This was a story that caught my eye. I also found this guys site.
While I can appreciate the 'leave no trace' philosophy, overall I believe that the majority of mountain bikers love and respect nature.
As a group, mountain bikers have done as much as any other group to help preserve wild places. We have mourned the loss of the original cactus cup to golf courses and the red mountain area trails to developers.
Most of us do not 'blaze' new trails, we simply ride in our designated areas. Overall, the sport helps spawn interest in nature which in turn helps preserve it.
Anti-Mountain Bike Advocate Attacks Cyclists With Handsaw
And that right there, readers, is the most bizarre headline we've ever typed. Noted --
noted! -- anti-mountain bike crusader
Mike Vandeman was "arrested yesterday and charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he attacked a pair of mountain bikers with a handsaw."
According to UC police, a pair of mountain bikers were cycling on a fire road in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus. A hiker — Mike Vandeman — struck one of the cyclists with a saw, cutting him across the chest. East Bay mountain bikers have reported other similar attacks on them, and some mountain bikers I know have expressed concern for their personal safety when Mike Vandeman is around.
The harrowing incident,
according to UC Berkeley police, happened on May 15.
Why does Vanderman loathe those who ride on the dirty and dusty trails? Well, maybe because it's
bad for the trails and mother nature? Or because it
conflicts with his desire to hike on anti-bike trails he wants to himself. Or because purple pony princesses like salty cracker neon beets. Who knows, exactly. (If you guessed 'all of the above,' you would be correct. Seriously,
have a looksie.)
Cyclelico.us goes on to point out that Vanderman gained gained attention in the 90s via his Usenet postings to
wrec
k.bikes in which he painted mountain bikers as "addicted, narcissistic, violently insane liars."
UC Berkeley police urge other victims or witnesses to come forward. Call the University of California Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau at 510- 642-0472 from 8 a.m.- p.m., or 510)-642-6760 during off hours.
Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D.
"And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche" Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, line 308.
Qualifications:
I have a B.A. Magna cum Laude from the University of California at Berkeley in Mathematics, With Special Distinction in Mathematics. I also got straight A's in Honors Physics. As a Junior at U.C. Berkeley, I ranked 37 1/2th out of 1300 college math students in the nation in the annual mathematics contest sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. I have an M.A. in Mathematics (including study in Statistics) from Harvard University. And my Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles is in Psychology, concentrating in Psychometrics. Psychometrics is the science of the measurement of human behavior and traits, and forms the scientific basis upon which transportation modeling and all other forms of human measurement rest. I taught measurement theory -- specifically, Reliability and Validity -- at California State University, San Francisco. I have been a computer programmer since 1962. I taught computer science for U.C. Berkeley Extension. In other words, I am an expert in mathematics, statistics, scientific method, measurement science (including modeling), and computer science.
Passions:
Art (especially Winslow Homer, Jose Orozco, Diego Rivera, Albert P. Ryder, Utamaro, A. Paul Weber), bicycling, biology (especially frogs and snakes), bookstores (especially Black Oak and Kinokuniya), English Literature (especially Emerson, John Steinbeck, and Walt Whitman), ham radio, hiking and camping, judo, languages (especially German, Japanese, and Spanish), libraries, mathematics (especially calculus, point-set topology, and trigonometry), music (especially Bach, Crystal Gayle, John Seed, "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life", "Across the Great Divide" (Kate Wolf), Ravi Shankar, Red Gum, Sharon Burch, Stephanie Davis, Tammy Wynette, Wagner (especially "Tristan and Isolde" and "The Flying Dutchman"), and Yothu Yindi), nurses, organic food, plants (especially trees), picking up trash (get a picker-upper like the "Park Patrol" from Pikes Peak Industries, PO Box 9422, Colorado Springs, CO 80909), programming (especially assembler and PL/I), reference librarians, Synanon, teachers, the U.S. Southwest, water (especially streams), wilderness
Peeves:
Air pollution, callousness towards wildlife, drugs, guns, invasion or destruction of wildlife habitat (especially by vehicles, such as ATVs, horses and burros, jetskis, mountain bikes, rafts, snowmobiles, and other ORVs), motor vehicles, road and highway construction, violence, waste (especially time)
Favorite Foods:
Fruit juice (especially pomegranate), Indian, Japanese (especially sushi), Mexican, Native American (especially pumpkin soup), olalieberry pie, organic tomatoes, Persian (especially chicken pomegranate), tropical fruit (especially durian, mango, and papaya), Washington State apples, Bartlett pears, blackberry pie, persimmons, and rhubarb pie
Favorite People:
I prefer people (like some of those I found in Synanon) who want to make the world better. It amazes me how many people think that life consists of simply building their own nest, & then sitting in it. Where do they think the tree came from?
Favorite Restaurants
Current Interests
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