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Safety Jim Buffalo NY. posted:

Alb, what was his name?  I remember a racer named Dave Vinney from the Toronto area building pretty nice racing frames in the late 70's early 80's.... I think? I road a whole load of races in Canada!  Quebec to Montreal was the longest single state amateur road race at the time.. Incredible event!  

His name was Leo Doyle, (RIP Leo) and he was from here in Vancouver. He was a couple years older, worked at a bike shop (one of the nicer shops on the west side), got into it relatively young, and then didn't have time for it any more 'cause he'd knocked up his girlfriend, got married, 2 more kids and was too busy working, trying to support a family. We used to ski together up at Whistler and that ended at the same time. He was killed (1995?) on his bike, riding downhill around a corner when a deer popped out of the bush, taking him out. He died doing what he loved.

Last edited by ALB

Alb:

   Wow, what a story and such a sad ending.  The bike guys I raced & trained with were on US and Canadian Olymic and National teams.  One of the saddest was a great Canadian rider from the Toronto area, (perhaps London Ont.) named Jocylen Lovell. He was on the Ca Olympic team and was great sprinter. He was in an accident that left him parylized and wheelchair bound.  Another friend of mine from Rochester NY was Mike Carnahan who was also hit by a car on a fast downhill. He died from his injuries. And, of course my partner in the shop when we opened it in 72 was Jim Huetter who was picked for the 72 US Olympic team. His brother, just a year older was killed on a training ride while waiting for a stop light when a semi made the right turn on top of him.  Youth, talent, and incredible endurance all wasted... 

   Everyday, I am on the road in my car or on my motorcycle and see what is going on in the cars that have joined me on the highway.  Phones are numbe one, followed by food, drink, dashboard controls, passengers, dogs and other distractions that could lead to deadly incidents. 

   Many friends ask me to come back racing again. No, flipping way!  More traffic, development and distractions out there make it more dangerous than ever.  I ride my bicycle on our rails to trails system, around the park and occasionally through my own residential neighborhood.  I am happy with that. 

 

I tend to stay on lightly traveled back roads avoiding rush hours and the only weekend riding I do is in a group early Sunday morning but even that is getting busier each year.  

Been hit five times, two of them pretty bad, but nothing bad in the past 20 years.  Still, I ride like everyone's out to kill me (and am convinced of that) so that's saved me more than a few times.  Biggest complaints are all those that Jim mentioned, plus the people pulling out of side street who make eye contact with you and then pull out and cut you off.  Still, from confrontations with a number of these drivers I am totally convinced that as soon as my bike wheels begin to turn, both the bike and I become invisible - That is the only thing that can explain so many people pulling out right in front of me (I believe this applies to motorcycles, too).

So all those things are my pet Bug-a-Boos, plus I treat anyone driving any kind of Buick as a lethal weapon against me.  Don't know why that make, but over 80% of my incidents with drivers in the past 20 years has been with Buicks.  Go figure (and apologies in advance to all you Dumb-A$$ Buick drivers on here.  Go get a different car!)   

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

I've been an off-and-on rider for years, but never as seriously as some of you guys.  I have to admit that most of my riding in recent years has been on Joint Base Charleston as it is much safer than the roads around here.  Now that my work schedule no longer supports regular riding on base, I am too intimidated by drivers around here and the lack of bike lanes to ride very much.

As a side note, I find it very interesting how many of us on this forum share the love of bikes as well as these cars.

Geeking out on bikes is a lot like geeking out on our cars.  You got everything from weight-weenies to all original classics purists.  I love it all, even owned a couple of shops.  These days I commute (great bike lanes here) on a fendered Raleigh. I road and gravel ride on a crazy mutt that's a mash-up of a '91 SlingShot frame set up with 650b wheels and mostly Sram and Paul's components (great forrest service roads out here, too). I MTB on a full rigid Jones 29er+ (the mountain biking out here is over the top!). I'm spoiled rotten.

Here's a shot from the early 2000's of me (15 pounds ago in the red jersey) passing someone near the top of Mt Washington at the annual auto road time trail. That's a carbon Look frame with Campy record. The crankset was made with modified Suntour MTB crank arms on the Campy BB. I ran a 12-27 cog with a 22 chainring. There were times when 55 rpm was all I could do.  The physically hardest 1:17:04 in my life. The winners of the tandem category were on my wheel for the first half of the climb. I gapped them because if I had to listen to the creaking BB on their Cannondale for another minute I was gonna punch someone. I credit them with motivating me to a sub 1:20 time.

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Last edited by JMM (Michael)

Apparently, Worcester, MA was a "hotbed" of bicycle manufacturers (who knew?)  I found this table on a local site and also found that the John Deere Implement Company was once a bicycle manufacturer.  I seriously doubt any of these are kicking around an old, musty basement.

Brand               Mfg/Dealer         Yr start  Yr stop    Company            Location

Bay StateManufacturer18961904Ramsdell & RawsonWorcesterMAnaUSA
Bay StateManufacturer18971898Rawson Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
BoydManufacturer18961898Worcester Cycle Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
DeckerManufacturer18951896Decker Cycle CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
Eureka???J. W. Grady & CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
KrafveManufacturer18981898J. A. AlstenWorcesterMAnaUSA
RecruitManufacturer18921892Winslow Skate Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
Royal WorcesterManufacturer18981898Worcester Cycle Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
SpeirsManufacturer18951898Speirs Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
SportManufacturer??J. W. Grady & CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
TrinityManufacturer18971897Trinity Cycle Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
VineyardManufacturer18921892Winslow Skate Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
WindleManufacturer18961896Windle Cycle CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA
WorcesterManufacturer18981898Worcester Cycle Manufacturing CompanyWorcesterMAnaUSA

Mike, I have not done the Mt. Washington climb, but my friend, Robb, did it the same summer he finished the "Bike Across America" tour from San Francisco to Portsmouth, NH in 52 days - He was 60 years old that summer.  He figured that after the BAA he was in about the best shape of his life so, why not?  Made a few calls, told them about the BAA ride and got a spot for Mt. Washington in August. 

So he gets lined up in one of the waves they let go and as he's watching the wave just before him he spots some guy on a Unicycle, just balancing in place.  The cannon goes off and that wave takes off, Unicyclist and all.  Robb thought, "Well, I'll have to look out for him on the way up and give him plenty of room when I pass."

In reality, Robb never saw him again until he got to the top and spotted the guy Unicycling across the parking lot, heading to the bus back down.  Robb was shocked.  He goes over to the guy and congratulates him on the climb and then asked what his time was.  Turned out the Unicyclist guy did the climb 2 minutes quicker than Robb did.

I commuted to work on bikes for 20 years and ended up here on Maui with a Trek that I dearly loved. After 4 years of dodging visitors and locals ogling breaching whales and bikinis as well as the occasional tipsy driver, I decided I was reaching the end of my lucky streak.  Marianne (riding a nice Specialized) and I sold our bikes and have enjoyed our walks nearly as much as our bike tours with a lot less worries about getting whacked by a distracted driver. 

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