The Embacher-Collection®, established in 2003, includes over 210 standard production models, one-of-a-kind creations, and curiosities ranging from children’s bikes to athletic and leisure bikes, utility bikes and folding models. These masterpieces of design and engineering, which are normally housed in a Viennese attic and not accessible to the public, serve Michael Embacher both as sources of inspiration and as objects of daily use.

The rarities shown in the exhibition include one-of-a-kind models by the Moulton Bicycle Company as well as a Diagonale by French maker René Herse, the “Rolls Royce” of bicycle manufacturers, and also curiosities like the all-plastic bike Wilhelmina Plast by Sweden’s Itera and the all-wheel-drive Subaru 2WD Dual Power, developed by the Austrians Günter Kappacher and Paul Pollanka. High-performance bicycles that have written athletic history, such as the Textima Time Trial used by the national team of the former GDR, the Schauff Aero and the carbon-monocoque Bianchi C-4 Pista, are further highlights of this showing.

Cycling makes for a better quality of life, asserts the musician, all-round artist, and bicycle activist David Byrne. In his book Bicycle Diaries, he describes the bicycle as a “machine of perception” that permits sensory experience and a direct relationship with one’s environment and with society. Byrne’s cycling experiences on concert tours in nine metropolises, including New York, Berlin, Istanbul, and Manila, accompany Tour Du Monde as a subtext of sorts, though the chapter on Vienna has yet to be written.

iPad stations featuring the award-winning app Cyclopedia, developed by Heuristic Media in collaboration with Thames & Hudson, will be available to complement the collection catalogue.