An absolute, total, fucking waste. I didn’t know Charlie Prinsep all that well, not even enough to know his last name, but Charlie, first known to me as the larger-than-life Shiznaz on the BFSSFG. I knew him peripherally, through mutual friends, sort of in the same sphere but never cementing anything I’d call a friendship, just the occasional exchanage of small talk and a smile. He regaled the Toronto Fixed thread with recaps of his encounters with cabbies. I remembered his butt-ugly commuter, the camo shorts, a fixture at every Critical Mass. And this, a full-face helmet rescued from the garbage heap and transformed into his Halloween costume last year:
The vision…
The realization.
Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. If his online personality was any indication, and from the few conversations I’d had with him, he was probably the brightest guy on the whole forum, with a sense of humour that bordered on offensive or outrageous – but it always made you laugh. He hauled ass on his bike with the best of them, and was well known for his collection of various funny bikes (of the pursuit and fixed BMX varieties?!). This summer, he decided to go on a solo bike tour of epic proportions, which he named The Double Cross.
He was on his way home to Toronto, after passing safely up and down the West Coast and through Western Canada. He died on the Trans-Canada highway halfway between Calgary and Medicine Hat, Alberta, struck from behind by a drunk driver. May your days in heaven be rubber side down, traffic-free, always with the wind at your back. You will be missed.
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