JOHN FINLEY SCOTT a Tragic End for a Great Friend of Cycling by John Schubert
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CYCLESENSE JOHN FINLEY SCOTT A tragic end for a great friend of cycling by John Schubert What do you want your epitaph to be? My mom once First, he was one of the best influ - suggested “shot in the back by a jealous husband at ences on cycling in the last half-century, and, second, I screwed up. age 102” might be best for me. That’s probably what Let’s start in 1953. That year, John John Finley Scott, seventy-two, had in mind too. Finley Scott made the world’s first known mountain bike. It had multiple gears and Irreverent, wisecracking, and not given to excess sentiment, knobby tires. He called it his “woodsie.” he would have liked that. But it didn’t work out that way. Fast forward two decades. In the early 1970s, Scott was one of the key peo - Instead, he went missing on June 3, 2006 — and stayed ple who persuaded the California legisla - that way. For the intensely social Scott, a retired University ture to write mostly sensible traffic law, calling the bicycle a vehicle instead of of California at Davis sociology pro - demanding that it stay on the sidewalk fessor, “going missing” meant some - and come to a stop at every driveway thing was wrong. After a few days, intersection. family and friends knew something It is difficult to overstate the impor - was mighty suspicious, and as the tance of this work. Other state legisla - months have dragged on, we know tures and the National Uniform Vehicle he’s gone. Code often follow California’s lead on None of his bikes or cars is traffic matters. California was on the cusp missing. His house didn’t look bro - of putting us all up on the sidewalk and ken into. He’s just . not there. slowing us down to walking speed. Other There was some suspicious states might have followed. Fortunately, activity on Scott’s bank account both that didn’t happen. K C O immediately before and after he went Scott tag-teamed with the well- R P S missing. Blood found inside his known activist John Forester on this E C N A house is a bad sign. work. Of that joint effort, Forester freely V Police identified a “person of said, “He was much more adept at han - interest” in the case, but I’m now Scott on Switzerland’s Furka Pass in 1971. dling bureaucracies than I was.” Forester learning firsthand what cold comfort even accepted editing suggestions from that is. I’ve never been close friends with an apparent murder Scott, who told Forester, “You write very much like an victim before. Englishman, and you should say this in a smoother manner.” The person of interest cashed a check that Scott had report - Where Forester was blunt, Scott had the ability to turn on ed stolen and is now incarcerated on other charges. Scott had his bonhomie professorial charm (which, by the way, could disap - earlier hired that person, Charles Kevin Cunningham, to do pear rather abruptly if he felt like it). It worked. California state some work around Scott’s house. law, while not perfect, avoided leading this nation into catastrophe Captain Larry Cecchettini of the Yolo County Sheriff’s by getting most cyclists out of the way of motor cars. Department told me that the investigation continues and that In some elements, Scott later explained, the law was convo - real crime labs have much longer backlogs than you see on the luted and wordy by design: it went that way so the best possible TV show CSI . I wish Cecchettini every success. outcome for cyclists would gain a majority vote. Had the word - So who was John Finley Scott, and why did I wait until he ing been simpler, it would have been more anticyclist. It takes a was gone before ever mentioning his name in print? keen student of human egos and committee wordsmithing 40 ADVENTURE CYCLIST JANUARY 20 07 ADVENTURECYCLING .ORG behavior to recognize that something a “production run” of ten Breezer moun - cyclist and is now a Washington, DC-area which is on the surface obfuscatory is the tain bikes, many people thought he had lawyer. “He believed we shouldn’t have best possible outcome. But that was Scott. saturated the market. special treatment just because we’re on Scott’s next major influence on Scott’s venture capital allowed Fisher bicycles. If we acted like vehicles and were cycling was in the mid-1970s, when he to sell hundreds of bikes, and that was treated that way, we’d be safer. I thought loaned $10,000 in business capital to a enough to get the attention of Specialized that was very different and cutting edge. young bike racer named Gary Fisher. The and Univega. By late 1982, those two “At the time, this was a very new money was used to buy mountain bike companies were offering production concept. Everyone wanted to be treated frames (hand built by Tom Ritchey) and mountain bikes. But I doubt that special back then,” she said. components from all over the globe. Specialized and Univega would have com - Scott roundly insisted that the “hege - Fisher then sold completed mountain mitted to the project if the only precedent mony of the automobile,” as he called it, bikes for around $2,000 each. had been Breeze’s ten bikes. was inevitable. Indeed, even in bicycle Once again, it is difficult to overstate At the University of California, Scott facility havens like the Netherlands, the Scott’s influence. The mountain bikes we was a provocative professor, always urging percentage of trips taken by bicycle was ride today might never have happened his students to test their assumptions. He dropping and auto use growing. Scott without him. taught a class in the sociology of trans - noted that bicycle use was even falling in How can I say this when the moun - portation, and the insights from that class Davis because today’s college students are tain bike was already invented? Simple. are hard to deny, even as they clash with less inclined to cycle and more inclined to Someone had to prove that it could be the sometimes dubious assumptions of ride the bus than the students of a few marketed as well as invented. If you go some of today’s bicycle advocacates. decades ago. He insisted that bicycle com - back in time to 1977, the conventional “He always promoted the notion that muting was unlikely to grow significantly wisdom was that mountain bikes were fun bicycles should be treated like cars,” said in any upwardly mobile society, particu - but not a product — just another weird Susan Borschel, a former student and self- larly the United States. California thingie. When Joe Breeze sold professed fan of Scott. She is an avid Scott regularly pointed out that cars Adven ture Cycling Association’s 2007 BIKE GIVWin a handmade touring biEke from CA o-MotionWAYCycles . You will also get a chance to ride your new bike with us on an Adventure Cycling event in the summer of 2008. We’ll draw a winner every month starting February 15, 2007, for additional prizes from Pygmy Pack, Cannondale, Kenda Tires, Arkel, Showers Pass, Old Man Mountain, Ortlieb, Stone Cold Outdoors, Gore Bikewear and BOB Trailers . Then, on January 15, 2008, we will draw the winner for the Grand Prize bike and tour. If you are a current member on the respective dates, your name will be included in our 2007 Bike Giveaway drawing. In January, we’ll draw E a name to win the Co-Motion touring bike and the ACA tour. L P I S G E Become a new member or renew your membership now online at: www.adventurecycling.org. You can also R G call (800 ) 755 -2453. No purchase necessary. Official Rules online at: www.adventurecycling.org/special/ 2007bikegiveawayrules.cfm. Get signed up at www.adventurecycling.org, and you’ll be entered in the 2007 Bike Giveaway. ADVENTURE CYCLIST JANUARY 20 07 ADVENTURECYCLING .ORG 41 are “efficient status symbols” not likely to Scott owned a London double-decker “I miss the guy,” he said. “He’s some - be discarded by most people. bus, and he would often haul a busload of one I could discuss things with, and no one But, at the same time, he observed subculture bicycle racers to their events, else is as much fun. And the way he went something we have all noted, namely, that sometimes with interesting results. was just terrible. Unexpected, violent, unde - weekend recreational cycling is alive and Joe Breeze, five-time tandem winner of served, a weird fluke of just apparently well. the Davis Double Century (with tandem allowing the wrong person in his life.” What made Scott both delightful and partner Otis Guy) and now producer/direc - It’s been a bad year for obituaries. I irritating was his provocative irreverence. tor of Breezer bicycles, recalled the day, also want to pay my respects to Doug Whether it was giving a prize to the first some decades ago, when the bus took off Weiss, sixty-four, the retired athletic trainer finisher without any Campagnolo compo - without Scott. at Swarthmore College. nents in the Davis Double Century or “We were at a rest stop, we got in, In the fall of 1970, a particularly untal - telling his students (who were sorority someone else was driving, and we took off,” ented cross country runner named members) that the primary purpose of Breeze said. “No one realized Scott wasn’t Schubert showed up for pre-season practice, sororities was to provide a good hunting in the bus.