RyanRPalmer

Oh man, I wrote a story on the Aheadset once. The guy who invented it is a real estate dude who raced bikes for fun back in the late 80's and early 90's. His only involvement in the bike industry, to this day, is this one thing that has wound up being one of the longest lasting technologies on mountain bikes. The key components of that system are still incorporated in basically every headset in the world that's threadless.

So incredibly sad. Franco was such an amazing person. It was nearly 10 years ago to the day when I first went to the EXT factory to meet him and see some of the early mountain bike suspension they were working on. The way he understood and explained suspension was unlike anything l've seen. It just felt like he had a deeper grasp of the concepts, and his accomplishments in motorsport suspension were proof of that. But more than that, was that Franco was such a gracious host on that trip. I don't think I've felt more welcome by anyone before or since. It was as if I were a good friend or relative visiting, not some media hack he'd just met. That really left an impression on me, and from then on, I was lucky to consider Franco a friend. We used to catch up on the phone often to talk shop. He was one of my favorite people to talk to. Life got crazy, though, and we hadn't chatted in a while. Just last week I put an old EXT fork on my bike, thought of Franco and told myself, "I miss those talks, I should give him a ring this weekend." Wish I did that more over the past couple years. So saddened to read this news. I'll miss you Franco. You were truly special, and we were all lucky to know you.

See you on the other side, old pal.