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Sep 2008: John Finley Scott inducted into the MTB Hall of Fame
Dec 5, 2007: The mystery of what happened to Scott is sadly revealed: Tree trimmer sentenced for killing of Davis Professor
January 31, 2007 - WE STAYED hopeful to the last. The mysterious disappearance of 'spirited contrarian' John Finley Scott in June 2006 appears sadly resolved, as sensitively reported by the Stockton Record below. John's mischievous but disarming spirit is immortalized in a movie clip of his first and only visit to the Bike Friday factory, where he walked in a skeptic, strolled through the factory picking up chainrings, making sharp observations and left a convert. Bike Friday and the bicycle industry as we know it exists because of visionary contrarians like Mr Scott - LC
John S Allen, LAB New York and New England Regional Director, remembers John Finley Scott: Scott's role in maintaining the right of bicyclists to use the roads was very important. Also he was instrumental in breaking the hardened paradigm of imitation racing bike/low-performance utility bike, with the development of the mountain bike -- not only a high-performance bike for use on rough surfaces, but which also requires less eagle-eyed attention to avoid wheel damage in road riding, Scott helped lead to expansion of the popular concept of the bicycle to recumbents, folders, trailers etc. Bike Friday follows right in his tire tracks. However, he was a hard-nosed sociologist, and as such he noted that utility bicycling is in decline while recreational bicycling is thriving. As a libertarian and contrarian, he challenged or ignored moral judgments about overuse of motor vehicles, global warming, and the dislocations that will result when oil supplies falter. (Well, maybe there will be a relatively smooth transition a post-petroleum economy, but I doubt it). On the other hand, he was very parsimonious himself with his motor vehicles, which were small. He would even shut down the engine -- "Mexican overdrive" -- when coasting down hills. I chuckle now at this self-contradiction. I would have liked to challenge him on these issues, to learn his deeper What remains for me is to edit and compile my two hours or so of video of him including his humorous, spot-on rap about the sociology of college sororities, his demonstration of Mexican overdrive on our drive from Davis to Eugene, and his talk about bicycling with Alan, David Herlihy and me over Alan's dining table. It's the most fitting memorial to John.which I can offer to his family and to the public but it's nothing compared with having him still around. How can I say it. Except for the few occasions when he pushed people's buttons -- a sort of in your-face Zen that also often imparted valuable lessons -- being around him was a barrel of fun. I can't begin to convey this in my writing; I hope that the video will. |
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STOCKTON BICYCLE PIONEER LIKELY KILLED
Link to this Stockton Record article.
By Michael FitzgeraldRecord Columnist
January 31, 2007 6:00 AM
To our list of distinguished Stocktonians, add John Finley Scott, 72, pioneer of the mountain bike. Unfortunately, Scott comes to our attention through his probable murder.
Scott, a retired UC Davis sociology professor, has been missing since June from his home outside Davis. Much spattered blood was found in his bedroom and foyer.
On Monday, Yolo County authorities arraigned his handyman, Charles Cunningham, 38. Cunningham is charged with murdering a witness and five other felonies.
The "witness" murder charge comes from authorities' belief that Scott witnessed Cunningham commit an earlier crime. Authorities have not revealed what.
Cunningham entered no plea. His attorney says he will plead not guilty.
Scott was a 1951 graduate of Stockton High School. There, he was in one club with future "Fat City" author Leonard Gardner. Scott, too, is an illustrious former Stocktonian.
The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame credits him as "probably the first mountain bike enthusiast in the United States." Others flat-out call him "the father of the mountain bike."
To a Schwinn frame in 1953 Scott added not only balloon tires but also flat handlebars, derailleur gears and cantilever brakes to create what he called a "Woodsie Bike."
His invention was one of the major steps in the development and popularization of an all-terrain bicycle that revolutionized buttoned-down cycling.
"It's huge," said Michael Browne, editor of Dirt Rag magazine, a magazine for mountain bike aficionados. "It reinvigorated cycling."
The mountain bike "threw a whole new attitude into the mix," Browne said. "It was almost a 'DIY' ethic. Go out in the woods. Get dirty. Be a kid again."
Scott further boosted the mountain bike through a bike store he owned in Cupertino by investing in early mountain bike development and by lobbying legislators in the 1970s to give bicycles rights on the American road.
Former Stocktonian Robert Norman of Pittsburgh, Scott's classmate and longtime friend, recalled Scott as a brilliant and bullied intellectual student who managed effortless A's and pursued wide interests.
"He was honestly articulate," Norman said, "and enormously interested in a wide variety of things, from railroads to bicycles to mountain climbing to photography. And he was very good and very knowledgeable about everything that he turned his attention to."
Later accounts of the adult Scott paint him less pleasantly as a sometimes condescending contrarian. At UC Davis, "He managed to insult every single person in the class on the first day," one former student said in an earlier story. The student qualified, "Many people had negative opinions of him, but Dr. Scott was mischievous, not malicious."
Scott made national headlines of a different sort in 1957 when, while still a student at UC Berkeley, he took a long fall while scaling a mountain in King's Canyon. He fell, seriously injured, to a ledge at 11,000 feet. The weakened Scott was saved after two days by a daring helicopter rescue. His plight got national media attention.
Police say their suspect, Cunningham, cashed a stolen check of Scott's shortly after his disappearance. And Cunningham had, then got rid of, Scott's stolen trailer. Cunningham has an extensive criminal history. Murdering a witness is a special-circumstance charge. If convicted, Cunningham will be sentenced either to death or life without parole.
The Web site Bike Friday hailed Scott for his advocacy of laws that preserve bicycles as alternative transportation. He was, the Web site said, "one of the reasons this auto-centric world has not completely submerged its sorry orb into a vat of oil."
A memorial service was held for Scott in October. His body has not been found.
Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or michaelf@recordnet.com. Visit his blog.
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July 10, 2006: John Finley Scott visited the Bike Friday factory as a skeptic in September 2005, and was the owner of a Pocket Llama by the end of the year. The Pocket Llama is still sitting in his garage, but where is John? - LC
JOHN FINLEY SCOTT is missing.
The 'father of the mountain bike' disappeared from his home over a month ago and has not been seen since. As we understand it, his house was left in a 'just popped down the road to get a gallon of milk' state.
"The odds of him showing up are vanishingly tiny," said Adventure Cycling Association's John Schubert, and if anyone knows who's doing what, where,and to whom with a 52 tooth chaingring, it's the authoritative Schubert.
"Within the past week, I asked his niece if there were any new developments, and she said no. Obviously, I'm not privy to anything the police might know, but I can't figure out who would stand to gain from offing him like this. Too weird ..."
Who is JFS?
A retired professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, John is widely credited as the inventor of the first mountain bike.
A website called the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame says this about origins of the MTB:
Maybe it was John Finley Scott who was probably the first mountain bike enthusiast in the United States. In 1953 he built what he called a “ Woodsie Bike”, using a Schwinn World diamond frame, balloon tires, flat handlebars, derailleur gears, and cantilever brakes. John was more than twenty years ahead of his time, and while he remained an off-road cycling enthusiast, at the time there were not many others who shared his passion ...
We wrote about John after he visited the Bike Friday factory in 2005 following a Bicycle history conference in Davis, CA.
"He is one of the pioneers of the bike world," says Bike Friday co-founder Alan Scholz. "He was an extensive cycle tourist and explorer, builder of a prototypical mountain bike in 1953, advocate for improvement of California cycling laws and facilities, supporting investor of 70s' mountain bike pioneers, and spent several years as owner of the Cupertino (California) Bicycle Shop."
"Cupertino was founded by the charismatic Spence Wolf in 1953. I bought it from him when he retired in 1980, and sold it to my friend Vance Sprock in 1989," said an animated Scott, twirling a large chainring between his fingers as he was led through the factory last fall.
"Scott used to own a London double-decker bus, which he would use to transport bike racers to the races. Once they stopped at a rest area, and the racers (not the most organized people) took off, unintentionally leaving Scott behind. They were made aware of their mistake when a police car, carrying a none-too-happy Scott, pulled them over. I wonder how many pounds of marijuana got thrown out the side of the bus when the cop arrived!" quipped Schubert.
John S Allen, who attended the 2005 conference and visited the Bike Friday factory with Scott, said: "The bus was still at his house when I visited him last fall, though not in working order. Vance Sprock, current owner of the Cupertino Bike Shop, has another which is in working order and fancy looking. UC Davis has a fleet of them which it uses to shuttle students around campus, thereby reducing the popularity of bicycling for students -- a topic JFS was studying. I wonder whether those shuttle buses are on campus as a result of his example ..."
His disappearance has had scant coverage in the media.
"It has been in the local newspaper and on several cycling e-mail lists but I don't think that it has had national exposure in the print media. John does merit this as builder of probably America's first MTB in the 1950s, the investor who funded the the MTB pioneers in the early 1980s, and as former owner of Cupertino Bike Shop," says Allen.
JFS, you're one of the reasons this auto-centric world has not completely submerged its sorry orb into a vat of oil, and we hope you'll come pedaling home safe and well.
If anyone has any information, please email it to John Schubert, schubley at aol dot com
Permalink: http://www.bikefriday.com/jfs