From "Charlie Cunningham, Mountain Bike Innovator, Dies at 77/In the late 1970s, he built what is considered the first off-road bicycle with a frame that was aluminum rather than steel, one of his many inventions" (NYT).
"His interest in mountain biking also stemmed from his attempt to recover from a shattering experience in 1972, when his brother, Doug, his only sibling, died by suicide after receiving a low draft number and facing the possibility of having to fight in the Vietnam War.... On Aug. 3, 2015, he was riding alone on a twisty road in Fairfax when he fell from his bike, perhaps after colliding with a deer, Ms. Phelan said. He suffered broken bones and a head injury that impaired his vision and scrambled his sense of direction. He struggled to read, but was able to write in journals and, eventually, to take walks by himself. He also rode on tandem bikes with his wife."
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54 comments:
He sounds like an interesting fellow and too bad he died. Age 77 doesn't sound so old these days. I wish these obits weren't so badly written. I mean "perhaps he ran into a deer". Haven't we been able to find out and reach a conclusion in 11 years?
And "his brother killed himself after recieving a low Draft number". The fighting in vietnam was over at that point for the US army. So, why put that in? His brother committed suicide because he was crazy.
Can your "sense of direction" get "scrambled"? I suppose the writer didn't want to use the cliche "Lost his sense of direction".
And if he only took acid once, why mention it? Maybe the guy didn't really do that much so the Obit writer needed to pad things out. At times it sounds like a entry for a creative writing course.
Did he miss seeing the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge train? That thing pumps out the black smoke.
Silverton is very small. The amount of cars even back then would have been tiny. But also back then - the Catalytic converter was new/ not out yet as it arrived in the mid 1970's.
I love the San Juans. Some of my favorite scenery. This year snow pack was limited and I would not visit. Fires.
I’ve owned many cars - new, used and vintage - and every one owned me.
** RCOCEAN II said... Maybe the guy didn't really do that much so the Obit writer needed to pad things out.**
I assumed he was important in the mountain biking world. If not, then why would anybody beyond friends and family care?
Ryan Van Duzer, has some great youtube videos of his many rides on a mountain bike - in that area on the Colorado Trail.
Best scenery evah.
I bet the Mossad killed him.
Dude made all that effort luggiing around an oxygen tank and still only lived to be 77. What a lot of wasted effort.
Test
The guy that made the Segway two wheel gyro machine drove one off a cliff and killed himself. I guess, don’t invent new recreational riding things.
“ Did he miss seeing the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge train? That thing pumps out the black smoke.”
I rode that thing once. About all I remember of the experience is choking on that smoke. At some points I actually thought I might have to jump off.
“….the nightly respite from the plugged-in world of cellphones, fax machines, televisions and computers...."
Little-known fact about those plugged-in things: they can be unplugged. Takes a little effort, but seems easier than moving to a treehouse.
This class of drugs is actually a megadose of serotonin and they have found that it will help with "flattening" the paths in your brain that are built by addiction and overuse.
The reason most people are fat is because they have been eating carbs all of their life and carbs produce dopamine. Over time your brain builds up the pathways that build around this constant dopamine release. All addiction builds up this way. It takes more and more dopamine to fill up these pathways and people get fat because they need more and more food or whatever addictive behavior you participate in.
These hallucinogenics show a lot of promise in busting these overgrown neural pathways up.
Looking at Silverton, CO he thought:
"..cars were the boss and people were the servants of the cars..'
..to protect his lungs from air polluted by cars..."
I'll take THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED, for $500..
have you Ever BEEN to Silverton? i was there 8 weeks ago,
You know what they HAVE in Silverton?
Steam Engines, that up until about 5 years ago*, belched coal smoke. IF you were tripping, and looking at Silverton;
your thoughts would be about STEAM TRAINS belching smoke.. NOT cars
about 5 years ago* NOW, the trains run on oil**, instead of coal..
because the coal smoke sent out cinders and embers along with the smoke.. cinders and embers that started enough forest fires that people began to notice.
oil** the conductor CLAIMED that it was recycled restaurant oil..
maybe it was?
i see Peachy+2 beat me to it! touche Peachy!
I agree with Peachy, I think the Joos did him in. Israel was on the cusp of patenting the aluminum frame mountain bike. They saw their enormous potential profits about to evaporate. He had to go.
"...The guy that made the Segway two wheel gyro machine drove one off a cliff and killed himself...."
Last I heard, Dean Kamen is alive and well and 75 years old. Or did somebody else invent the Segway, maybe I have it wrong?
Could AI be doing obits now?
In 1972 US troops were being withdrawn from Vietnam and almost all infantry units were out. Very few troops were being sent there and those usually in support/staff billets. Draftees were not sent in '72 unless they volunteered.
This suicide brother guy was either stupid or simply mentally ill - neither attributable to the Vietnam draft. (My money's on the latter.)
RCOCEAN II said...
"And if he only took acid once, why mention it?"
Back then, taking acid only once was an accomplishment!
Here's details on his recovery from his bike accident in 2015. BTW he was wearing a helmet.
"He couldn’t speak for a month, couldn’t walk without a cane for three months. “I had terrible headaches, but then I seemed to recover quickly,” Cunningham says. But six weeks later the headaches returned. “I told myself, ‘I’ll get over this,’ but it was excruciating, so I finally took a taxi to the ER.” Hours later he was near death and underwent emergency surgery for a subdural hematoma (bleeding in the brain).
Challenges remain each day. “I can’t remember what I did five minutes ago,” he says, with a smile that shows he has come to terms with his impaired short-term memory. His head injury also affected his directional sense (he gets lost easily), his vision (he’s 90 percent blind and has tunnel vision) and visual processing (he can’t read anymore). Yet it’s his diminished balance and coordination, which prevent him from safely riding a bike, that bother him the most."
I hope he got rich.
“ Yet it’s his diminished balance and coordination, which prevent him from safely riding a bike, that bother him the most."
Nothing that bad ever happened to me, but I had enough close calls on cycles, both bi- and motor-, that I could see it was just a matter of time. Now I only drive SUVs, and fuck the climate.
"...The guy that made the Segway two wheel gyro machine drove one off a cliff and killed himself...."
Last I heard, Dean Kamen is alive and well and 75 years old. Or did somebody else invent the Segway, maybe I have it wrong?
The man was Jimi Heselden. He bought Seguay in 2009 and later drove one off a cliff and died. I said made not invent.
"Draftees were not sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered."
I was astonished to learn that--according to a book on West Point by a grandson of Lucius Truscott (or other WWII general)--graduates of the USMA could opt out of Vietnam service by the late '60s.
Some did, apparently.
Narr said...
"Draftees were not sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered."
I was astonished to learn that
Narr, why did you edit out the "in '72" from my comment? It referred specifically to the wind-down in '72.
Of course draftees who didn't volunteer were sent to Vietnam during the general course of the war - by the hundreds of thousands.
""And "his brother killed himself after recieving a low Draft number". The fighting in vietnam was over at that point for the US army. So, why put that in? His brother committed suicide because he was crazy.""
He surely had other issues, but we only know "the fighting was over" for good in retrospect. It's not as neat and tidy when the war is still going on.
"graduates of the USMA could opt out of Vietnam service by the late '60s"
Don't know if that's true, but I do know that nothing of that sort was revealed to us Army ROTC guys, most of whom were certainly bound for Vietnam in the late 60's and early 70's. Especially if they got an Infantry commission, as all but the high-GPA guys were likely to do.
(They listed the branch slots available on the blackboard at the last ROTC class the year you graduated, and started calling the roll of graduating seniors by GPA order. Any high GPA guy who picked Infantry got cheered by the remaining cadets, but that didn't happen often! I was in the top 10 in my class, so no sweat: Air Defense Artillery. The Viet Cong didn't have much of an air force to defend against, so it seemed like a good bet.)
“I was astonished to learn that--according to a book on West Point by a grandson of Lucius Truscott (or other WWII general)--graduates of the USMA could opt out of Vietnam service by the late '60s.”
I asked gpt5 and got:
“The author is almost certainly Lucian K. Truscott IV, grandson of WWII General Lucian K. Truscott Jr.. He graduated from West Point in 1969, became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and later wrote Dress Gray and a series of nonfiction pieces about his class.
The key point is that “opt out” did not mean a commissioned officer could simply refuse a Vietnam assignment. What happened was more nuanced.
By the late 1960s:
* Some graduates resigned after completing their initial service obligation.
* A few became conscientious objectors.
* A few were separated from the Army for political reasons or other extraordinary circumstances.
* Truscott’s own class was unusually politically active; by 1974, after fulfilling their five-year obligation, more than half had resigned from active duty, and several had left under exceptional circumstances.
If the book suggested that graduates could simply choose not to go to Vietnam immediately after graduation, that would not match Army policy. New second lieutenants did not have a menu of deployment choices. They were assigned according to Army needs.
However, there were ways some officers avoided serving in Vietnam:
* They received assignments to Europe, Korea, or the United States instead.
* They entered graduate school or specialized training before a Vietnam tour.
* They obtained medical disqualification.
* In rare cases, they successfully pursued conscientious objector status or left the service under unusual circumstances.
So if Truscott wrote that some classmates “opted out,” he may have been using the phrase in a broader sense—describing the various legal and administrative paths by which a minority of graduates avoided Vietnam—not that West Point graduates had a formal right to decline a combat assignment after commissioning.”
I read the first Trescott West Point novel Dress Grey and he was pretty anti army for what it worth.
Baby, you CAN’T drive my car!
My bad, Ice Nine. I wasn't trying to obscure or confuse anything and apologize if I misled anyone as to your statement. I used it to launch a wider discussion of VN War conscription and obligation.
I appreciate everyone's elucidations and clarifications. I was paraphrasing what I recall from reviews of the Truscott book, which I have not got around to reading. (Hey, it's only been fifty years.)
gilbar -thanks for updating me on the engine change.
a decade or more ago - I spent time in the Durango area, Hermosa to be exact - where the train would pass by....and the black smoke would choke.
Humperdink - exactly., The Jooos...
@Smilin’ Jack: There are 2 types of bicyclists, those who have fallen and those who will fall. I am among the former, and have fully recovered, but I am sympathetic to those with falls or close calls who decide not to ride ever again.
If you're in Silverton, Colorado, and you're driving a car (or you are one) and if you have or you haven't done LSD, you're gonna go drive the million dollar highway - especially to the north.
RIP to the guy. His was a wild life - that's pretty much a good thing. I've got mixed feelings on his bicycle grove. I'm a pretty big fan of aluminum as a frame, but I really don't get mountain bikes. Some love 'em, I don't, And, there are way more of them out there than makes any sense at all (to me).
there's a section of road on that million dollar highway. (20 billion in today's dollars) (yes, north of Silverton), that is sketchy with not much edge and a steep drop. LSD would not be a good idea. Stone cold sober is suggested.
If you were a young man afraid of being drafted in 1972 you would known that only 2,414 men died (all causes) in vietnam in 1971. And that only 94,000 men had been drafted. By the end of 1971 we only had 158 thousand men in Vietnam.
And Nixon was promising to pull even more out and complete "Vietnamization".
All that was available for you to look up.
Here's what a Truscott article published in 1976 says:
"Denver, Colo. — At this writing, more than 50% of the West Point class of 1969 has resigned from active duty service in the Army. The class had a five year service obligation after graduation, and on June 4, 1974, many resignations which had been filed in advance took effect. Already, some two dozen 1969 graduates had resigned, or had been separated from the Army for political reasons — among them, opposition to the war in Vietnam, and opposition to the regulation which required attendance at Chapel at the Military Academy. The class also had five conscientious objectors, including the first in United States history, and one deserter in Sweden, the only West Pointer known to have deserted the Army. Clearly, 1969 was an extraordinary class."
I suspect "The Class of 69" was full of men who entered in the fall of 1965 expecting that they'd not have to fight in an unpopular war, and were expecting to be peacetime soldiers in the Cold war.
What Truscott doesn't say is the Army was downsizing after Vietnam and career prospects looked bleak.
“And "his brother killed himself after receiving a low Draft number". The fighting in vietnam was over at that point for the US army. So, why put that in? His brother committed suicide because he was crazy.”
What was weird to me was the mismatch between the danger of dying as a draftee in a rice paddy in Vietnam, and the fear of doing so. My memory was that anti-war fervor was at its peak in maybe 1969 or so. That was, of course, right after Nixon entered office. The same Nixon who wound down the war during his first term of office. There were maybe a literal handful of casualties in 1972. In 1973, there were anti-war marches every weekend, and frequent bull sessions in the halls of the freshmen men’s dorm about how to avoid the draft. CO? Canada? Etc. A little over a year later, we got the draft, and half the guys knew that they weren’t going. Best friend took his #365, and spent the next year living in Germany and climbing a lot in the Alps.
1972 was the year I graduated, and lost my 2-S deferment. I spent that summer eligible for the draft, and somewhat dreading it, but effectively undraftable, because the Army was, by then, heavily downsizing. My number (#138) would have gotten me drafted in 1970, and maybe 1971, but by 1972, even #38 was safe, The number of troops at Fort Carson, across town, was peaking, as troops that were supposed to go to Nam, were backing up.
Actual American fatalities peaked in 1968, under LBJ, followed closely by 1967 and 1969. That’s why I mentioned Nixon. The American public, and, in particular Boomer men, didn’t start panicking over the war, until then. After the Dems, and their Dem controlled MSM, lost the Presidency.
Bruce Hayden said...
"..s the mismatch between the danger of dying as a draftee in a rice paddy in Vietnam, and the fear of doing so. My memory was that anti-war fervor was at its peak in maybe 1969 or so. That was, of course, right after Nixon entered office. The same Nixon who wound down the war during his first term of office. There were maybe a literal handful of casualties in 1972. In 1973, there were anti-war marches every weekend.."
my brother in law turns 71 next week, so he turned 18 the summer of 1973..
just about Every time he talks (about ANY THING), he HAS TO mention that he was "ALMOST DRAFTED AND SENT TO Vietnam!"
Of course, he ALSO always mentions that he "wasn't going to go" he was "going to go to Canada"
I've learned to not reply, as he gets Very Upset if you imply that the war was over by '72. He basically based his teenage life around planning to "go to Canada"..
I THINK that's WHY he hates America So Much; America stole his chance to "go to Canada"
ps. he was a farm boy, and good at mechanics, so IF there'd still been a war, he could have easily picked a non combat spot..
Also, he went to college for 4 years to get an Engineering Degree.. But STILL! he was "ALMOST DRAFTED AND SENT TO Vietnam!"
When you realize there were 2 million boys turning 18 every year starting in 1964, and only 1.5 million were drafted during the war, the odds were fairly low you'd have been sent to your death.
Lets see draft age 18-26. Number of draft eligibles:
1966- 11 million
1967 - 12 million
1968 - 13 million
1969 - 14 million
Going back to the "class of 69". The army went from 1.5 million in 1969 to 780 thousand in 1974. So the class of '69' would've been 2nd Lts. just as the army was basically being cut in half in 5 years.
Even worse, the classes right ahead of them would've gone to Vietnam, fought, gotten medals, risen in rank, and been way ahead of them in the race for future promotions.
Sounds like a lot of self promotion and puffery. He didn't invent the aluminum framed mountain bike. Cannondale was established in 1971. And pioneered aluminum and then carbon fiber bicycles, including mountain bikes. I bought one of their mountain bikes in the mid 1980s after our Treks were stolen. My son in FL now has the Cannondale. With the dent in the downtube from when it was hit by a ship. Long story I'm not going to tell, because it sounds like a tall tale. Both my Trek and Cannondale were proudly made in the USA. A good selling point at the time. Neither company does that anymore. TBH, I don't know if there's any mass production bicycle made here. A bunch of custom shops.
As far as turning 18 in the summer of '73- I did that in June. Enlisted in the Navy in September and spent 21 years on active duty. Served with the last of the draftees and the last of the sailors who joined the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. We were all happy to see them all leave.
@gilbar--your BIL sounds like the negative image of the John Goodman character in Teh Big Lebowski.
I turned 18 in '71 and went with my high school pals to register and apply for student deferments, which were easily had. That status could be lost if you didn't maintain 'good standing' (basically a C average) and if you couldn't do that at Memphis Mistake you weren't trying.
We knew that the odds of being drafted and sent to VN were small and growing smaller, and the early 1972 lottery drawing removed even a remote possibility that I would be called.
Nobody I know 'panicked' about the draft, though many bitched, moaned, and protested about it. performatively.
>gilbar said...
just about Every time he talks (about ANY THING), he HAS TO mention that he was "ALMOST DRAFTED AND SENT TO Vietnam!"<
Yeah, BFD. That's a "stolen valor" variant. It's of a piece with the guys who describe themselves as a "Vietnam Era Vet" - an utterly meaningless moniker. It gets these guys who were stationed in Germany or some such place in the 60s, who are so inclined, a bit of that Vietnam Vet mojo. As a Vietnam vet - the kind that actually went there - it makes me grind my teeth.)
One of our JROTC instructors, a roly-poly Cajun sergeant, used to tell us cadets that he'd rather have one volunteer to lead than five draftees.
We thought that made sense.
"Smilin' Jack said...
Now I only drive SUVs, and fuck the climate."
Shouldn't this be posted on the "Sex and Surrealism" thread?
Like many other guys I’ve known who turned draft age around 1972, I was half right and half wrong about the war in Vietnam. Many of us could still use a little grace and forgiveness, both offering and receiving.
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