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 . 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 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 . The and . 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 ) 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 sold professed fan of Scott. She is an avid Scott regularly pointed out that cars

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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. And then a police car came up and found in Weiss a genius level of knowl - ground for future husbands, he wasn’t to us with its lights flashing and pulled us edge about exercise, injury prevention, and afraid to step on toes. He ridiculed people over. Scott was in the police car.” human performance. With much help from who bashed American culture and routinely Oh, what I would give to see him show Weiss I clawed my way from the junior var - praised WalMart. up in a police car now. Twice since he dis - sity to the varsity team, ran on two confer - On email discussion groups he consid - appeared, I’ve dreamed that he showed up ence championship teams, ran in the ered it his duty to flush out car-haters, at my house on his bike. NCAA championships and captained the because he believed their agenda was harm - “Scott was too dismissive of the poten - team my senior year. ful to vehicular cyclists. In so doing, he tial of bicycling for transportation, but he Here’s how good Weiss was: he once locked horns with some good people and was very spot on about some of the false glanced at a photo of me at the finish line of offended them gratuitously. I wish he had - assumptions people make,” said John S. a cross country meet and said, “John, look n’t done that. Allen, author of Street Smarts and a national - how you’re overpronating.” Then there was the bus. ly known bicycling policy analyst. You might think it would take a good

42 ADVENTURE CYCLIST JANUARY 20 07 ADVENTURECYCLING .ORG eye to catch this. Overpronating means that the foot rotates outward a few degrees too much during the stride, and the angle Discover Australia between the foot and lower leg is, to a sharp 17 - 25 March 2007 eye, a little different,. But this photo was from the waist up. Weiss could tell by looking at my shoul - ders. Doctors from around the Philadelphia forest to the sea suburbs would send their X-rays to Weiss Cycling the because he could read them better than any - om Adventure  9 d one else. Athletes like the champion miler ays Holiday! 8 tow Marty Liquori sought out Weiss for their 540 ns injuries. And I got to talk to Weiss every 1 km 73 h s day, since my locker was just outside his re fun our .of pu & s .. ad training room. I interviewed Weiss endless - ve ntu ly about everything there was to know about re! my skinny body. In that pre-Title-IX era, Weiss risked the wrath of the athletic director by secretly treating Swarthmore’s female athletes. Weiss was very matter of fact about it: they needed treatment as much as the male ath - letes, and he’d get fired if he got caught delivering the treatment. Weiss delivered the treatment. www.bigride.com.auwww.bigride.com.au In my thirty-one years of writing about exercise, I’ve made mistakes and those are entirely my fault. But whenever I’ve written Support your passion something correct, odds are that Doug Donate to Adventure Weiss helped. He was a wonderful guy, a Cycling Association fantastic mentor, and I miss him terribly. www.adventure cycling.org/donate Technical Editor John Schubert can be reached at [email protected].

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