Cyclists can honor and remember There and Back Bicycles owner Steve Vihel by riding to his shop for breakfast on Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 7- 10 a.m.
Vihel, who prided himself on his lack of spandex, saw bicycles as a fun way to get around.
In that vein, he started the bike-to-work breakfasts as a way to encourage people to ride their bikes to work or school.
This breakfast however is about remembering Steve, who died on Dec. 1 after a battle with a heart defect.
People who are interested can organize mini bike rides to the shop.
I will lead a ride from Mountain Avenue and Limberlost Road near the Rillito River Path at 7:30 a.m. to the shop.
Feel free to join in along the way or host your own ride by leaving a comment on the official event page about what time you will be leaving to head to There and Back Bikes.
There will be bagels, pancakes, coffee and juice at the breakfast.
This will also be the last opportunity to purchase a raffle ticket for the bicycle raffle. Proceeds will help cover Steve’s funeral costs.
His family and friends say they are planning a larger memorial for Steve sometime in January, but want to take some time to grieve in private.
In the meantime, the shop’s employees are working hard to keep the shop open and stocked so stop in if you need something or some repair work done.
Lastly, I knew Steve was special to a lot of people, but I had no idea how many people he touched until I posted about his death on Friday.
Before that, the largest number of people who had come to my site on a single day was Jan. 9 — when people found the story about Gabrielle Giffords being a bicyclist.
On Friday that was surpassed when 3,300 people came to read about Steve. Since publishing the story, almost 4,900 people have clicked on it. It’s clear he made a big impact on a lot of people. I love reading people’s remembrances of him in the comments. It makes me both smile and cry.
Check out the official event page for the bike-to-work breakfast memorial here.
Mike, in your previous article about Steve, you mentioned the exploding fist bumps that the two of you did. Could you show us how they’re done? They sound so typical of Steve, and I think we should keep ’em going.
I’ll be there
Brodesky has a nice column coming out Thursday.