Ride in peace, Charlie Cunningham. Legendary framebuilder, inventor, and innovator Charlie Cunningham has passed. News spread through the vintage mountain bike community this morning, with Charlie Kelly posting to his Facebook. Cunningham was living in a care home after an accident on Fairfax-Bolinas Road in 2015 while riding a bike he’d just built for Jacquie Phelan.
Afterward, he was never the same, lacking a sense of direction, and he lost much of his vision, but he was walking and speaking normally. His passing this morning has shaken the Fairfax community. There’s a GoFundMe still active from that incident, with all funds going to Jacquie Phelan.
Charlie’s work has been immortalized here at The Radavist, where you can read about his innovations and contributions to the greater bike industry at large.
Ride in peace, you legend, you.
Photo credit, Wende Cragg, Charlie Kelly, John Watson