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FROM THE SUMMIT Goodbye Major Taylor Cycling Club it was nice to know you
I am happy of my days when I was on the Board, and being one of the bicycle mechanics to do everything from wheel building, frame straightening, rebuilding, and building new shelving units. I rebuilt more bikes and sold them on Craigslist for the club as my means for supporting the club financially. Mostly, I spent my time trying to figure out how to fix a kids bike in the short amount of time we had on those Saturday afternoons. We'd eat vegetarian lunches made by my friend Ken and discuss a wide subject matter drawing the kids into our topics. We had ups, and down, sun, wind, and rain. Mostly we had fun and it was satisfying volunteer work. I fixed a lot of bikes. Here's a tidbit. Do you know why there is a bike path on the Dumbarton Bridge? Specifically due to the Major Taylor Cycling Club, and Ken Kratz it's secretary to doggedly pursue this dream. It's MTCC and Ken Kratz verses CalTrans, and everybody won. Thanks Ken. As MTCC fades away, where do you do bicycle recycling? Where else is your resource for hard-to-find parts, low cost, out-of-date (more than 2 years old) parts and components, and new unsold retail bike gear. I don't know. That club had more really cool bicycle parts than some retail shops. So here's a thought for FFBC and Cinderellas. When MTCC dissolves, the assets (tools, inventory, infrastructure) is going to go someplace. Why not get some of the useful items to meet our own means. Like? I think a club truing stand, various handlebars, stems, posts, headsets, forks, derailers, wheels, cable housing, cables, rim jacks, spokes of various sizes, spanners, tube press, and such could do the job. And with these we could use them for training certain “future leaders”, or servicing our membership base as tools on loan program. After all some club is going to get everything, and they probably won't have me or other club members around to show them how to use and care for them. Think about it. What benefit could we use these assets for? Knowledge is valuable. Wynn Kageyama |
I was informed a few days ago that the board of directors of the Major Taylor Cycling Club located in East Palo Alto is closing. I am sorry to hear of this and not surprised because running any service club requires community support and sponsorship. Of late MTCC had little direct community support and a lot of long distance supporters like me and the board members.