The stars aligned last week when my friend Dave McLaughlin texted to coordinate a spirited ride from Livermore to Mines Road and up and over Mt Hamilton through San Jose with our pal Ross Shafer. My schedule was open and the roads were calling.

The late-summer heat hadn’t returned to Livermore yet, so our ride through the San Antonio Valley was crisp and fun, with a quick stop at the newly-renovated Junction at Del Puerto Canyon Road. We met several old timers on bikes, and after some BSing climbed the same switchbacks ridden by Lycra-clad Tour of California pros to the Lick Observatory before descending 19 miles into San Jose and back to our respective homes. Last Thursday also happened to be Ross’s 62nd birthday.

Belgian motorcyclist Kim Tiebergyn has accomplished quite a bit in the 11 years since getting his M1 class license. The 32-year-old has become a regular fixture on the professional international bicycle racing circuit, piloting the likes of world-class photographer Tim De Waele. Tiebergyn has racked up an impressive race resume: nine times Tour of Flanders, eight times Paris-Roubaix, seven times Tour de France, seven times Giro d'Italia, seven times Milan-San Remo, and six times La Vuelta a España, to name a few.

We recently reconnected with Lindsay and his wife Estelle at their home on Skyline Boulevard just north of Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside, about 30 minutes from our place here in Silicon Valley. They just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and it was lovely catching up. I’ve shared many glorious pedal strokes on memorable group rides with Lindsay, and my recent return to cycling reawakened fond memories of our long chats about Eddy Merckx, Greg LeMond and European cycling.

When Joe Parkin launched Paved Magazine in 2010, he asked if I had any article ideas to contribute. Without hesitation I pitched him two stories: one about the luminaries of American cycling (Ben Serotta, Gary Erickson, Steve Hed and Jim Ochowicz), and another about the legend of former United Airlines pilot Lindsay Crawford. The former appeared in Volume 1, the latter Volume 2, in the spring of 2011. 

In Part One, I spoke with Maynard Hershon about his early motorcycle days, racing hare scrambles and doing hill climbs. We touched on several interesting historical facts, and due to our continued friendship and his legacy, I’m republishing Part Two of my interview with him from August 2017 here.

How and when did you start piloting motorcycles during domestic bicycle races? How many years did you do that?

I was working for Winning Magazine in the ‘80s when the Coors Classic stage race came to California (from Colorado). Because I was a “bicycle media hotshot” and could ride a motorcycle, when I asked if I could help with the race, I got a flattering yes.

The name Maynard Hershon is familiar to avid bicyclists and motorcyclists. For years the Midwest native’s byline appeared in several cycling publications, including Winning and VeloNews. His books Tales From The Bike Shop and Half-Wheel Hell are both dog-eared best sellers. But Hershon has lived a double life for decades, also writing for a handful of motorcycle publications, namely CityBike.

Joe Parkin came into my purview more than 30 years ago. We first crossed paths when he won the 1992 Chequamegon 40 mountain bike race (I was waaaaay off the back in the sea of 2,400 participants), then at the Chicago Area Bicycle Dealers Association (CABDA) Show a few years later. We became friends over the years, when he moved to Santa Cruz, CA in 2008 and we saw each other regularly. I interviewed Joe for some magazines a few times, and in turn he hired me to contribute to Paved and BIKE Magazines when he became editor a year or so later.

He married Elayna Caldwell, whose subsequent job took them to Chicago, then Germany, before landing in Colorado. Joe and I haven’t seen each other in a few years, but as kindred spirits over many things, we text and talk on the phone as frequently as the days allow. We’ve led somewhat parallel lives, and I’d be remiss not to do a proper interview with Pal Joe to share his story. 

Our new place sits across from an elementary school on a slightly busy road off the main drag in Mountain View. There’s orchestrated chaos twice a day when kids are dropped off and picked up in front of our house. One daily highlight is seeing middle school-aged storks and geese roll by: young teen girls storking on their bicycles, pulling on the bars and standing while pedaling instead of shifting out of the big ring (storking), with a gaggle of young teen boys rolling by a few minutes later, their prepubescent voices breaking in unison (like geese) excitedly about stuff in general.

Then there’s the cool kid.

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the day Apple co-founder and figurehead Steve Jobs passed away, age 56. Thirty years prior, he was photographed riding his 1966 BMW R 60/2 near the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, just a few miles south of our home in Mountain View. What he accomplished in those 30 years was nothing short of miraculous.

I ride my bicycle through Los Altos several times a week, passing the Alto Mesa Memorial Park where he’s buried, which recently reminded me of a chance ride I had with Jobs associate and friend John Doerr two months after Jobs died.

Last Saturday morning I was washing the side cases from my Moto Guzzi Quota 1100ES. After 9,000 glorious miles of ownership it was time to find a new rider and home for the Italian tractor. As the suds were getting sprayed down the driveway an older couple walked by, both them and their little dog unfamiliar to me as the day’s heat was slowly building.

“Good morning,” I said, hose in hand as I washed off my feet. Phil was meeting at our place in an hour or so for a ride to the coast to escape the forecasted 90-plus degree heat. It was our maiden voyage on the 2007 Triumph Tiger 1050 we purchased from George Smith in Martinez a few days prior, and Jean was excited to get back on a proper two-up sport touring bike after we sold our trusty BMW R 1150 RT several months ago.

“Hey, that’s a Moto Guzzi,” the gentleman said as he doubled back toward me. “Haven’t seen that model before. I’m more of a car guy, but the Guzzis always stand out to me.”