It appears that JF Scott hasn't been seen alive for more than two months,
and most do not seem optomistic that he will be.

This saddens me very much.

While I had verbal battles with him here on Chainguard, offline I had a
number of cordial email conversations with him, and will greatly miss him.

He was a contrarian, as I am also in many respects, which was why I enjoyed
arguing with him, and one of the things I liked about him.

I had the privilege of meeting him a bit over a year ago, and found him to
be an engaging, friendly, and gracious gentleman. Sadly, the occasion of
our meeting was the memorial of SF Bay Area bike activist Bill Bliss, who
was killed by an off-duty cop while cycling in Colorado. JF was following
the trial of the cop, traveling to Colorado, which unfortunately eventually
resulted in the barest slap on the wrist.

Now it appears that we've lost another...

Paul Wendt


Article with picture at:
http://www.bikefriday.com/jfs







*MISSING PERSON* John Finley Scott, MTB Pioneer
Permalink: http://www.bikefriday.com/jfs



EUGENE, OREGON--
by Lynette Chiang with info from John Allen and John
Schubert













July 10, 2006:
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