The club has always had lurkers—members who don’t show their faces at a ride or any other club event. I was a lurker once. After I joined the club it was about a year before I got up the courage to attend either a club ride or one of the monthly meetings. (Aside 1: We used to have monthly meetings at the Page Street library and then later at MCC in the Castro.) In the meantime those ChainLetters piled up in my living room. (Aside 2: We used to have a monthly newsletter, the ChainLetter.) I’d read them front to back, which wasn’t hard since they weren’t very long—each sheet of paper would increase the postage and we were a broke club so it was kept short. This went on for about a year maybe and when I had to renew my membership, I thought, “Why am I spending $12 for a club membership that I’m not using?” But I did re-up and I think sometime in that second year I finally showed up and stopped being a lurker.
In the early days there must have been other lurkers because our membership was hovering about 120 or so. If you look at the old club photographs, the attendance at rides was actually very good. When Derek led the first American River bike trail ride in 1983 he got over 35 participants, which was extraordinary. Having ten to fifteen folks show up for a ride wasn’t unusual. Even so there were members who never showed their face. Attending a club ride can be intimidating just as it would be anytime you’re new at an unfamiliar social venue. Coming out back then was harder, I think, than it is today where we see school age kids coming out. Keep in mind that venues like Different Spokes were a fairly new development. Only a few years beforehand gay social environments were heavily weighted towards bars and baths. Social gatherings like bike rides, bowling alleys, and baseball teams as well as knitting circles and car clubs were beginning their efflorescence. Coming to a club ride or meeting took some courage—it wasn’t just going for a group ride, it was a way to come out.
That was certainly true for me as well even though I was by that time living in the City in the lower Haight. Part of my delayed entry was that I was a runner in those days. But my running was extremely frustrating due to chronic, repeated injuries. I was also in graduate school and working so free time was very limited for me.
I do remember reading an ad for Different Spokes and that’s when I joined even though I was running. I rode my bike for errands and very occasionally would go out for a “real” ride. I even raced back in the day. But I loved running more and went back to cycling only because I couldn’t deal with yet another running injury. Showing up on my first club ride surely gave me pause—who were these people and would I fit in? I guess I did because I’m still here and efforts to throw me out have all ended in failure.
Once the AIDS Bike-A-Thon became an annual club event we started to have another kind of lurker. Our membership count swelled but it sure didn’t seem like it when you went on club rides. There were a few more people but not in proportion to our apparent club size, which easily doubled. It turned out that we had a lot of members who just wanted to support the club because of BAT. Maybe they had no interest in cycling or they lived too far away to attend rides. The AIDS Bike-A-Thon turned out to be great advertising for the club. It didn’t hurt that we were putting on the BAT the way the PTA does bake sales: it was a completely volunteer effort to raise money for a good cause. We didn’t earn a cent from it. (Aside 3: Did you know we actually did do bake sales and garage sales to get enough money to run the club, the biggest portion of which was putting out the ChainLetter?) Some lurkers wanted to help us out financially—“angels”—and we didn’t object.
Fast forward a couple of decades and guess what? We still have lurkers! There are still a few “angels” even though it’s been over thirty years since we put on BAT. (Aside 4: But we did put on other fundraisers—the Saddle Challenge went on for years; Ride for Project Inform; and Double Bay Double.) Why some members lurk may be the same as before—still mustering the courage to come out. Some of the newer, recent members may be lurking because they’re coming from AIDS Lifecycle training groups. Attending a club ride is an afterthought for them because their friendships are already cemented in their training group. It’s like a parallel universe of cyclists in our club. And why not? There’s no need to break into a new social circle when they’ve got plenty of friends with whom they have history. For them Different Spokes is largely redundant. When you go to a party, do you can hang out with the people you already know or are you the social butterfly introducing yourself to every Tom, Dick, and Harry? Maybe what we need is a mixer where the Spokers and the ALC folks are gently forced to interact! Anyone for a round of Twister?
There is another population of lurkers. These are the folks who think they’re joining a well-rounded recreational cycling club and then slowly find out it may not be the case. These are the mountain bikers or other dirt afficionados; those who like shorter rides; those who like going on real adventures; those who enjoy self-sufficient touring. The list goes on. Many do not realize how one-dimensional our club is. If you like riding moderate distances on the road on a weekend, this might be the club for you. Most recreational cycling clubs aren’t much different than we are. It’s rare for a club to do it all and those that do are usually much larger than we. But is that a cause or an effect? From roughly the late 1980s to the early Aughts we had a small but robust subgroup of mountain bikers. Touring? That used to be a big thing in the club. Now it’s gone replaced by increasingly infrequent “getaway” weekends. Short rides? Don’t have any. Weekday rides? A rarity. So those members continue to lurk because the kind of rides that might pique their interest rarely show up on our ride calendar. Until they get tired of waiting and let their membership lapse.
At this point the club is consigned to losing these folks. We have no rides to offer them and we do not take steps to remediate this. And is there any reason to offer them the rides they like to do? Does that question even make sense given we’re a completely volunteer based club? It’s a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma: having ride leaders who offer those rides leads to more folks who enjoy that type; but to get ride leaders you need to offer the rides.
I get why people lurk. Showing up at a social event where you don’t know anyone can be intimidating. Will they like me? (Will I like them?) Am I hideous? (Are they all trolls?) Will anyone speak to me? (How do I get away from talking to these nerds?) Add bicycling to the mix and you have to deal with, “Can I keep up? Will I get dropped in a flash and left to die on the Sausalito bike path? Am I dressed correctly??” But a modicum of bravery gets you in the proverbial front door and before you know it you’ve become a familiar face and have a group of cycling friends. You warm up and find out what Spokers do with the rest of the lives, enjoy conversing with them, maybe find other common interests. A welcoming first contact can make a huge difference in whether a lurker comes back or never shows their face again at a club ride.
I don’t recall how I felt at my first club meeting even though I recall what I realized later were constant themes in the club: Mike ‘Loudmouth’ Reedy yelling at someone and Jim King and Tom Walther responding in kind; the ride coordinator pleading for people to lead rides next month; the board sitting at the front of the library room enduring playful taunts from the peanut gallery. By the lack of decorum clearly these people were very comfortable with each other! I probably chatted with a couple of folks. But I don’t have a recollection that anyone present made any effort to welcome newcomers.
However I do recall my first ride. It was across the GG Bridge to Marin and there were ten to fifteen riders. Derek Liecty came right up to me and asked, “Is that bike a Teledyne Titan??” Apparently he was the only bike nerd in the crowd and it was my bike that caught his eye. (Aside 5: The Teledyne Titan was one of the first commercial titanium bike frames. Teledyne is a big aerospace company that made titanium tubes for jets and tried to make a commercial bike frame. That effort lasted about two years. I got mine at a fire sale when they were emptying the warehouse, so cheap! That bike was eventually stolen, alas.) I laugh at that encounter now because it’s so Derek and because no one other than he even noticed the rare bike, which shows you where the club was at back then, essentially cycling ‘hicksville’. It definitely wasn’t about the bikes back then! I do recall a few I rode with that day: Matt Algieri, who was also new; Dennis Westler; Derek; and Ron Decamp. I do recall enjoying the ride and I remember talking to Matt Algieri as we rode.
After that I attended rides only occasionally because I was super busy. I could almost never hang out because once a ride was over, I had to attend to other weekend errands or hit the books as I was in graduate school. But the ice was broken and I met other Spokers. One of the nice things I recall was that Spokers hung out even when we weren’t cycling—it was a really social group and although cycling may have been the initial glue that brought folks together, friendships extended beyond mere cycling. Maybe that’s still true today?
So, you lurkers out there there’s no real reason to lurk unless you’re into some weird kind of cycling like unicycling, BMX, enduro, cross-country, trail riding, track, racing, long distance touring, bikepacking, fixies, Bromptons, gravelgrinding, randonneuring. But if you’re into moderate distance road riding, you’re good! We look forward to you making the effort to check us out.
from Scott Lechert; East Hampton after their bike-a-thon.
AIDS Lifecycle, the annual fundraiser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, recently ended its last iteration. The fundraiser was first offered in 1994 and back then was called the California AIDS Ride (CAR), and it was organized not by the two non-profits but by Pallotta Teamworks, a for-profit corporation. Apparently unhappy with the proceeds from Pallotta, the two organizations eventually ended their relationship with the company and then went about organizing the same fundraising ride but now under their own auspices starting in 2002. It was rebranded the AIDS Lifecycle.
But did you know there was an earlier “LifeCycle”? In 1986, eight years prior to the AIDS Lifecycle, a man named Scott Lechert from New York organized a cross-country bicycle ride to raise money for AIDS organizations and to increase awareness of the AIDS crisis at a time when there was no concerted national action was taking place. Scott, taking inspiration from the 1985 AIDS Bike-A-Thon “Pedaling for Pride”, first organized an ad hoc bike-a-thon fundraiser in New York, which took place in September 1985. Interestingly he got 62 riders to do the one-way, hundred mile route on Long Island out to East Hampton and netted about $30,000. Those stats are almost the same as our first Bike-A-Thon.
Following that coup Scott apparently was inspired to organize a bike ride that would be much more challenging: a cross-country, self-contained ride from New York to San Francisco. He called the ride Life-Cycle ’86. But at other times it was referred to as Cycle For Life.
Here is an interview with Scott published in the March 1986 ChainLetter:
Interview: Scott Lechert (March 1986 CL) Different Spokes/San Francisco is not the only organization planning a major fundraiser this year. Diff’rent Spokes/New York has an ambitious ride planned for this year—Life-Cycle ’86. The ChainLetter talked with Scott Lechert, DS/NY member and organizer for this event.
CL: Why are you doing this ride? SL: The purpose of Life-Cycle ’86 is to raise money for a national AIDS foundation, educate people on AIDS-related issues and display a healthy, positive response to the AIDS crisis. And most importantly, for the participating bicyclists, the ride will be a lot of fun, a chance to meet a lot of very giving and caring people, and an opportunity for some personal growth. I, myself, think it look great on a resume as well. CL: I understand you are planning on getting across the country and be in San Francisco in time for Gay Games II. When are you beginning? SL: The starting date is May 26th, Memorial Day. CL: What will the route be? SL: We’ll be going through major cities along the way—Cleveland, Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Des Moines, Lincoln. We should be in Denver July 7th. We’ll be arriving at the Youth Hostel in Sausalito on August 2nd and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge sometime in the afternoon on August 3rd. CL: What support will there be on the ride? SL: Life-Cycle ’86 will not have sag wagons except for maybe a selected one- or two-week segment. As I said before, one of the goals of this ride is to display a healthy response to the AIDS crisis. By having people carry their own gear, being totally self-sufficient, a certain strength and determination is conveyed to the public. So participating bicyclists are required to be self-sufficient—carrying their own sleeping bag, tent, and other necessary supplies. Not everything is needed though—stoves and other group-use equiupment need not be carried by every person. CL: Riding loaded across country. How are you going to manage that? SL: Bicyclists are not required to stay together, ride pacelines or anything. Some people are going to want to be alone on the road. But we will be sleeping and eating dinner together. A typical day will start with everybody being given the route for the day, the finishing point, and potential stops for lunch. We will be riding 65 miles a day, six days a week. Realize though that 65 miles is not a real lot when you start early and go to sleep when the sun sets. CL: Some people might accuse you of being insensitive about the riders. SL: I don’t mean to sound like we are not going to be concerned about the welfare of the people on this ride. We want people to participate! The whole concept of Life-Cycle ’86 is to give people the opportunity to participate in a major fundraiser for AIDS organizations. We will help and encourage you during the ride. There will be a contact phone number if anything goes wrong during the ride, and we will try to accommodate people as much as we can. We just want bicyclists doing the whole route to be fairly independent, and to realize that the ride is going to be strenuous at times—and that you may not have a shower for a week sometimes. CL: You mention fundraising. Will you be doing some? SL: A lot of the local events will be determined by the involvement of the local communities. We will probably have press conferences in all the major cities, and hopefully benefits as well. Since funds raised in local cities will be split 50/50, we expect a lot of organizations to become involved. CL: How do you plan on covering the expenses of the ride? SL: We are trying to arrange to have funds raised to cover expenses of bicyclists riding the entire route. Probably about $700 a head, which really is plenty of money. CL How many people have expressed interest? SL: So far there are about 8 people who want to ride the entire distance. This will probably grow as we start to get publicity. The number of people doing segments is hard to determine. Certain segments will be very popular—Madison to Minneapolis, Los Angeles to San Francisco (Ed. note: being planned by members of LA Spokesmen [now renamed Different Spokes Southern California]), and New York to Philadelphia. One thing, this is not a gay event. We have had responses from many non-gay bicyclists, and so far there are more women interested in the ride than men. We’ve also sent soliticitation overseas, so Life-Cycle ’86 will be international in scope. CL: Any last comments? SL: I’d like to invite San Francisco riders to join us anywhere along the route. We’ll be staying at the hostel outisde Sausalito and you’re welcome to come spend the night and ride across with us on Sunday the 3rd.
The September 1986 ChainLetter documents the arrival of Life-Cycle in San Francisco:
“CYCLE FOR LIFE SAN FRANCISCO WELCOME On Sunday, August 3, a contingent of 35+ Spokers met to ‘welcome home’ the 19 cross-country bicyclists who participated in ‘Cycle For Life’, the New York to San Francisco trek. The 55 bicyclists were met at Twin Peaks by 20 members of Leather and Blues MC Club and the Eagles MC Club. With plenty of flash, honking of horns, blowing of whistles and cheers along with some tears, the crew took off down Market, through the Castro, past the AIDS vigil to the finish point at the Ringold Alley Street Fair. The cyclists were welcomed to San Francisco by Board of Supervisor President, John Molinari, who presented them with a proclamation from the City. San Francisco was the only city to officially welcome and acknowledge ‘Cycle For Life’. The welcome ended with a party hosted by the Raw Hide II, the country and western dance bar.”
When Life-Cycle/Cycle for Life was announced, my reaction at the time was along the lines of, ‘this is a crazy idea’. To spend over two months on the road with the prospect of a small amount of money being raised seemed like a lot of bang for a little buck. But the same could be said of the first AIDS Bike-A-Thon. I mean c’mon, ride a hundred miles in a day to raise, what? $33,000? But a spark can light a fire.
I don’t know how much money Life-Cycle eventually raised nor who directly benefitted from their fundraising. Remember too that AIDS wasn’t well-known then except as a source of fear. So Life-Cycle’s awareness raising in the communities through which it rode was equally important. You can read more about the ride in the Bay Area Reporter. In the article the writer Jim Sutherland mentions that four of the seventeen participants were from the Bay Area. By the way two of them, JT Blazer and Jill McIntyre, were members of Different Spokes!
By the way, Diff’rent Spokes/New York disappeared a long time ago. I’m not sure why but probably for the same reasons that Rainbow Cyclists in San Diego, River City Cyclists in Sacramento, and Different Spokes Seattle all eventually folded: the initial leadership cohort moves on and there isn’t a new generation of energized members to take over and direct the club. I can’t find any online references to Diff’rent Spokes, which suggests that it died well before the Internet became a reservoir of ephemera. But gay cyclists end up getting together even in the absence of an existing club and before you know it there’s another club. New York now has Outcyclists and perhaps Fast ‘N Fabulous is still alive although largely moribund after Bob Nelson, the figurative heart of the club, died in 2019.
A report from Nancy Levin, the ride leader of today’s ride:
Super fun ride today. It felt like a big hug to SF – from the bay to the ocean, to the Presidio and Twin Peaks, lots of coastline and views. The ride was just listed a few days ago but five of us signed up including Al and his young son Elliot, who just got his cool Trek road bike a month ago. Hats off to Elliot for his great attitude and strong cycling! What a climber. Larry and Chris rounded out the fabulous fivesome. After we made our way from Peet’s down to the bay, it was a tourist’s delight. We enjoyed the views of the bay while cruising by a marina, the Valkyries and Warriors arena (aka Chase Center) and Giants (aka Oracle) stadium, past the bustling Ferry Building, down to Ghirardelli Square, then to Fort Mason and Crissy field, with a snack at the warming hut and a “money shot” in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a reminder of why so many people visit S.F. We took in the close-up of the bridge at the Fort Point turnabout and began the climbing part of the ride into the Presidio. After regrouping at the Legion of Honor (that darn hill!), we headed towards Lands End and a spectacular view of Ocean Beach heading down from the Cliff House. We deviated from the route a bit, stopping at Java Beach Café rather than Java Beach at the Zoo. After lunches of bagel+cream cheese+bacon, ice cream+ hot coffee, and wrap sandwiches, father and son headed towards home, and Larry, Chris and Nancy made their way to Vicente and the slow gradual climb to West Portal and the grind up Ulloa. Whew. Then a coda up Twin Peaks (where the leader somehow lost track of the guys). But all got home, safe and sound.
This was the second time that Roger and I offered our Happy Hour in the East Bay ride. By club standard’s it’s an outlier of a ride because it’s quite short—just ten miles, takes place midweek, and barely after work hours. Oh, and it’s in the East Bay rather than San Francisco and by “East Bay” I don’t mean Oakland or Berkeley but the other East Bay, i.e. the other side of the Berkeley/Oakland hills. Not a lot of Spokers live east of Berkeley and if you drive over there’s a congested tunnel you have to drive through if you do want to enjoy the best of Contra Costa. (More the reason to take BART…if you can squeeze you and your bike into a train car!)
This ride was originally offered as a lark. Is it that hard to post a post-work ride or gathering? Nobody since Aaron and to some extent the late Will Bir has done it with some regularity. There have been occasional one-off attempts. So I thought we’d give it a try. Kind of a demo—see, anyone can do it. That’s kind of what we did with our Social A Rides a decade ago: throw something up on the wall and see what sticks.
Last month there were five of us and this month there were the exact same five! I guess we’re the “Outsiders”. Lamberto and Joe live in Contra Costa, as do Roger and I, and it’s easy for them to make their way to Lafayette for a ride. Chris is from the other side of the hills but a BART ride over is all it takes for him to join us.
The ride was the same as last month: start at the Lafayette Public House, go up the Lamorinda trail to Moraga Common, and then turn around and head back for post-ride refreshment. Unlike last month it was hot—90F at 5:30 PM when we left. In other words it was a typical summer day in Contra Costa during a surprisingly atypical summer in which this was only the second heat wave. Unlike last time when the trail was well populated, it was quiet and mostly deserted and that allowed us to move a bit more quickly.
The Lamorinda Trail—officially, the Lafayette Moraga Regional Trail—is my favorite local ride. It’s a rails-to-trails multi-use path that despite being well-used is great for a relaxing ride. When Roger and I want to get in a quick and easy ride, this is where we go. The trail climbs very gently up to St. Mary’s College and down to Moraga Common.
Last time we had an ad hoc confab at the restrooms at Moraga Common—not that kind of “confab”!—that had us getting back to the Public House late. We were so lost in gabbing that time got away from us. Because sunset is coming earlier we were more cognizant of getting our business done and then heading back. Even though we did gab a bit, we were able to make good time down the trail since it was so devoid of the usual walkers, doggers, and fellow cyclists. Plus, it’s a gentle downhill almost all the way back.
Back at the Public House we were greeted by a huge group of women with name tags. It looked like two groups of refugees from “Sex and the City” were holding court and hogging most of the outdoor tables. Lamberto went inside and reported back that the sole server/barista/bartender was holding the fort against a long line of customers. Time for plan B: we jumped across the street to Tutu’s, which also has outdoor tables. We immediately snagged a table where we could conveniently watch our bikes.
Tutu’s used to one of the Chows. Maybe you recall Chow? This tiny chain had four restaurants. The first was at Church and Market just around the corner from where I used to live. The owners opened another one in the Inner Sunset and then two over the East Bay, one in Danville and in Lafayette. Chow crumbled about ten years ago for unknown reasons. But the Lafayette Chow was, I understand, sold to its employees who mostly kept it the same—the organic market, the menu, the vibe, and the look. The only thing substantial that changed was the name.
This turned out to be a fortuitous turn of events because although the Lafayette Public House has a really nice biergarten feel and the food is decent, it closes early being mainly a breakfast/lunch venue and the menu is limited. Tutu’s on the other hand does a real dinner service and the menu has a variety of comfort food. Oh, and they do fish really well and it’s almost always my go-to choice. We got there just in time because within 15 minutes the outdoor tables went from less than half-filled to brimming with eager diners.
Our casual post-ride refreshment turned into a two-hour dinner. Chris got the lamb burger—the “Silence of the Lambs” fav—which is always a good choice; Roger got the Cobb salad—they do an excellent version ; I got the petale sole, natch’; and Joe and Lamberto both got pasta dishes. They also got real post-ride “refreshmant” aka beer. Hey, we weren’t riding anymore and they were gonna catch BART back to Walnut Creek so no harm no foul.
Our ride and dinner conversations were one of the more wide ranging ones I’ve had in a long while. Joe and Lamberto recently got back from a two-week road trip in the Southwest; Joe got new cycling shoes that he was trying out on this very ride. Other topics included: getting the latest Covid shot, the number of older men who are coming out later in life; the pros and cons of revocable trusts and wills; touring Taiwan; gluten intolerance; prediabetes; filipino restaurants in Lafayette (there’s only one); real versus dumbed down Chinese restaurants (cough PF Chang’s cough), the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis; cycling in the Delta; and pet insurance. Was there any talk about the club? Strangely enough, almost none.
It was very dark by now. Then our very helpful waitperson naturally offered us dessert. Despite their best efforts to eat better, J&L requested a raspberry crumble. With a lot of ice cream. Some people just can’t skip dessert! After it arrived they offered some of it to us, which we declined despite its very appealing nature. Whoever said “nothing tastes as good as the way thin feels” was obviously demented.
That was one enjoyable ride and dinner.
Next month we’re starting an hour earlier, at 4:30 PM instead of 5:30 PM and starting just down the street at Batch & Brine instead. Or maybe we should go back to Chow- I mean, Tutu’s…
I don’t know if any of you have had to suffer through mounting an intractable tire on your bicycle wheel. I wrote about one person’s experience here. Well, here’s another one on thewashingmachine.post blog: “Suffice it to say, after two and a quarter hours of tyre wrestling, i still had a six centimetre section of tyre that point blank refused all persuasions to seat itself on the rim. despite possessing a Koolstop tyre jack, designed to ease the fitment process, i made no headway whatsoever, and gave up in order to make my tea.“
Pray that this never happens to you. In the writer’s case he was trying to mount a Challenge Chicane clincher tire, a tire intended for cyclocross. As you may know, cyclocross tire pressures are very low compared to road riding hovering in the mid-20s to even just below 20 psi. Those pressures are low enough that unless the tire is secured firmly to the rim, you could roll a tire enough sideways to burp the air in the case of tubeless or even roll the tire off in the case of an inadequately glued tubular. It goes without saying that you could roll a clincher tire off as well if you flatted your tire. The manufacturer is probably cognizant of these possibilities and has made its tires as tight as possible while still adhering to ETRTO guidelines. Furthermore in a cyclocross race you’re not going to be concerned about demounting or mounting your tires–you’re running to the pit to get your other bike.
Nonetheless the majority of these tires are not going to be used in race situations but in real life. Which is to say you are going to be replacing your own tires and probably while out riding when you flat. You’d better hope you’re using sealant rather than an inner tube and that your sealant works to plug up whatever puncture you incur.
I have a Koolstop tire jack and I’ve had to use it. But I have yet to encounter a tire that didn’t yield to its leverage. So the writer’s tire must have been incredibly tight, tighter than anything I’ve seen. If this had happened to me, I would have returned the tire and switched to another brand. But the writer loves those Challenge Chicane tires and so he persevered. (He did manage to get it on but by a completely different method you can read about in his post.)
All those caveats aside, one has to wonder what the Bike Industrial Complex is thinking. How are ordinary cyclists supposed to deal with ridiculously tight tires that one cannot repair while on the road and only can be remediated by using specialized tools in a workshop?
The other side of the equation is demounting a tight tire and I have encountered that experience as well. Roger has a gravel e-bike with reasonable Schwalbe tires. I have fixed flats for him twice and both times I was not able to get the tire bead out of the tire bead well either with my bare hands or with regular tire tools. (Note that a Koolstop tire jack is for mounting tires, not demounting them.) I had to resort to using a tool I counsel others never to use, a screwdriver. Using a screwdriver to unmount a tire is asking to damage your tire, your rim, your inner tube or all three at once as well as your belief in any higher power except the devil. I couldn’t budge the damn bead. I needed Roger’s help even to insert the screwdriver blade between the rim wall and the tire to begin the process. The second time I struggled alone for about 20 minutes and then realized it was déjà vu. With Roger’s help our four hands were finally able to pull the tire sideways enough to nestle a screwdriver in there to begin to pop the bead out of the bead well.
If this had happened out on the road–both times we discovered his flat tire before going out for a ride–it would have been game over and I would have had to go home to get the van for him.
You might be thinking, “What’s a bead well??” This is a more recent “innovation”. It didn’t exist back in the day with traditional road rims. Those rims were pretty narrow, 14 to 17 mm inner width, which seems crazy narrow these days. Those rims didn’t need bead wells. I presume the addition of bead wells was due to tubeless tires and rims getting wider for gravel. The bead well is an indentation on both sides of the usual rim well so that the tire beads can drop into them and be held more securely; they will not pop out easily. And that’s why it’s hard to demount them, so it’s a mixed blessing. If you look at the diagram below, the rim on the left is a traditional rim: it’s got hooks, and nothing but a rounded inner surface. The middle and right images are rims with rim wells and bead wells. Both the rim well and the bead wells assist with tubeless tires, the former for demounting the tires and the latter for locking the bead in place and keeping it from blowing off the rim.
From Enve
I’m all for safe wheels but this is taking things to an extreme and making flats user unfriendly. Of course you all know that you never have to deal with a flat when you use tire sealant, right? You can stop giggling now. You can chalk this up to the “pro-ification” of cycling, i.e. we should be emulating what professional bike racers use for equipment (or are told they must use). If you don’t have a pit crew, a personal mechanic, or a support car following you, well, good luck!
I developed a hip injury almost three months ago that has mostly kept me off the bike. I tried selling my soul like Dorian Gray but I got a bum deal: not only is the picture hideously aging but so am I. The record of my sins is in every niggling overuse injury I seem to be incurring with increasing rapidity the older I become. I finally got into PT and am making progress and the pain is diminishing. So what better than to lead a club ride and thereby either proclaim my miraculous youthful recovery or reveal the broke-ass nature of my old body, one or the other?
Relatively last minute I picked a ride I like, wasn’t long, and didn’t have much climbing: head out on Cañada Road on a Bicycle Sunday and then loop through Portola Valley and back. Roger is also slowly getting back into shape after a crash and broken collar bone in late spring. Cathy, Nancy, and Roger S. deigned to accompany us. Ironically Cañada Road and Portola loop were my “Tiburon loop” when I lived in the Midpeninsula to the point that it became boring just like the Tib loop when I lived in SF. I haven’t lived in the Palo Alto area since the very early 80s and every ride down there has now happily recovered its luster. I relish every chance I get to get over a bridge quickly and do a ride in my old stomping grounds.
If you’ve done this venerable route before, you understand its appeal. Woodside and Portola Valley have “semi-rural” environs. So even though you’re actually riding through a suburb, it doesn’t feel like it, or at least it doesn’t feel like your typical suburb with nicely trimmed green front lawns and houses lined up on the street like bowling pins. Most everything is concealed amidst trees and back roads giving you the false impression that no one lives there. Anyway it’s generally nice and at times feels like being out in the faux countryside. And they sure haven’t changed much in 55 years, which is remarkable for the Bay Area. (Because $$$$!)
Bicycle Sunday didn’t begin until just before I moved to San Francisco in 1982. I remember doing one of those very first Bicycle Sundays and what a crowd it drew. The idea of closing off what was a major thoroughfare for the hippie granola riffraff was like opening wide the asylum doors; everybody was there—skaters, bikes of every kind, xc skiers, walkers, buggies, you name it as long as it didn’t have an engine. Things have calmed down a lot over the years but Bicycle Sunday still brings out the masses just not in moshpit quantities anymore. It was pretty sedate when we started off. By the looks of things—the large number of cars parked at the north end—there were a lot of cyclists. But it sure didn’t look or feel like it was a typical bike event being fairly quiet. After a quick pit stop at the Pulgas Water Temple we headed south deep in conversation. Nancy and I gabbed about lubricant…bike lubricant! and the pros and cons of oil and wax. We also talked about loss and how long it takes to recover, i.e. a lot longer than everyone else thinks it should. I also quickly realized in talking with Nancy about chain maintenance that it’s been a slow, downward slide in my enthusiasm and diligence in taking care of the bikes. I used to clean off my bikes after every ride. Not anymore. That train left the station a long time ago. Hearing squeaky or crunchy sounds is the whip it takes for me to do anything about my chain and even then my declining hearing is helping me ignore that as well. Next I’ll be living in a van down by the river.
Chatting with Cathy I learned that the day before she did a metric century in the same area, the Tour de Menlo. I’d never heard of it. It’s run by the Menlo Park Rotary and the metric does most of what we were riding today. My curiosity piqued, I made note to include it in the list of centuries for 2026 and I sure hope Roger and I can do it then. Cathy observed that although the ride was great, the food was not. Whether it was due to inexperience in putting on a bike ride, or the intention of putting on a minimalesque event, the food provided sounded like the results of a pro forma trip to Costco. Eventually these nonprofits like Rotary and Lion’s Club, which are turning to bike events to fund their charity fundraising, are going to realize that if you want a good turnout (= $$$), you’d better provide good food. There are enough good centuries out there with great food that phoned it in is not going to cut it these days especially when you’re charging $85. I like to support good charities but if your event sucks, why don’t you just forego the hassle of putting on an event and just beg for $85? It’s like buying ABC cards from the Deaf guy on BART: here’s the money, keep the manual alphabet card and go away, please.
Roger S. and I got to share our latest medical ailments. That’s what happens when you old. All that coy gay banter about hunky boys and fabulous parties is replaced by commiserating about your gradually failing body.
After a really nice roll through Portola Valley—it was sunny and the temperature was perfect—we zoomed down Alpine to Amigo’s Grill. This is quickly replacing Robert’s as my preferred stop on the Portola loop. Robert’s is okay if you want to pick up something really quick and rush out. But stopping for a proper lunch is definitely the way to go. (Touring habits die hard.) The Ladera Shopping Center has other places to eat including a somewhat pricey Greek place and a bistro. It also has “Konditorei”, which should be a bakery, but instead sells bagels (huh??) and sandwiches. Not a cake in sight. Maybe we’ll try it out some day despite the misnomer. Amigo’s is a Mex place with reasonably priced lunch choices given that it’s in a luxe suburb. When the rent is high, there is no such thing as a budget Mex restaurant, so I’m not complaining! Going in to order, the regulars were pinned to the bar counter watching a football game. Not a bad place to watch sports and get restaurant quality noshes so you can forego the Cheetos and potato chips. Cathy, Nancy, and I opted for the usual midride go-to: a burrito. They were of course huge. (Is there any other size?) Roger got a quesadilla with what looked like a homemade tortilla. Roger S. got a huge, sizzling mound of fajitas. The odor of the crackling meat set off my carnivore gene and I was beginning to regret my choice of a veggie burrito.
Lunchtime conversation veered about: upcoming trips, riding with “mainstream” (=non-LGBTQA+) cycling clubs, where we buy bike clothes–is the Pearl Izumi outlet store really closed??, the OPP, watching the Vuelta on TV, why club kit is less than fetching, etc. Hearing remarks about what it’s like to ride with straight cycling clubs made me laugh because ten years ago Chris Contos was blaming the dwindling membership of the club on the world being post-gay, i.e. we’re so accepted by the straight world that gay clubs don’t matter anymore. Yeah, right. Then I hear about being harassed by members of straight clubs by thoughtless—or maybe intentional—verbal macro-aggressions. I was sorry to hear it but glad to have Different Spokes to ride with. You should too. The world is still fucked even here in the “enlightened” Bay Area. If I hear another clueless remark about us being post-gay I’m going to scream.
Most clubs are probably like us in having no written or even understood code of conduct and this is what you get. You do know we don’t have a code of conduct, right? Maybe we should. Back in the day there was an infamous ‘fish’ comment made by a male Spoker at a Decide ’n Ride that horribly offended some women attendees. I’d like to say it set off an uproar. But my recollection was that nothing much happened. That he didn’t like women members was patently obvious and he took multiple opportunities to voice his opinion. Instead of being talked to or expelled he was allowed to wallow in the disdain and snubbing that ensued. No concrete action was taken as I recall but he did stop coming to Decide ’n Rides (or at least the ones I attended). What a jerk. And the club at the time was wondering why we didn’t have more female members. Yeah, of course you want to hang with a club that has members who actively hate you. What a nice way to feel welcomed.
After a long lunch break we waddled over to our bikes and headed down Alpine to Menlo Park. Cathy and I had managed to inhale our burritos but Nancy being wiser ate only half of hers. I’m not sure how Roger S. survived his mountain of fajitas. We needed to get going or else I was going succumb to food coma. Down Alpine we went past where I used to live—it was a hippie dump but it’s now the site of a trophy home. We also discovered since the last time we rode here that Santa Cruz Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas are getting some love. Not only are they repaved but they are putting in bike lanes. The usual return route is to head up Sand Hill and then up Whiskey Hill. I actually like riding up Sand Hill, which is actually two hills, but you then have to avoid the cars accelerating across your path to enter I-280. Alameda de las Pulgas to Woodside Road has fewer cars (and fewer cyclists). Instead you get one longer uphill on Woodside Road back to the center of town.
As usual the northward leg on Cañada Road had a headwind. No one was in a hurry so it didn’t matter. Bicycle Sunday was still in effect but there were hardly any cyclists in mid-afternoon. We were back at the cars before 2:30 PM and more gabbing ensued before finally saying our goodbyes. Nice day, great company, good food, and my hip didn’t hurt. I call that a win on all fronts.
Ten Spokers headed out to roam the roads of the Marin Headlands last Saturday. What follows is the recap from Kate Dresher, one of the ride leaders.
“The ride was good. We all rode together (with regroup spots) to the top of first planned Hawk Hill summit. Then folks proceeded in mini-groups or by themselves based on route preferences. There were lots of individual preferences so I’m not sure how many subsets there ended up being. No one rode the double Hawk Hill option. Chetan, Milo (William) and I did Battery/Rodeo Road loop and climbed back up McCullough. At the crest where the traffic circle is, there wasn’t any interest in doing a second Hawk Hill climb. Nancy, Cathy, Anish, Chetan and I all finished at Peet’s—and four of us had a fun lunch at Duboce Park Cafe afterwards.”
But…Chris chimes in: “If inquiring minds wanted to know…I did the double Hawk Hill to the peak again and turned for home after getting to the traffic circle on McCullough.” So there!
A cool, scenic bike ride that’s not too long, not too short; hanging with the Spokerati; then a delicious post-ride lunch al fresco–sounds like a great day to me! See you all on the next Different Spokes ride!
Fancy a cycling trip to Yosemite? The club went there at least twice in the early days. The first time was in September 21-24, 1984 and it was organized by Michael John. When I think of a cycling trip to Yosemite it’s either starting somewhere in the Bay Area and riding all the way or driving to Yosemite and doing loop rides from the Park. MJ split the difference and started his tour in Mariposa. He also had the wisdom to start on a Friday and leave on a Monday thereby eluding some of the weekend crush motoring in. Cycling up the Merced River on Hwy 140 can be merciless with car and RV traffic. He also had the wisdom to have the trip sagged rather than force everyone to haul all their stuff on their bikes.
I’ve talked with MJ, Derek Liecty, and ‘Rex Flash’ aka Kevin Anderson and of course 41 years later clear memories of that trip are far and few between. This trip was one of two Yosemite club trips I am aware of, the second one being organized by Kevin it seems in 1986 although his recollection is that MJ organized that one as well.
The first trip had a short ride report and the second none at all. MJ thinks that there were nine participants and that’s what his brief trip report says even though his ride listing set a limit of eight. To confuse things further a nose count brings up nine with an additional reference to Derek, which would make ten. But that would contradict his own report. Derek does recall being on a Yosemite trip with Rex but doesn’t know which one it was. We have the photographic evidence that Derek and Kevin/Rex were on the 1986 trip. I have no idea if Derek is conflating two Yosemite trips into one or that he actually attended only one.
Nevertheless thanks to MJ’s relentless documentation and his wisdom in digitizing his collection of Different Spokes photos we have some interesting pictures giving us a glimpse of what the club was like “back in the day”. You can view the entire album here.
Unless you’re a club old fart you won’t recognize any of these Spokers. Three of the nine riders neither Kevin, MJ, or I recall their names; the other six were club stalwarts. That the unnamed riders were wearing the original Different Spokes sweatshirt probably indicates they were members. Other than Kevin and MJ (and Derek) they are deceased, three of them due to AIDS and one a car collision.
The trip started in Mariposa on Friday with a 40-mile ride up the Merced River into the Valley. Saturday was a hike up the Four-Mile Trail to Glacier Point supposedly with a ride down. Sunday looks like the group was ferried up to Tuolumne Meadows and then rode back down to the valley. On Monday it was a ride back to Mariposa.
The lunch stop was in Briceburg
The first four photos are ride up to the Valley; the next six are on Saturday of the hike to Glacier Point; the next six are the ride back to the Valley; and the last pic was on the ride down the Merced to Mariposa.
Things to notice about the era. For the most part bike drag is absent. Cycling clothes was no different than gym or exercise clothes: t-shirts, muscle shirts, gym shorts (or “short shorts”, which were just “shorts” back then), and tennis shoes with white athletic socks. Cycling gloves—leather with crochet backs, ‘natch—were spreading. Jerry Basso was one of the few early members who had “real” cycling clothes: a cycling cap, a cycling jersey (short zip because full zip jerseys didn’t exist back then), and leather cleated cycling shoes. Tom Walther is sporting Sidi cycling shoes. But my recollection is that he didn’t use cleats back then. Bob Munk appears to be wearing black cycling shorts and back then even cycling shorts could be pretty “short” probably were wool; Jerry in contrast has spandex cycling shorts. Although Lycra spandex cycling shorts first appeared in 1976, it took some time before recreational cyclists adopted them.
Notice the helmets. Not everyone is wearing a helmet because the club didn’t have mandatory helmet policy until the early 1990s. Helmets on club rides were not common. But the helmets you’d see were hardshell helmets, the most common of which were various Bell helmets. You’ll see most are using a Bell touring helmet with only Jerry using a V1-Pro, Bell’s “racing” helmet; it was designed to mimic the looks of those very old-school leather “hairnet” helmets.
The bikes are unassuming. They all appear to be steel and lugged. Racks, panniers, and handlebar bags were common. Leather saddles, probably Brooks, were common too. Nobody is riding anything special or racy— no surprise since the club in the early days was primarily casual recreational and touring cyclists. No one is riding a traditional steel racing bike of those days.
MJ commented to me that in the early days of the club there was very little—for lack of a better term—class difference between members. Nobody was dressed fancy or riding expensive bikes. They may not have been ‘beater’ bikes but members’ bikes were mostly run-of-the-mill. The change to increasingly more expensive clothing and bikes didn’t accelerate until much later. A few members had bikes more in line with top end racing bikes of the time. Abel Galvan, an early member rode a bright red DeRosa racing bike. It was lovely! Luis Dufau, another early member, took delivery of a fantastic Italian Scapin from City Cycle. The first really custom frame I recall was a Sam Cotten frame that Walter Teague had made for him in the late 80s. When Ron Wilmot showed up on Merlin titanium road bike we all swooned. Mostly it was Fujis, Bianchis, Centurions, a few Raleighs and Peugeots, mass produced but good bikes, along with a slew of much cheaper bikes such as an occasional Schwinn. (Bob Humason is riding a Schwinn.) Mountain bikes didn’t start to spread until the latter half of the 1980s. By the mid-Eighties proper cycling clothes was starting to spread in the club. I recall that the Bicycle Outfitter in Los Altos opened a cycling-clothing-only store in Sausalito and it was a regular stop for a lot of Spokers looking for the latest stuff. Tony Tom’s A Bicycle Odyssey was a block away and his crammed and cramped apparel area was chock full of Euro cycling wear that we regularly marched through hunting for more goodies. But that was later as the touring crowd dwindled a bit and the fast recreational cyclists started to come into the club.
The mystery sag driver. MJ thinks that Derek may have been the sag driver; Derek doesn’t remember. Looking at the first two photographs you will see a car parked with a bike on top. That was the sag car, a pickup truck, that neither Kevin, MJ, or I recognize. Was it Derek’s? No. Whose vehicle is this? It’s not Derek’s, MJ’s, Tom’s, or Kevin’s. As far as I know Derek has never owned a pickup with a cab. In the listing MJ mentions possibly renting a car to be the sag. He doesn’t recall if that actually happened. (I doubt it did.) Notice that in the first photograph Jerry Basso is dressed in street clothes, in jeans no less, but in the second photograph taken in Briceburg which is beyond Midpines Summit on the way to Yosemite he is in cycling clothes astride his bike. My guess is that either Jerry was a passenger to Midpines or he was the sag driver and then switched with someone else. Notice in the second photograph Bob Munk appears to be getting ready to put his bike on the roof rack; he was either calling it quits for the day or else he may have been getting ready to drive.
Four Mile Trail. If you’ve done this hike, you know it’s not easy. It’s 3,200 feet of gain over about four and a half miles. At the start no one appears to have a daypack or any water! That is not a hike you want to do without water. MJ mentions in the listing that they were to ride back to the Valley. Although there is now a shuttle bus that you can take from Glacier Point back to the valley, that did not exist in 1984. But MJ specifically mentions cycling back. That means that those who did the hike would have to have their bikes brought up. The last photo of the day is the hikers posing at Inspiration Point in the late afternoon/early evening and they are still in their hiking clothes. MJ and I have discussed this and although he doesn’t remember anymore, he thinks they must have hiked back down the Four Mile Trail and later gone up to Inspiration Point. He said he never would have cycled “in those heavy boots!” That makes sense because whoever might have hauled the bikes would have to load them all into one car along with cycling clothes and then they would have had to switch back into hiking clothes afterwards. There would also be the logistics of getting all those bikes up to Glacier. The sag vehicle appears to have three, maybe four roof rack mounts. Perhaps a couple more might fit in the back? Possible but unlikely.
Tuolumne. This day’s photographs seem to reflect the ride listing. Everyone went up to Tuolumne in the morning in their regular clothes and had a picnic in the meadow. Later they apparently changed into cycling clothes and rode down.
Near Lake TenayaGetting ready to ride back to the valley
The ride out. There is but one image that appears to show some of the riders resting on their way out of Yosemite.
The photographer. Who was the photographer? MJ claims the pictures don’t appear to be his and thinks maybe that he got them from either Derek or Kevin or both. Bob Humason, Bob Munk, and an unnamed rider appear in some photos with their own cameras. Were some of the images from them? But there had to be a fourth photographer then.
Much of the details of this trip are lost. The known survivors can’t recall more and even if they did, the reliability is shakey. Nonetheless the photographs are a delightful record—at least to me!—of one of the earliest club trips that was NOT a camping trip and was more in the spirit of what we now call getaway weekends. There were so many of these back then and they have almost faded away entirely. The last effort was the Marvelous Monterey Weekend in 2019; a follow up trip in 2021 was killed by the Pandemic. We had sort of a getaway weekend in 2022 when a lot of Spokers decided to go to the SLO Wildflower century and Adrienne and her husband threw a dinner party for everyone at their house in Santa Margarita. Since then no one has stepped forward to lead a weekend trip. There are rumblings of a possible trip to Moab, Utah next year. That’s a lot further away than Yosemite but it might make a lovely adventure for the club and keep a tradition alive.
We had a packed house for the Orinda Pool Party last Sunday. I’m not sure what provoked more people to sign up this year—we had 30 people express interest in attending. The typical number is somewhere from 16 to 22 but we did have one year when 28 came and boy, was that crowded and hectic. Part of the reason we had a big turnout this year may be the mild summer. For Contra Costa that’s fantastic because in recent years summers have been inferno-like. Having a summer that is actually cool has been weird but also soothing. Of course “cool” for us is 75F, which would be a warm day in San Francisco. I understand that it’s also been cool and overcast a lot over there. We lucked out this year because the ride was in the low 70s and by the time people were at the house it was low to mid 80s making it a very hospitable day to jump in the pool and paddle around.
We also had a turn-around this year: 15 people did the ride. In the distant past that would have been unremarkable because other than the bike widows everyone rode. For the past few years the trend has been to skip the ride and just come to the pool party. Not a problem for Roger and me but this *is* a cycling club. Last year was the nadir with just six riders, or just one-third of the whole gang. Nonetheless this year we had a smattering of non-riders, due to injury, surgery, indolence, or because they’re bike widows.
Unfortunately several people who had registered had to cancel last-minute due to illness. And yes folks, Covid is still out there! We appreciate that those who felt sick declined to attend because exposing us might have led to ugly consequences. Also the slightly reduced number took some of the pressure off of Roger and me. We had only so many folding chairs and scrounged pool and patio chairs and tables in order to have enough places for people to nosh and carry on. The patio deck was still pretty crowded.
The menu this year was a repeat of last year. Roger gets great satisfaction smoking pork ribs and each year he gets better and better at it. Last year they were fall-off-the-bone tender, maybe a little too tender. This year they were perfect. The vegan riblets seemed to go over well again and were a good break from veggie burgers. Maybe next year we’ll get really creative with a vegan/veggie main dish. (But don’t hold your breath.)
Making food for 25 people is stretching the limit of what our kitchen can do. We just don’t have enough large pots and pans to make it easy. So there is always a lot of shuffling of pots and bowls to contain everything. At university I lived in a coop where we cooked our own meals for the 50 of us every night; I wished I had those pots and pans! Alas, we had to make do by preparing dishes repeatedly, i.e. instead of just quadrupling a recipe we made the same recipe four times. Fortunately our smoker can accommodate enough pork ribs to feed a big crowd and that’s good because smoking them takes over five hours.
Adding all our food—ribs, pesto pasta, green salad, brown rice salad—to the food that everyone else brought meant everyone left well sated. Roger in a fit of excess decided to bake a large ricotta peach cake to add to the mass quantities. This year’s peach harvest was more than ample and it happened to coincide nicely with the pool party.
At lunch Roger and I finally got a chance to sit down and enjoy the whole thing. I wished we could have spent more time hanging out with you all. For us playing Perle Mesta has us bouncing between preparation and greeting folks. I did get a chance to catch up with Karry, Jordan, and Tim even though my time with Gordon and Doug, whom I made an effort to persuade to come to this year’s party, was much more limited. (Anyway I’m glad you both came—I hadn’t seen either of you in literally years.) We had several newer members attend this year and I’m glad you all got a taste of a longstanding Different Spokes tradition as you never know when these things collapse and fade away. (Maybe that’s “when we collapse and fade away.”) We wish we could accommodate you all. But unless others also want to cook up a storm, the Pool Party is going to remain a limited attendance event. And for those of you who missed out, be sure to register in advance next time. Tim missed out last year and, lesson learned, this year he was one of the first people to sign up!
Peter Jenny (left) & Jamie Moran (right) at a rest stop on 1985 Pedaling for Pride in ’85
Introduction I first met Peter Jenny in 2015 at Derek’s “Old Farts” gathering. Derek managed to round up about 25 or so of us going back to the very early days of the club and up to the early 90s. I knew almost all of the attendees—some of whom I hadn’t seen in decades—but there were a few I did not know. We took turns introducing ourselves and Derek asked who among us had done the AIDS Bike-A-Thon especially that first one in 1985. Peter raised his hand. I took notice and introduced myself to him and we had a brief chat. I mentioned to him that I had been mulling over interviewing the surviving riders of the first BAT about their experience and he responded positively and said he would participate if I ever got it off the ground.
I first interviewed Bob Bolan shortly thereafter mostly because he’s a good friend. Then I put the project on the back burner when I became involved in other club business.
When I revived the idea this year as part of the 40th anniversary of the 1985 Pedaling for Pride Bike-A-Thon, I contacted Peter again and he was game. This interview was conducted by phone.
It’s possible that Peter and I may have ridden together or were at a club meeting. But I do not have a distinct recollection of having met him in the early ‘80s. I was riding very infrequently with the club. Also some of the rides in those days had a dozen or so riders and the monthly club meetings always had a good turnout so it’s entirely possible we just didn’t get a chance to talk to each other back then. Peter was quite young when he hooked up with the club, about 21. I recall only one other member who was younger than Peter back then. The population of Different Spokes was young but mostly late twenties to early forties with a scattering of older members such as Derek Liecty, who was in his fifties.
Peter like the previous interviewees recalls only snippets of that ride, not a surprise since it’s been over forty years. But Peter like the others does recall the era and what the club was like at that time and the impression it made on him.Unlike MJ or Jim King, Peter wasn’t involved organizationally in either the Bike-A-Thon nor the club; he was “just” a member and perhaps better represents the typical experience.
AM: I realized that one thing I didn’t really have about you is a little bit about your personal history like when you lived in SF or how you ended up in SF, and all of that. Just tell me a bit about that.
PJ: Sure, brief overview: I grew up in the East Bay in Piedmont and I graduated from high school in 1980 and came out then. I lived in the city for five weeks in 1983 in a sublet. But otherwise I was crossing the bridge a lot. Friends and I would go hang out, walk around the city and go to bars and things, underage and- I don’t know if I can say that?
AM: Sure! [laughs]
PJ: So growing up in the Bay Area and San Francisco was not too far away, so I didn’t feel isolated as a gay kid growing up in kind of a conservative town.
AM: Okay. But basically you’re local. You’re a Bay Area person.
PJ: Oh totally. Yeah.
AM: Okay. A common story is: you move to San Francisco from someplace else because you’re gay. But that didn’t happen with you. You were already a local.
PJ: Right. Yeah, I was very lucky to have that.
AM: Okay. How did it happen that you came to join Different Spokes or find out about Different Spokes?
PJ: Well, I was very shy and was trying to meet people. I wanted to have dates and I was working in cafés and in a produce market and was kind of bumping around in junior college. This was age 19, 20, 21 and I found Different Spokes and I was a cyclist and so I thought, “oh that sounds fun”. You know It’s always fun: you meet people easily when you have a common interest like that. So I started going to meetings over there near the Panhandle [AM: the Page Street branch library] and in I guess like ‘83, early ’83 and then kind of started riding with them more in ’84 and ’85.
AM: Okay. Presumably you joined the club around that time besides riding.
PJ: Yeah.
AM: Is that how you heard about the BAT was through the club?
PJ: Oh yeah, it was through the club. It was through the club, not through the community because I wasn’t really involved with the gay community in the city at all. But just through people in the club because I’d do the Decide ’N Rides and things like that. [AM: the Decide ’N Rides were leaderless rides. People would show up at McLaren Lodge at 10 AM and decide where to ride.]
AM: Okay. You know that first BAT happened really quickly. I’m not sure when it was announced to the club as a whole. It was after the beginning of February, I think, [AM: It was more like late February.] and it happened April 6. So it was an extremely short period of time. There was a club meeting once per month so there were at most two club meetings where people could have heard about it.
PJ: Oh wow. That’s amazing.
AM: Yeah, It’s pretty astonishing.
PJ: Well, I think there was such a grass roots thing going on in the city and then in the gay community people could organize pretty quickly and to get the participation. I think it was the Woods where we stayed. I know where it is but I can’t remember the name, and then I don’t know how much help they had but it seemed like a pretty organized ride.
AM: Yeah, I got more of the back story when I interviewed Jim King who was another rider but he was also very involved in subsequent BATs and then of course I interviewed Michael John who was one of the principal organizers of that very first BAT. Basically the division of labor was that the club handled recruitment and getting riders and organizing much of the stuff on the first day, the ride up on Saturday. And then Sunday was the AIDS Foundation with their volunteer appreciation event and providing lodging and the buses back to San Francsco. But then subsequent BATs it was all the club that did everything. It wasn’t split up, the AIDS Foundation and the Different Spokes.
PJ: I see, that’s really interesting. I did the ’86 one too but then I got busy with other stuff and didn’t do any ones after that.
AM: So what led you- you did the first BAT. That was a hundred miles. What led you to do that?
PJ: Well, I was a strong cyclist and I liked the idea. It was participarting, I just liked participating in these things. I think you asked me something about some relationship between me and the AIDS crisis and was that something that spurred me on. I suppose there was some of that. I mean ‘cause we were completely freaked out. You know! [laughs]
AM: Yeah, I lived through it. I went through that same era.
PJ: So you know, and I don’t know if you were living in the city. It was a little different in the city.
AM: It was. I was living on Haight Street in the lower Haight. But I was so busy I don’t think I did a ride for like a year or a year and a half after I joined [the club]. But anyway then the AIDS thing happened and it was pretty freaky.
PJ: Yeah, it’s interesting to see on Facebook the AIDS memorial thing and they profile all these different people. At this age it really hits home how many people were infected and died. I was just a young kid kind of bumbling along being careful. But you just don’t grasp it and you think “Oh my god, we lived through that! What a time!” So when you ask me about the BAT, it’s like god I wish I had something more, there was some deeper drive to do this. [laughs]
AM: Well I wouldn’t say it’s a common thing but people think you did the BAT because you were a Different Spokes member and maybe because you knew somebody who had AIDS. It was more than simply an abstract issue. The common thing you hear is that we were all helpless and we wanted to do something and this was something to do: raise money. We couldn’t get rid of AIDS but we could raise money to help people who were infected and dying.
PJ: Well right and that’s the thing. That was probably the basic thing where it was doing something, something. I didn’t think where the money went or what the money was necessary for. I mean I heard about the different projects and things that were trying to help people and the scrambling to provide services and I didn’t really know anybody then. I mean you mentioned Hal who had been the librarian. So Hal was the first one and then I just remember being in the Castro and seeing guys who were not well and then a year or two later guys that I knew and guys in the club were getting sick and things. So then it become much more…
AM: Real.
PJ: Yeah, real. Yeah, I was just sort of a dumb kid goofing around in college and in cafés and things. I later inherited a house in the East Bay and so I started redoing that in ’85 and that’s why I ended up not really participating in Different Spokes much after ’87 because I was just literally up to my waist in stuff.
AM: I see. So your period of being more involved in the club was really from what ’83 to about ’87.
PJ: Yeah, ’83 to about ’87, probably ’87. I did some rides then. Yeah.
AM: Did you by any chance know Jerry Basso?
PJ: I didn’t know him very well but I really liked him. He was such a nice guy. And very friendly. Were you friends with him?
AM: Yeah, I rode with him a fair amount. He and I liked to do the same rides. Hal was someone I knew of but didn’t know personally. I knew he was the librarian and I probably met him at a club meeting but I don’t have a distinct recollection. I never rode with Hal but I rode with Jerry quite a few times and so when Jerry…I don’t know if you know that Jerry died of AIDS.
PJ: Yeah, I knew that.
AM: He showed up on a ride. He was gone for a while, wasn’t participating in rides and we thought oh y’know people come and go and he’s just really busy. And then he showed up and talked about having vision problems.
PJ: Oh man!
AM: And of course my first thought was: I wonder if he has multiple sclerosis because that’s not uncommon. I wasn’t even thinking of HIV [laughs]. But then you start talking. I remember talking to Dennis [Westler] and probably others, “Gosh I wonder if he’s infected or not”. And then he just didn’t come back. He was like dead two months later. He was sick and apparently what happened was his family lives in Atherton, and he went there, and they took care of him. And when he died there was such stigma around AIDS they didn’t want, they wouldn’t admit the fact that Jerry had AIDS. But we all thought “hmm, interesting timing”.
PJ: Wow, so that wasn’t given as the reason. I mean was there a memorial?
AM: No. Nothing, nothing. There was nothing public.
PJ: That’s so terrible.
AM: Michael John told me this: when the quilt was being developed and we wanted to make a panel for Jerry, his family just no no no no no. No, they didn’t want that.
PJ: Really! Oh god.
AM: He was really the first person in the club that I knew personally who died of AIDS and then after that there were a slew others that came. But he was the first.
PJ: And Jerry was sweet. And there was somebody else…I dunno there was like a little group of those guys and there was another couple of guys who were racers and I rode with them.
AM: Who raced? Huh. People in the club who raced? That’s a really small group!
PJ: Yeah, I think there was just a couple of guys.
AM: Yes, Chong. Did you know Sam Chong?
Yes! Again not very well. Like I talked to people on rides but I was just- I lived in the East Bay. I made some friends though Different Spokes and dated some of the guys and things. But I wasn’t like super social with everybody. But I remember him. Yeah, I know that there weren’t a lot of racers and actually I don’t know if they were doing criteriums or if they were just wearing the garb and had racing friends. I would ride with them because I was a strong rider and I kind of thought about racing but I was kind of spacey and would hit people! You know when you’re riding in a pack, I didn’t want to get injured. I crashed enough on my own!
AM: What about Bruce Matasci? Did you know Bruce?
PJ: Bruce…
AM: Bruce was the strongest rider in the club. He was an ex-pro and he had raced against Greg Lemond. When Greg was a junior, Bruce was racing in the seniors and Greg was kicking everybody’s ass. Greg was like 16 or 17 and beating everybody. I remember Bruce telling me that. And Bruce actually had a stint as a paid rider with Specialized Bicycles. Bruce was incredibly strong. He’d just dance up those hills and wait for us. He was incredible to watch. I think at the time— this would have been about ’85. He wasn’t racing at that point, he was car mechanic by then. He had raced before that. And Sam I knew was interested in racing. Mike Cannon, Mike was probably a little bit later. I don’t know if you knew Mike. He was an electrical engineer working for I think HP and living some place on the peninsula. And he raced. I think he was Cat 3. He was very strong.
PJ: No, I didn’t know him. I think Bruce sounds really familiar and he knew one of the guys I’m thinking of…yeah, throwing names out, some of them I can come up. In the photos I’ve been seeing- someone posted a bunch of stuff through Instagram from ’84, ’85, ’86 and I recognize a ton of people in there.
AM: You said you were a strong cyclist. Had you ever ridden a hundred miles before?
PJ: I’d done a couple of centuries and I rode 60 miles lots and a hundred miles wasn’t that more. I think I’d done a double century that year. So yeah.
AM: Wow, okay! Some people who did BAT their standard ride was 20 miles, and then there was Bruce who did it and he was an ex-racer and then Bob Bolan did it too and was doing centuries as well. So for those guys it wasn’t a big deal to go to Guerneville. But for a lot of other people it was. There were some riders who didn’t make it. They didn’t have the stamina to make it all the way to Guerneville.
PJ: Oh yeah! I think they had a sag wagon? I think someone was sweeping.
AM: Yes, there was ! [laughs] We’ll get to that in a bit!
PJ: I was living- before this, for the two years before this I was going to City College in SF and I lived in the East Bay and I would ride my bike to Macarthur BART, put it on the bike shuttle, go over to the city and I would ride with my books up Market Street and over Market and down Teresita to school and then I would ride back up over Market or sometimes over Twin Peaks and ride back to the thing. So I was riding with two panniers full of books every day and that was kind of my training for everything, rain or shine.
AM: That’s good training!
PJ: I mean I know there were people who kind of struggled. But it was a great thing because everybody was embraced. It wasn’t like us and them. It wasn’t divided up that way [on that first BAT.]
AM: Do you remember what bike you rode that day?
PJ: Yeah, I had a Miyata 610.
AM: Did you have a triple crank or was it a double?
PJ: It had three rings, yeah.
AM: That seems to be pretty standard for people who did that ride, the ones who made it.
PJ: No one-speeds.
AM: Yeah, no! Any other ways that you were involved with the LGBT community at that point in time? Were you doing any sort of HIV or AIDS work or any kind of political work? The cafés what you worked in were they gay cafés?
PJ: Yeah, they were very gay. I mean it was in Oakland and I was working at more of a lesbian café or very lesbian-centric, on College Avenue. I wasn’t involved in any HIV stuff I think because I was just terrified. I would volunteer for things. I grew up sort of volunteering for stuff. We went to the First Unitarian Church in Berkeley and volunteerism and protest was a big deal. So it wasn’t a foreign thing. I wasn’t like heavily involved in anything. I might have gone to some protests and stuff and I would go to Gay Freedom Day and things. And I worked in these communities but I had a big mix of friends. So I wasn’t really immersed in the gay community that much. I felt like I didn’t fit in really because I was like…I drove a truck [laughs]. Mark [Paez] said someone saw my truck parked in front of his apartment once and said, “He can’t be gay and drive something like that!” That was my reality. [laughs]
AM: The day of the ride, do you remember much about the day of the ride? Do you remember what the start was like when you left the Castro?
PJ: God no, I don’t remember it being particularly difficult. I saw your questions about this and people’s reminiscences like, oh my god I don’t remember much at all. I remember when we got to Guerneville and we were kind of hanging out there. I remember it was sort of a party. But it was like another hundred mile ride where we kinda connected with people along the way.
AM: Yeah. Were you riding with anybody? Were you riding with friends or were you just riding by yourself?
PJ: I’m not sure. I would ride with Jim Lindauer y’know. [AM: Jim Lindauer didn’t do the BAT. Peter must mean he rode with Jim at other times.]
AM: Oh, I remember Jim.
PJ: Yeah, he was a friend of mine. I’m afraid I kept in minimal contact with him over the years and then he died in 2019. But he and I would ride- it’s funny to see these pictures that were posted of me hanging out together a lot. He helped me a lot with my bike. He liked me and…a very nice man. I think I might have ridden with him if there was anybody. Actually I kind of made friends with Eric Johnson. [AM: another BAT rider] And he stopped- he kinda dropped out I think because he was studying diesel mechanics and he had been in the military, a very nice guy. But I think he may even have dropped out then.
AM: Okay, okay. Was there anything memorable about the ride, that stuck in your mind?
PJ: Well like I said it was mostly it was at the end. I don’t remember the route. I thought it [the ride] would be like I said, easy and it was pleasant and nothing sticks out as being much different from a regular century and then we got up to the Woods [AM: Molly Brown’s] and that was fun. I wish I had more to offer in terms of those kinds of memories for you.
AM: I was going to ask you a question about that. So the arrival is what sticks in your mind. But I was going to ask you: the club had actually led a couple of weekend rides from SF to Guerneville prior to BAT. Did you participate in any of those, either of those?
PJ: No I didn’t. I rode on a couple of rides to like Pigeon Point, overnight rides, but I didn’t know about the ones to-
AM: The Guerneville Weekend rides.
PJ: Yeah. Yeah, I wasn’t really like tuned into Guerneville. Mark Paez, we were friends then and he grew up there and so I would go up there with him. But it really wasn’t kinda my thing. So it wasn’t on my radar if there were rides.
AM: Okay. What do you recall about the arrival in Guerneville?
PJ: More again like ending up at the- is it the Woods?
AM: The ride officially ended at Molly Brown’s which doesn’t exist anymore. But that’s where the ride ended. But did you spend the night in Guerneville?
PJ: Yeah, so I think it was at the Wildwood or something. As you’re driving out of Guerneville it’s on the left. [AM: Peter is probably referring to Fife’s.] There were cabins and it was kinda wild what was going on there [laughs]. You could hear people going at it.
AM: How that worked out is that the AIDS Foundation arranged for inns in Guerneville presumably to donate lodging overnight for the cyclists. Basically everybody got spread out. You weren’t all staying in one place, like a few people were at this place, a few people were at another place. So when you mentioned the Woods I thought well maybe that’s where you were farmed out or where you chose to go to spend the night. But the event officially ended at Molly Brown’s. It’s on the left just before you come into Guerneville from the west and it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s now an Autocamp, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Autocamp.
PJ: Yeah yeah yeah. Well I drove through there. You know we lived in Sea Ranch for 18 years and so I was driving through there a couple times a week. So it’s familiar. The Autocamp may have happened since. We left in 2020.
AM: It’s just not there anymore. Anyway that’s where the end was, the finish point. Then people went and stayed at different places. But then Sunday it was the volunteer appreciation event that was put on by the AIDS Foundation and that included people who had been involved in the BAT. I know you were there because I saw your picture, the one with the people up on stage. Do you remember anything about that?
PJ: Kind of a vague memory of being up on stage. But I think it was up at the Wildwood or something.
AM: No, that was at Molly Brown’s. [AM: I was wrong. It was at the Woods and I may have confused Peter.]
PJ: Molly Brown’s…how weird. Okay. God, usually I have a better memory of things like that. It’d be interesting to see the photos.
AM: So when you got to Guerneville, how’d you feel? Do you remember?
PJ: Kind of overwhelmed. It was kind of a hard, heavy duty gay thing— maybe it’s my perception of being at one of the resorts in the Russian River ‘cause I was like 22 and kinda hadn’t really done anything like that. I think I pitched a tent or something and it was a party atmosphere and that’s kind of what I remember. I remember then the next day I wanted to get home and I don’t know if it was like the buses were late or something like that and I knew a woman who was up there and I tried to hitch a ride with her back to the Bay Area. And I ended up riding back [on the bus] and I sat with Eric and that was kinda fun.There was a bus. They put the bikes in like a Greyhound bus kinda thing.
AM: Yeah yeah yeah. Okay. The AIDS Foundation arranged to bus people back. But some people just got back on their own. They didn’t get back [by the bus].
PJ: Right. Yeah people who had- I don’t know if they were support and had driven up there or friends of people who rode up there.
AM: Yeah. So you got on the bus that was arranged for everybody.
PJ: Right, I spent the night and then got on the bus.
AM: Do you remember where you stayed that night in Guerneville?
PJ: I wanna say- I was thinking it was at the- and I have to look and see if I’ve got the name right. It was at the place on y’know if you’re driving west on 116 out of Guerneville, it’s on the left and it was…
AM: Driving west out of Guerneville, okay.
PJ: Well, kind of yeah I mean out of downtown but you’re still in kinda Guerneville.
AM: Was it Fife’s?
PJ: Yeah, I think that was it.
AM: Okay. The Sunday ceremony what I’ve heard is that that was a long event. Basically people were lolling about on the lawn.
PJ: Yeah.
AM: There was food there and people were lolling about on the lawn. Do you remember much about that?
PJ: No, just like I said, sort of a party thing. That’s sort of the vague memory I have. People were hanging out. I just don’t have really specific memories.
AM: Okay. So that’s mainly the questions I have about the event itself. So this was a pledge event. Do you remember how you got pledges?
PJ: Yeah. So that was tough because I tried to get pledges from friends and everybody [laughs] was kind of in the same boat: poor. And so I got a bunch of $5 pledges, not a whole lot. I kind of struggled with that. Some guys got thousands of dollars, I mean did really well. I was kind of begging from my friends! [laughs]
AM: Okay. So you didn’t do anything aggressive like go to stores or organizations and say,”Hey do you want to support me on my ride to Guerneville”? [laughs]
PJ: No, I wasn’t that resourceful. I did not do that. This was a bigger deal and I realize that people got big amounts of money that these guys were really organized and put it out there. But I just went to places I knew and friends and things.
AM: Okay. At that time HIV and AIDS were kind of either very scary and there wasn’t a lot of information about it or people didn’t know anything at all. They were totally in the dark about it. And I’m wondering to get pledges from people, what was their reaction when you told them “I’m gonna ride to Guerneville to raise money to fight AIDS”?
PJ: I don’t remember anybody being negative about it because like I said I posted something at the place I worked, which was this very gay café on College Avenue and then friends who were gay and my friends were- I think everybody was supportive. We were freaked out about it, young gay men, and we were reading what we could and then straight friends knew less as I came to find out, obviously as you can imagine. But there was never any bad resistance. It was more like people just didn’t have much money to give.
AM: The last thing I wanted to ask you was how old were you when you did that first BAT in ’85?
PJ: I was 23.
AM: 23 okay. Yeah, you might have been one of the youngest people to do it.
PJ: Oh really? I guess so. Mark’s a year older than I am, Mark Paez, but he wasn’t there and Eric was a little bit around my age. I guess Jerry Basso and those guys were – they wasn’t too much older than I was.
AM: I don’t recall how old Jerry was but my guess is that he was probably 30.
PJ: Oh wow. Yeah?
AM: He wasn’t 20. If he was, then he was a very old-looking twenty year old! [laughs]
PJ: [laughs] Well I know I was kind of the youngest one there and I think I was kind of treated like that, you know what I mean? Sort of like young and goofy [laughs]. Goofball. Yeah, well anyways it’s great to get to chat about this. It’s so interesting to sort of dust it off. I wish I had more to…
AM: No, actually what you’ve contributed so far is impressed me because first of all remembering something that happened 40 years ago is hard. It’s hard period and there’s absolutely no way that you can remember something unless it was something that affected you, you know like a traumatic event.
PJ: Right yeah. We’re old, yes, and there are certain things I remember more clearly from then and I just don’t know- I mean it was a fun- y’know it was…it was fun. I really liked Different Spokes but blank!
AM: I actually have one other question. Did either being a member of Different Spokes or doing the BAT or both have some- did it have an impact on your future or was it just one of those things that you did and then you moved to whatever, the rest of your life? Did it hold some significance for you or was it like “no no, I was just a cyclist and hung out with Different Spokes”?
PJ: Well, y’know I was never athletic growing up. I rode a lot and then to join a group where it was like “oh okay I can hold my own with these people”. It was significant. It was funny— these kinds of things happen to people at a younger age whether they did sports in high school.
AM: Maybe you got some confidence.
PJ: Yeah, that and then also meeting some really nice people, Jim Lindauer, and Mark Paez, I didn’t know Eric for very long, But there were some good friends made. It was a good experience. It wasn’t like anything else. I mean it was also a sense or community, I guess, you know being in the East Bay, and I worked and had gay friends and things. But being a part of a group like that that was in the city and then doing stuff like this, like the BAT where they were kind of diving into providing services for people and people were sick in the club, it was a really significant exposure for me that way and nothing else has been like that. So I suppose…so that’s what I would say.
AM: Okay, sounds good. Peter, thank you very much.
PJ: Oh sure Anthony, it’s great to chat and thanks. Good luck with it.
AM: Okay and thank you, Peter, I really appreciate it.
PJ: Oh no problem at all, alright take care.
AM: Take care.
PJ: Bye.
Epilogue As with Bob Bolan, riding a hundred miles in a few hours wasn’t a dramatic challenge for Peter as it was for most of the participants. He remembers the ride as “easy”! I rode up to Guerneville several times for the club’s Russian River Weekend back then and I had also been doing centuries. Although I wasn’t wiped out upon arrival, I would never call that ride easy. Obviously all those commutes by bike made a difference in how he experienced the ride itself. Peter echoes comments by others that the early phase of the AIDS epidemic was on everybody’s mind—there was no escaping the fear, anxiety, and grief—and that reverberated through the club and was the incentive to ride the Bike-A-Thon: we had to do something. Although Peter grew up in the Bay Area, had been out for a few years already, worked at a gay business, and had a circle of gay friends already. Yet he found a community in Different Spokes based around common activity and eventually a common goal (Bike-A-Thon). These days kids are coming out earlier and earlier but back then coming out after high school still would have been very daring. The club was a way, as it was for many back then, to connect with other LGBT folks in a much less daunting environment than the gay bars.
The Chain Letter 