This is sad news. BikePortland reports that Michael Wilberding, the founder of Cycle-Pak, died on Saturday from injuries he suffered when he was struck by a car in Beaverton on Aug. 1.
Those of you who attended this year's Seattle Bike Expo, organized by the Cascade Bicycle Club, in February might remember visiting Mike's exhibit, at right. He had designed a double-walled cardboard box that could be used for shipping bicycles. This was his first show, and he was proudly handing out business cards and talking about his invention.
I thought it was a neat idea, because I used to fly my bike around the country and was always struggling to find a discarded bike box that was big enough for the frame. These Cycle-Paks were affordable, reuseable, and looked just as durable as one of those expensive hard cases.
I took a picture of his display and posted it at Biking Bis. A few days later I received an email from him thanking me for the publicity.
Jonathan Maus at BikePortland says that Mike was riding his bike home from work at 6:22 p.m. Aug. 1 when an oncoming car struck him while making a left hand turn. The driver said the sun was in his eyes. Police cited the motorist for failure to yield to a bicycle.
Mike died in the hospital on Saturday. Mike was 58.
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