Funny story related to George Mount that I may have told here before. I was sent to work on an acquisition team where my company had purchased another company called GammaLink in CA. Being from NJ, I always take the opportunity to rent a bike to ride when I am out of town.
This has to be in the mid 90s somewhere. Well I went to visit the newly acquired company and through several conversations with some of its employees I hinted that I was looking for a good local bike shop to rent a bike to ride around. One guy, I believe the Shipping Manager, said that their Quality guy should be able to hook me up so he took me to meet him.
He introduced him to me something like this. Ray, meet George Mount. In all honesty, I did not know of him at that time. My first clue that he was someone seriously into biking was that he had an open web page of Velo News on his desktop. I said, so you like to read Velo News, his response was no, I write for them. Still ignorant of who he was we bagan talking bicycles.
When I asked him where I could find a LBS to rent a bike from he said that would not be necessary. He said he had plenty to select from as companies were always sending him bikes and bike stuff to review. I began to realize that he was somebody in cycling that I should know. We chatted a bit more and he asked that I come to visit him before the days end and we could go to his place to get a bike for my use.
Now at that time I was more an MTB person and wanted to do the Mt. Tam thing so that is what I was looking for. We went to his home and he accommodated me with a brand new, beautiful Richey MTB fully decked with top of the line components. Something a rental would never have provided me. I was reluctant to take it because I was afraid to damage it. He said that was not an issue as he gets more of these then he know what to do with. His view was not that of a collector, to him it was like a mechanic looks at a wrench. Simply another tool in his grasp. He asked what pedals I would like and I just asked for regular rat traps.
I then began to research who this was. I was surprised to find he was the first US citizen in the Olympics for cycling and that he had a respectible showing. I was blown away at learning this and how he handled the fact that I did not know of him at all. He never bragged or let on even when we discussed his gig with Velo News. He loand me the bike and I had a blast that week riding it up Mt Tam, at least partially, and then bombing down. I rode it all over the place and returned it. I made sure it was clean and in the same condition that I had received it in. I thanked him and invited him and his wife to dinner as gratitude for his loan.
One thing stood out in the entire episode that I will remember forever. When I returned the bike, all cleaned and shiney he took it and literally threw it ( I mean airborne ) into his pickup truck. I almost fell over, at that point in my life I could only dream of owning such a machine and he obviously saw it as I said before a tool.
Bottom line, he was very kind, generous and well mannered. We had discussions over the next few years but then lost contact. It was lucky that I was into MTB at the time because I am sure he would have not had many 60cm road bikes laying around his house.
Ray Homiski
Elizabeth, NJ USA