Riding into the sunset.
May 8, 2019 11:26 AM Subscribe
RIP David Gordon Wilson, 91, known as the father of modern recumbent bicycles. He wrote the bestselling "Bicycling Science" in 1974, now in its third edition. MIT obituary. Boston Globe (limited articles): obituary, feature story on the unsung inventor of the carbon tax.
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Whitt and Wilson's book changed my life. Bicycles are about my very favourite thing, and the fact that so little of the science had been collated or even reviewed before is pretty stunning.
I've still never owned an Avatar 2000-style LWB recumbent. They won't have the same ergonomics of the post-90s bikes, but they've got a certain stately charm.
Tonight I will ride my only currently working bike (see the FFF thread) just to ride my bike. Wind ever at your back, DGW
posted by scruss at 12:17 PM on May 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Whitt and Wilson's book changed my life. Bicycles are about my very favourite thing, and the fact that so little of the science had been collated or even reviewed before is pretty stunning.
I've still never owned an Avatar 2000-style LWB recumbent. They won't have the same ergonomics of the post-90s bikes, but they've got a certain stately charm.
Tonight I will ride my only currently working bike (see the FFF thread) just to ride my bike. Wind ever at your back, DGW
posted by scruss at 12:17 PM on May 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
I first met Prof. Wilson because his lunch-hour choral group snuck into our lab once a week to rehearse, and so once a week I would hand this kindly retired professor a music stand from my closet. I was new, and eventually someone mentioned that this sweet, polite guy was the author of Bicycling Science and I was retroactively star-struck.
I now teach in his department at MIT and it was a real delight when he came around, moreso because you'd still sometimes run into him gamely pedaling his recumbent bike to work, well into his late 80s.
Literally as this post went up, our lab (where Prof. Wilson taught for many many years) suffered an apocalyptic flood -- water coming in all over, eventually covering about 5000 square feet at least an inch deep. Somehow seems appropriate. Maybe the building was mourning. We're going to miss him.
posted by range at 12:51 PM on May 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
I now teach in his department at MIT and it was a real delight when he came around, moreso because you'd still sometimes run into him gamely pedaling his recumbent bike to work, well into his late 80s.
Literally as this post went up, our lab (where Prof. Wilson taught for many many years) suffered an apocalyptic flood -- water coming in all over, eventually covering about 5000 square feet at least an inch deep. Somehow seems appropriate. Maybe the building was mourning. We're going to miss him.
posted by range at 12:51 PM on May 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
Bicycling science is one of my favorite books and one of the best books ever written in any genre. Thank you David Gordon Wilson.
posted by Dr Ew at 2:02 PM on May 8, 2019
posted by Dr Ew at 2:02 PM on May 8, 2019
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posted by nightrecordings at 4:02 PM on May 8, 2019
posted by nightrecordings at 4:02 PM on May 8, 2019
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