Peter Frick-Wright
My story on Mike Vandeman is out in the November issue of Bike magazine. You should be able to find it on newsstands in the next few days; my copy just arrived in the mail. It’s not online, though I suspect that if you KindlePad your iNook together as an e-reader there’s a Bike mag application that will fetch it for you. I could be wrong about this.
Check it out. Thanks for reading.
Peter
November 1st update: buy a copy online at Zinio.
I read most of your article in Bike last night and it’s a great read, but the way you describe how he walks on his toes, doesn’t look people in the eye, his high intellect and the way he over reacts and doesn’t seem to be able to control his reactions scream Asperger’s to me. (hopefully you didn’t state this later in the article and I missed it).
My son is autistic and although he had different “symptoms”, I’ve been around enough people with it to pretty much suspect someone might have some form of autism, but your description is pretty classic.
I’m not making excuses for MV, I’m glad he got the punishment that he did and wish he had received more punishment to send a message to others. It just explains a lot in how he went about doing what he did and his lazer focus on just mtn bikers.
There have been a couple of incidents recently in WA where people have strung fishing line WITH fish hooks across trails. One woman ran into them and is lucky she didn’t lose an eye or get ripped open. Children ride these trails too and I don’t understand how someone could live with themselves if they hurt a child as well.
If you believe anything Peter Frick-Wright writes, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. This story (I glanced at it; I’m not about to give $6 to a mountain biking magazine), like all of his stories, is full of lies — his and others’. At least he had the good sense to cover some of the other side, as well.
My, oh my, Peter.
Perhaps you should have been charged for your “little error of judgment” last October 2010, promoted illegal mountain biking activities in Oregon:
http://bicycling.com/blogs/mbword/2010/10/15/night-riding-journalist-mistakenly-rides-day-use-trail/
“Frick-Wright said he hadn’t known about the day-use-only restriction.”
(“I didn’t see the sign”, said the mountain bikers)
(“I didn’t know you can’t ride on this trail”, said the mountain bikers)
(“I didn’t know you can’t night ride here” said Peter F-W))
etc. The lies never end!
Shame on you, old boy! How can we believe anything you write? Mountain bikers have a hard time obeying the rules, you know, and you are one of the many, Peter. Typical mountain biker with excuses and lies up the yin yang!
Hey – I’ts Vandeman and the Great Gazoo. We missed you crazy mo-fo’s. Where have you been? It’s been so boring without your cA-razy, uninsightful comments, come on, is that the best you two can do? Call mtn bikers liers? MV you’re losing your touch.
You two are a joke and NO ONE has ANY respect for what you say.
“We’re (mountain bikers) so caught up in our own bullshit that we somehow delude ourselves into believing it, and in the process we fail to see what we really are–chimps doing tricks on two wheels.”
-quote from the November 2011 Bike Magazine
I like how mike goes to stores and reads. Then leaves without paying. Is anyone here that petty?
I had a fascinating moment about one week ago: I saw Mike Vandeman, his Wife, and his Granddaughter at the Safeway in San Ramon, CA! It was an interesting opportunity to see a bit of him. The descriptions from this blog (the testimony) are all consistent. Soft-spoken…just a guy and his family at the store. His online persona is completely different from his brick-and mortar persona. One physical example is that he carries on his belt a cell phone device — the kind that he warns others of their dangers at the bottom of his emails and postings. He also drives a four door sedan, and one probably knows that he mentions that if one has a “mountain bike” or a car they will probably not understand his website. Contradictions? Yes. I did not make contact with him as I enjoy my anonymity just like he does, nor would I interrupt his family time. I also do not make a habit of exposing myself to angry and violent persons — with court-documented attacks against fellow humans.
It is clear that he destroyed his own anonymity and to an extent, privacy by committing violent acts and having a court transcript on him, not to mention now a criminal record. He now can be easily recognized as he ventures out into the real world which is the biggest sentence for a person like him. His hatred online, or his violence in “real life”, has destroyed his facade of peacefulness, intelligence, and following his own rules of conservation.
“I am really done with the whiney and spoiled and, frankly, erroneous fiction you guys (mountain bikers) tell yourselves. You do not help your cause.”
~Mayor of Boulder City, Colorado, home of the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA)
Touché!
A modest proposal:
I’ve been mountain biking for almost a quarter century. The majority of hikers and equestrians that I have met on the fire roads and shared trails have been friendly, except for a lunatic fringe of haters.
What the bike haters don’t seem to realize is that most bikers would go out of their way to avoid the haters if given the opportunity to do so. I therefore suggest that the truly fanatical bike haters simply identify themselves, perhaps by wearing either black shirts, or brown shirts with black armbands. This wouldn’t be at all uncomfortable, inconvenient, or expensive–most of the haters probably already have these in their closets. In any case, it is an accurate reflection of their political philosophy and character. A clown costume would also work, and would have a further advantage of being observable from a greater distance.
I can almost guarantee that, if Mikey were to don a clown costume whenever he went outside for a hike, that very few bikers would come within 50 feet of him. It is a pity that it was not made a condition of his parole.
Great article in Bike – captivating and very well written. My favorite quote, “‘As you may have noticed.’ Solobar said, ‘Mikey has a tendency to self-destruct.’ ” So true and so very apparent.
Very nice article in Bike magazine. Living out here in the middle of the nowhere, I had no idea these things happened. Sad and weird.
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