, England, the company is best known for its range of mountain bikes.
Fox Factory Holding Corp. is an American company best known for their Fox Racing Shox brand of off-road racing suspension components.
Yeti Cycles is an American bicycle manufacturer located in Golden, Colorado.
Whyte is a British bicycle company established in 1987 as ATB Sales, the brand was established in 1999 by Jon Whyte. The bicycles are manufactured for Whyte in Taiwan. and then distributed to shops in the UK and Europe and the rest of the world. Whyte's first bike back in 1999 was a full suspension machine and had a girder fork with twin wishbones, with a main frame made of two halves welded down the middle, and used Fox shocks for both fork and swingarm. The prototype's appearance was likened to Preston the robot dog of Wallace and Gromit fame, which later gave the production bike its name, the PRST-1.
The Marin Museum of Bicycling is a bicycle history museum in Fairfax, Marin County, California. It displays bicycles and related items from the 19th century to the present day. The museum's grand opening celebration was on June 6, 2015.
Nat Ross is an American professional cross-country mountain bike racer. Ross became the first American to win a professional race on a twenty-nine inch mountain bike. Ross was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2008. Ross is a two-time World Champion with multiple National Championship titles. Ross is a pioneer in mountain bike innovation with regards to racing.
Myles Rockwell is an American former professional downhill mountain biker and winner of the 2000 UCI Downhill World Championships. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2019 and into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2004 Rockwell was arrested for growing Marijuana, he was released on $10,000 bail.
