Last night I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by Palo Alto Bicycles featuring Tom Ritchey (yes, he is the same guy who’s name is on your bike). Originally, I was planning on driving over but when I got home last night I had a sudden urge to hop on my bike and ride over instead. I’m always looking for a good excuse to go for a ride these days. Plus I really wanted to try out my Fenix L2D with some full on night riding.
I quickly changed into some inconspicuous riding gear and headed out into the dark night. I took my usual route towards Palo Alto and then detoured onto the Ellen Fletcher Bike Boulevard. For those who don’t know what a Bike Boulevard is it’s basically a street which is primary focused on creating a convenient and safe route for cyclist. It’s restricted by barriers which are passable by cyclists and designed to reduce automobile traffic (That’s not the official description).
I got to Palo Alto bicycles just in time to grab a seat and see the beginning on his presentation. He broke it up into three parts. The first was about his life growing up in Palo Alto and the people who influence him. He talked about the Jobst Rides and what a profound impact Jobst made on his life. He also continued to go through the history of Ritchey (the company).
All along the way he would throw in little antidotes like how Jobst begrudgingly let Tom build him a frame and Jobst decided to design Tom a logo (which is the same one he uses today). Tom also talked about his relationships with Gary Fischer and Joe Breeze , he touched on the birth of the mountain bike movement and went into some of his relationships with his riders. It was an amazing walk through his history.
His second part was about his travels to Rwanda and the foundation he started, Project Rwanda. He showed wonderful pictures of the landscape and how beautiful the country is. He also showed photos of the wooden bikes people use to haul stuff around. Huge 200lb loads of water, bananas, coffee beans, potatoes, you name it they hauled it.
He explained how a bike in Rwanda really represents freedom. He showed examples of typical bikes he saw there. They ranged from wooden bikes made with scraps to 100 year old bikes with rebar used for spokes and most of them were practically un-rideable by American standards, but they still ride.
He then went into what Project Rwanda’s goals are and how they are trying to develop a sustainable economy with the bicycle. He told a story about how with the right bike, coffee bean farmers could get their beans to the washing station quicker and produce a higher quality bean which would help energize their economy.
Along the way he would touch on topics like the genocide and how the country was dealing with reconciling the past. You could tell that his time in Rwanda has had a deep impact into Tom’s perspective on life and it’s changed his outlook.
After the last presentation he invited everyone who didn’t need to take off right away to stick around while he went through some more slides of his travels to Slovenia. Unfortunately, at that point it was time for me to start heading home… There is nothing like riding home while being inspired.
This morning when I got into work I noticed that my unused $50 donation gift certificate that Yahoo! had givin me for Xmas was still sitting on my desk under a pile of cords. I opened it up and logged into the donation site and pledged my gift contribution to them. If you would like to get involved or make a donation please visit Project Rwanda.
I'm just your average 30 something white geeky male who rides a bike and