June 8/12 10:35 am - Sad News

Posted by Editor on 06/8/12
 

Rob Naish has just passed on the sad news that Henri Joachim, founding member of the Cobourg Cycling Club, former Commissaire and custom bike builder, passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 81.

Rob says "Henri was a long standing president of the Club and helped out at Club events right up to the very end.  Above all Henri was a true gentleman and ambassador for our sport who was always eager to help anyone increase their involvement in the sport of cycling.  He will be missed by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him."

Information on the funeral and vistation cane be found at: www.maccoubrey.com/notice/2996

I have many personal memories of Henri and his late wife Pam.  When Tracy (the Editoress) and I were first dating some 30-plus years ago, and I was introducing her to cycling, we lived in Peterborough, Ontario.  Our first major ride was Henri's Rice Lake Tour from Cobourg north to Rice Lake, along the southern shore and back down to Cobourg.  I had known Henri already from the racing scene, but he and Pam both encouraged Tracy and welcomed her to the local cycling community.  That ride became one of our favourites for many years.

Henri was a true cycling enthusiast of the old British school.  He (and Pam) ran time trials, officiated, ran tours (including the Cobourg-Kingston-Cobourg 200 miler) and built bikes.  While he would build any bike, his real interest was tandems and trikes - the sort of custom road trikes that you rarely see anymore.  Most years after the Rice Lake tour we would end up back at Henri's place to see and try out his latest designs.

After we moved away from the area and our lives got busier, we would only see Henri occasionally - at the Rice Lake ride if we could make it, or sometimes at the Toronto Bike Show or an OCA AGM.  When we started Canadian Cyclist (in print, pre-Internet), he was one of our first subscribers.  After Pam passed away, Henri withdrew further from the Ontario scene and, sadly, we lost touch.  However, I will always remember a man who had vast enthusiasm for our sport and was one of those rare individuals who actually did the work so that the rest of us could ride our bikes.