Ken Kifer one year on

"Garry Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

At the end of 1997 I got hooked up to the Internet and discovered the
international cycling newsgroups. I soon discovered I had happened upon
the most wonderful community. There were cyclists of all types from all
around the world. Even if there were a few lunatics and some rude people
the vast majority were there to share. People that became and remained
friends, people destined never to meet but to be united for ever by
their interest in cycling.

The first cyclist that I exchanged private emails with was Ken Kifer.
Over the next few years we remained net friends and my admiration and
respect for Ken never faulted. He was always willing to join in
discussions and debate a vast variety of cycling issues, his language on
the net was polite and correct, but never dull,

When Ken first dreamed up the idea of his own website he set up a test
version and sent the link to chosen few, myself included as I was
already running a website. I must say that Ken's first effort was. shall
we say a case of "could do better". His site was unreadable unless you
were using a specific browser at a specific resolution. To say that he
developed his home page skills is an understatement and within months he
was out of my league. As we all know his website developed into one of
the most respected on the Internet and won awards, respect and
acclamation from around the world.

Ken was always willing to help, never short of advice and a great guy to
share cycling anecdotes with. Even if Ken and I didn't maintain our
initial frequent email contact over the years he never became a
stranger. After a period without contact I asked his advice in the fall
of 2000 when my then girlfriend - a design student at university - was
involved in a futuristic concept for a car-free city. Ken became a
source of inspiration and his ideas were of great value to the project.
At Christmas that year Ken sent me some kind words and wished me all the
best. I will light a candle for him this year.

Our Mr Kifer was an advocate of safer cycling and it is no wild guess
that there are some cyclists alive today that have survived or avoided
would-be fatal accidents because of something learnt from Ken's website,
if not through direct contact with the man himself. Ken's legacy lives
on through his website and I am delighted that it is still hosted. It is
of great importance and will undoubtedly continue to help, delight and
charm cyclists the world over. I often refer and link to his site in
cycling forums.

I remember that Ken once stated that although there are plenty of safety
measures you can take as a cyclist there really is nothing you can do
about the drunk driver coming in the other direction. To that I add that
is safer to cycle than not to cycle and at least you get to live and
experience life from a interesting fulfilled perspective non-cyclists
remain ignorant of.

If I have one regret it is that I never met the man himself, but perhaps
that is testimony to the cycling community on the web. We know each
other through words and views and that is the very essence of how and
why we know each other. It suffices.

It was with great sadness I received news of Ken's death, one year ago
today. I am sure that Ken rides on, in that car free city in the sky
where all the winds are following.

Ride on Ken, ride on.

Garry Jones
English Cyclist
ResIDING in Sweden

Garry,

That's a very nice tribute. Well done. Could you post the address for that
website please? I've been there before, but I don't have it anymore. I
suspect I could google on Ken's name and come up with it, but it might be a
nice service to post it.

To your point that it's safer to cycle than not to cycle, I'm approaching
the 2 year anniversary of a very serious wreck where a teenage driver
talking on a cell phone made an unsignaled left turn (she was oncoming)
directly into my path as I was traveling through an intersection. I
sustained numerous serious and potentially life-threatening injuries. I'll
never forget what the doc in the ER said to me after I'd been poked and
prodded and it had been determined that I had no internal injuries. He
said, "If you weren't in such great shape from all your cycling, you'd
probably be dead."

I couldn't believe the witty reply I came up with, though I was in
excruciating pain and probably partly in shock. I said, "yes, the bicycle
is definately responsible for the condition I'm in today."

I'm closing in on 9,000 miles for this year.

Ride on!

Bob C.

psycholist said:

"Garry Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

At the end of 1997 I got hooked up to the Internet and discovered the
international cycling newsgroups. I soon discovered I had happened
upon the most wonderful community. There were cyclists of all types
from all around the world. Even if there were a few lunatics and
some rude people the vast majority were there to share. People that
became and remained friends, people destined never to meet but to be
united for ever by their interest in cycling.

The first cyclist that I exchanged private emails with was Ken Kifer.
Over the next few years we remained net friends and my admiration and
respect for Ken never faulted. He was always willing to join in
discussions and debate a vast variety of cycling issues, his
language on the net was polite and correct, but never dull,

When Ken first dreamed up the idea of his own website he set up a
test version and sent the link to chosen few, myself included as I
was already running a website. I must say that Ken's first effort
was. shall we say a case of "could do better". His site was
unreadable unless you were using a specific browser at a specific
resolution. To say that he developed his home page skills is an
understatement and within months he was out of my league. As we all
know his website developed into one of the most respected on the
Internet and won awards, respect and acclamation from around the
world.

Ken was always willing to help, never short of advice and a great
guy to share cycling anecdotes with. Even if Ken and I didn't
maintain our initial frequent email contact over the years he never
became a stranger. After a period without contact I asked his advice
in the fall of 2000 when my then girlfriend - a design student at
university - was involved in a futuristic concept for a car-free
city. Ken became a source of inspiration and his ideas were of great
value to the project. At Christmas that year Ken sent me some kind
words and wished me all the best. I will light a candle for him this
year.

Our Mr Kifer was an advocate of safer cycling and it is no wild guess
that there are some cyclists alive today that have survived or
avoided would-be fatal accidents because of something learnt from
Ken's website, if not through direct contact with the man himself.
Ken's legacy lives on through his website and I am delighted that it
is still hosted. It is of great importance and will undoubtedly
continue to help, delight and charm cyclists the world over. I often
refer and link to his site in cycling forums.

I remember that Ken once stated that although there are plenty of
safety measures you can take as a cyclist there really is nothing
you can do about the drunk driver coming in the other direction. To
that I add that is safer to cycle than not to cycle and at least you
get to live and experience life from a interesting fulfilled
perspective non-cyclists remain ignorant of.

If I have one regret it is that I never met the man himself, but
perhaps that is testimony to the cycling community on the web. We
know each other through words and views and that is the very essence
of how and why we know each other. It suffices.

It was with great sadness I received news of Ken's death, one year
ago today. I am sure that Ken rides on, in that car free city in the
sky where all the winds are following.

Ride on Ken, ride on.

Garry Jones
English Cyclist
ResIDING in Sweden

Garry,

That's a very nice tribute. Well done. Could you post the address
for that website please? I've been there before, but I don't have it
anymore. I suspect I could google on Ken's name and come up with it,
but it might be a nice service to post it.

To your point that it's safer to cycle than not to cycle, I'm
approaching the 2 year anniversary of a very serious wreck where a
teenage driver talking on a cell phone made an unsignaled left turn
(she was oncoming) directly into my path as I was traveling through
an intersection. I sustained numerous serious and potentially
life-threatening injuries. I'll never forget what the doc in the ER
said to me after I'd been poked and prodded and it had been
determined that I had no internal injuries. He said, "If you weren't
in such great shape from all your cycling, you'd probably be dead."

I couldn't believe the witty reply I came up with, though I was in
excruciating pain and probably partly in shock. I said, "yes, the
bicycle is definately responsible for the condition I'm in today."

I'm closing in on 9,000 miles for this year.

Ride on!

http://kenkifer.com/

Bill "left all the text because it should be read more than once" S.

psycholist said:

Could you post the address for that website please?

http://www.kenkifer.com/

Quoted message said:

I couldn't believe the witty reply I came up with, though I was in
excruciating pain and probably partly in shock. I said, "yes, the bicycle
is definately responsible for the condition I'm in today."

Wit helps. My most serious cycling accident was in the summer of 1996, I
broke my jaw in three places and knocked out 15 teeth. I received a
tracheotomy in hospital and woke in intensive care two days after the
accident. I was wired up to an ECG and drips for nutrition and morphin.
I was told I could not walk, not talk, not sneeze, not cough, nor eat or
drink. That all sounded very negative so I waved my hand in a pen
writing movement. The nurse said "Oh yeah, you can write" and went to
get a pen and paper. What's the first thing on my mind? How it went for
the others? How my children are? How my 2 month year old baby son is?
Nah, none of the above, I wrote "Will I be able to sing afterwards?".
The nurse was fully surprised by this as it is said you can tell a lot
from a man's first request after waking from anaesthetic. She thought
that I sang in a band or a choir and replied "That shouldn't be any
problem." I grabbed the pad back and wrote "That's great because I
couldn't sing before".

As said, wit can help. It conveys an underlying spirit most of us share.

Garry Jones
English Cyclist ResIDING in Sweden

"Garry Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

psycholist said:

Could you post the address for that website please?

http://www.kenkifer.com/

Quoted message said:

I couldn't believe the witty reply I came up with, though I was in
excruciating pain and probably partly in shock. I said, "yes, the

bicycle

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

is definately responsible for the condition I'm in today."

Wit helps. My most serious cycling accident was in the summer of 1996, I
broke my jaw in three places and knocked out 15 teeth. I received a
tracheotomy in hospital and woke in intensive care two days after the
accident. I was wired up to an ECG and drips for nutrition and morphin.
I was told I could not walk, not talk, not sneeze, not cough, nor eat or
drink. That all sounded very negative so I waved my hand in a pen
writing movement. The nurse said "Oh yeah, you can write" and went to
get a pen and paper. What's the first thing on my mind? How it went for
the others? How my children are? How my 2 month year old baby son is?
Nah, none of the above, I wrote "Will I be able to sing afterwards?".
The nurse was fully surprised by this as it is said you can tell a lot
from a man's first request after waking from anaesthetic. She thought
that I sang in a band or a choir and replied "That shouldn't be any
problem." I grabbed the pad back and wrote "That's great because I
couldn't sing before".

As said, wit can help. It conveys an underlying spirit most of us share.

Garry Jones
English Cyclist ResIDING in Sweden

Garry,

That's absolutely classic! I hope I don't have any sort of similar
incident, but if I do, I hope I remember that story.

Thanks for posting the link and the great tribute.

Bob C.