Phil Wood - In Memory
03-19-10, 11:30 PM
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Phil Wood - Rest in Peace
Phil Wood has recently passed away, he will sorely be missed by all.
A2 Bikegeek - Phil Wood - Rest in Peace
A2 Bikegeek - Phil Wood - Rest in Peace
03-20-10, 12:11 PM
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Seriously?
The man was 84. He obviously led a pretty full life, had a huge impact on the cycling world. He passed like we all will.
Enjoy the ride
The man was 84. He obviously led a pretty full life, had a huge impact on the cycling world. He passed like we all will.
Enjoy the ride
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This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
03-20-10, 03:48 PM
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RIP phil
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Food for thought: if you aren't dead by 2050, you and your entire family will be within a few years from starvation. Now that is a cruel gift to leave for your offspring. ;)
https://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/arti...ger-photos.htm
Food for thought: if you aren't dead by 2050, you and your entire family will be within a few years from starvation. Now that is a cruel gift to leave for your offspring. ;)
https://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/arti...ger-photos.htm
03-25-10, 08:34 PM
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Phil Wood dead
This was posted over at the FOO, thought you guys would be interested in knowing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_1...nclick_check=1
Linkeys not working, so I copied and pasted:
Phil Wood, bicycle legend, dies at 86
By Joe Rodriguez
jrodriguez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 03/23/2010 05:07:05 PM PDT
Updated: 03/23/2010 10:21:47 PM PDT
When mechanical engineer Phil Wood took up bicycle racing at San Jose's velodrome, he became frustrated by wheels that quickly became wobbly. He had to clean and repack the ball bearings with grease after every race.
"He thought that was crazy," said his daughter, Donna Williams, of Roseville. "He asked, 'Why doesn't somebody invent a wheel hub that doesn't need maintenance?' "
That somebody turned out to be Wood, and the company he founded on April Fools' Day in 1971 still churns out the sealed hubs that revolutionized the bicycle industry by ushering in an era of high-performance, low-maintenance equipment.
Wood died earlier this month of pancreatic cancer in Roseville. He was 86.
According to Peter Enright, who bought Phil Wood & Co., in 1991, bicycle hubs and brackets had not changed much in over a century. They were basically ball bearings placed in a cup and held in line by a pressed-in cone, which loosened easily. Wood invented a grooved hub in which ball bearings could be held in precisely by a screw-on cap. Except for the cheapest bikes, most bicycles today come with sealed hubs and bottom brackets that keep in lubricants and keep out water and grime.
However, Wood did not patent his invention and never got rich.
"My dad was an inventor," Williams said, "but he was not a businessman. He didn't care about those things. He just wanted to improve his inventions even more."
Phil Wood was born in Knightstown,
Ind., on July 9, 1926.
After graduating from high school, where he excelled in mathematics, he was drafted into the Navy during World War II and served as a radio operator. Wood returned to Indiana after the war, where he married his first wife, Eve Steelink, and took up motorcycle racing. He even built his own dirt bike.
The couple then moved to Southern California, where Wood enrolled at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, and promptly dropped out.
"That's because he felt he could do better on his own than how they were training him," Williams said.
Wood and his young family migrated north to San Jose, where he found a job in mechanical engineering with FMC. He helped the company design and refine the process of freeze-drying foods, a feat that changed how and what Americans eat.
He stayed at FMC for about a decade. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1959. He settled in Monte Sereno with the former Lavada Sowers, with whom he raised eight children.
After refining the sealed hub, Wood invented a machine that turned out stronger spokes for wheels and started producing bike pedals and other components. After selling the company, he and Lavada retired to Baxter, Iowa.
Still intellectually restless, he wrote a textbook on differential calculus and a book on the theory of Turks head knot, a continuously braided knot without end. He tutored local students for years, earning an outstanding achievement award from the local school board. After Lavada died in December, Williams moved her father to Roseville.
Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767.
Phil wood
Born: Knightstown, Ind., July 9, 1926
Died: March 14, Roseville, Calif.
Survived by: Brother Reuel Wood of Florida, seven children, 19 grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild
Services: April 17, Calvary Baptist Church, Los Gatos. Time to be determined.
Memorial: In lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Phil and Lavada Wood may be made to Hospice of Jasper County, 204 N. 4th Avenue East, Newton, IA 50208.
https://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_1...nclick_check=1
Linkeys not working, so I copied and pasted:
Phil Wood, bicycle legend, dies at 86
By Joe Rodriguez
jrodriguez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 03/23/2010 05:07:05 PM PDT
Updated: 03/23/2010 10:21:47 PM PDT
When mechanical engineer Phil Wood took up bicycle racing at San Jose's velodrome, he became frustrated by wheels that quickly became wobbly. He had to clean and repack the ball bearings with grease after every race.
"He thought that was crazy," said his daughter, Donna Williams, of Roseville. "He asked, 'Why doesn't somebody invent a wheel hub that doesn't need maintenance?' "
That somebody turned out to be Wood, and the company he founded on April Fools' Day in 1971 still churns out the sealed hubs that revolutionized the bicycle industry by ushering in an era of high-performance, low-maintenance equipment.
Wood died earlier this month of pancreatic cancer in Roseville. He was 86.
According to Peter Enright, who bought Phil Wood & Co., in 1991, bicycle hubs and brackets had not changed much in over a century. They were basically ball bearings placed in a cup and held in line by a pressed-in cone, which loosened easily. Wood invented a grooved hub in which ball bearings could be held in precisely by a screw-on cap. Except for the cheapest bikes, most bicycles today come with sealed hubs and bottom brackets that keep in lubricants and keep out water and grime.
However, Wood did not patent his invention and never got rich.
"My dad was an inventor," Williams said, "but he was not a businessman. He didn't care about those things. He just wanted to improve his inventions even more."
Phil Wood was born in Knightstown,
Ind., on July 9, 1926.
After graduating from high school, where he excelled in mathematics, he was drafted into the Navy during World War II and served as a radio operator. Wood returned to Indiana after the war, where he married his first wife, Eve Steelink, and took up motorcycle racing. He even built his own dirt bike.
The couple then moved to Southern California, where Wood enrolled at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, and promptly dropped out.
"That's because he felt he could do better on his own than how they were training him," Williams said.
Wood and his young family migrated north to San Jose, where he found a job in mechanical engineering with FMC. He helped the company design and refine the process of freeze-drying foods, a feat that changed how and what Americans eat.
He stayed at FMC for about a decade. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1959. He settled in Monte Sereno with the former Lavada Sowers, with whom he raised eight children.
After refining the sealed hub, Wood invented a machine that turned out stronger spokes for wheels and started producing bike pedals and other components. After selling the company, he and Lavada retired to Baxter, Iowa.
Still intellectually restless, he wrote a textbook on differential calculus and a book on the theory of Turks head knot, a continuously braided knot without end. He tutored local students for years, earning an outstanding achievement award from the local school board. After Lavada died in December, Williams moved her father to Roseville.
Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767.
Phil wood
Born: Knightstown, Ind., July 9, 1926
Died: March 14, Roseville, Calif.
Survived by: Brother Reuel Wood of Florida, seven children, 19 grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild
Services: April 17, Calvary Baptist Church, Los Gatos. Time to be determined.
Memorial: In lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Phil and Lavada Wood may be made to Hospice of Jasper County, 204 N. 4th Avenue East, Newton, IA 50208.
__________________
You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
Last edited by ilikebikes; 03-25-10 at 09:01 PM.
03-25-10, 09:38 PM
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EDIT: I'm relaxed. =0)
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You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
Last edited by ilikebikes; 03-26-10 at 12:33 AM.
03-25-10, 09:56 PM
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RIP Phil Wood...thanks for your work.
03-26-10, 12:31 AM
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Ahhhhh I posted the wrong date. =0( relax!? beleive me I try! ;0)
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You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
You see, their morals, their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these...These "civilized" people...they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve
03-26-10, 08:35 AM
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03-26-10, 08:56 AM
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This was posted over at the FOO, thought you guys would be interested in knowing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_1...nclick_check=1
Linkeys not working, so I copied and pasted:
Phil Wood, bicycle legend, dies at 86
..
Phil wood
Born: Knightstown, Ind., July 9, 1926
Died: March 14, Roseville, Calif.
Survived by: Brother Reuel Wood of Florida, seven children, 19 grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild
Services: April 17, Calvary Baptist Church, Los Gatos. Time to be determined.
Memorial: In lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Phil and Lavada Wood may be made to Hospice of Jasper County, 204 N. 4th Avenue East, Newton, IA 50208.
https://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_1...nclick_check=1
Linkeys not working, so I copied and pasted:
Phil Wood, bicycle legend, dies at 86
..
Phil wood
Born: Knightstown, Ind., July 9, 1926
Died: March 14, Roseville, Calif.
Survived by: Brother Reuel Wood of Florida, seven children, 19 grandchildren, 11 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild
Services: April 17, Calvary Baptist Church, Los Gatos. Time to be determined.
Memorial: In lieu of flowers, donations in the name of Phil and Lavada Wood may be made to Hospice of Jasper County, 204 N. 4th Avenue East, Newton, IA 50208.
Anyhow, the man is a legend, and the bikeparts he made have true quality, not just buzzwords.
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