Tag: Aerosmith

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Show #423 – October 20, 2018

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Guests: Gary Helfrich (from 2011); Jeff Speck (from 2013)

You know, I really wanted to produce a brand new episode this week but, the Universe had other plans and instead presented me with a nasty cold and wicked cough.

So rather than foist them upon you (and unsuspecting guests!) I decided to bring back a couple of my favorite interviews from past shows.

One of those is with Gary Helfrich – at the time (2011) he was part of the Sonoma County bicycle scene. And when we spoke, he talked about all the things he’d done including being the head roadie for Aerosmith and building some crazy thing for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, burying a whole titanium frame in the walls of a house in Somerville, Mass., and being the creator of one of the finest frame jigs in the world – the Arctos. The conversation was lively, fun, interesting and worth listening to a second (or third) time.

 

Then, it’s a re-do with Jeff Speck (2013). Jeff is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for more walkable cities. His book, Walkable City, eas published in 2013 and is still one of the most important on the topic.

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Show #250 – June 13, 2015

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Guests: Michael Aisner; Gary Helfrich

These interviews were record in 2011.  They are well worth hearing again or, if you began listening to the show after 2011, they are two of my favorites!  Either way…. here we go!

Back in September 2010, it never occurred to me that I would be on the air for almost 5 years!!! Yet, here we are celebrating our 250th show! And, in a mini-celebration, I would like to revisit two of my favorite interviews.

For those of you who discovered The Outspoken Cyclist AFTER 2011, these two interviews were recorded in March and November, 2011. The first is with an iconic figure in our industry who has been recognized for untold contributions from the Red Zinger/Coors Classic race series to his current project – the U.S. Monument to Cycling in North Boulder Park in Colorado.

Michael Aisner goes WAAAY back to the early days of what we might call the golden age of American cycling when such luminaries as Davis Phinney, Connie Carpenter, Eric Heiden, and Andy Hampsten were laying the groundwork for those who have come up the ranks in our sport.

Michael is a visionary, a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word, and very articulate about what he sees as the reasons we are not seeing another “golden age” of cycling in the U.S.

My second guest is just as legendary – though in a whole different way. Gary Helfrich is often considered the “father of titanium” frames and one of the smartest most talented people in the bike industry.  After a stint with Chris Chance and Fat City Cycles,  Gary went on to become one of the original founders of  Merlin Bicycles.  He is also the force behind one of the most coveted of frame jigs, Arctos.

He hails from the East Coast but skedaddled out of there to make his way west, go back to school, get a degree in environmental studies and urban planning, and jump in up to his eyebrows in bicycle advocacy as the director of Bike Sonoma in California.

Yet, Gary also has tales to tell of 10 years as a roadie for such bands as Aerosmith and Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.

I hope you enjoy these two “encore” interviews!