Posts tagged AIDS Ride
1995 California AIDS Ride
July 21, 2023 12:43pm
by
rob
The AIDS epidemic peaked in the mid-90s, and nowhere was this more evident than in San Francisco, where I was living at the time. I had done some volunteer work bringing meals to AIDS patients and had seen up close what the disease did to a person. By 1994 AIDS had become the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44. 1994 was also the first year of the California AIDS Ride. Roughly 500 riders participated in the ride, which raised more than $1.6 million to fund AIDS research.
They planned to go even bigger for 1995, with over 1,500 riders expected to participate in the 525 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The organizers put out a call to bike mechanics all over the city. On May 14, 1995 I rounded up some fellow bike mechanics from Start To Finish (where I was working at the time) and I took a truck down to the Moscone warehouse in the Marina with several Park stands.
It was a total mob scene. 1,800 cyclists flying in from all over the country, all their bikes shipped to this central location. A cyclist would find his or her bike box in the sea of boxes and then bring it to a mechanic, who would then build it while they watched. There was a pretty wide variety of bikes, but mostly road bikes and hybrids. Some weren’t in the best shape for a long ride, but we did our best to get them up and running quickly.
We built 15 to 20 bikes each. It felt great to be helping such a cool event, which went on to raise over $5 million that year.
I recently found this video online (title of the video on YouTube is wrong, it's definitely 1995 and not 1996). You can see me at the 1:35 mark in the black polo shirt and baseball cap (or anyway, I’m 90% certain that is me).
Tanqueray gin was the main sponsor, pic of an ad for the ride below.
They planned to go even bigger for 1995, with over 1,500 riders expected to participate in the 525 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The organizers put out a call to bike mechanics all over the city. On May 14, 1995 I rounded up some fellow bike mechanics from Start To Finish (where I was working at the time) and I took a truck down to the Moscone warehouse in the Marina with several Park stands.
It was a total mob scene. 1,800 cyclists flying in from all over the country, all their bikes shipped to this central location. A cyclist would find his or her bike box in the sea of boxes and then bring it to a mechanic, who would then build it while they watched. There was a pretty wide variety of bikes, but mostly road bikes and hybrids. Some weren’t in the best shape for a long ride, but we did our best to get them up and running quickly.
We built 15 to 20 bikes each. It felt great to be helping such a cool event, which went on to raise over $5 million that year.
I recently found this video online (title of the video on YouTube is wrong, it's definitely 1995 and not 1996). You can see me at the 1:35 mark in the black polo shirt and baseball cap (or anyway, I’m 90% certain that is me).
Tanqueray gin was the main sponsor, pic of an ad for the ride below.