Press Release 08.31.2005
Charlie Martin Memorial
by Tom Houff
Charlie Martin of Danville, Va. passed away on Monday, August 22 while preparing for the Virginia State Time Trial Championships in Stoney Creek. He died of a heart attack after riding the course.
All cyclists would like to offer their sympathies to the Martin family.
Caption:
Danville Va.'s Charlie Martin's family stand around a memorial to him. The memorial enabled cyclists at the Virginia State Time Trial Championships to pay their respects to a man who loved the challenges of cycling. Martin passed away on Monday, August 22. He died of a heart attack after riding the Championship course. (photo by: Conte's / Cycor)
The following is from Mr. Martin’s friends at the Blackwater Bike Shop followed by an email address :
Subject: For those who knew Charlie Martin....
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 4:32 PM
Over the last three years I’m sure a lot of you have gotten the opportunity to meet and get to know Charlie Martin of Danville, VA. He has been a regular customer of the shop and someone who got into cycling late in life, but enthusiastically none the less. Some of you know him quite well and others may have met him at some Saturday morning group rides.
Charlie passed away on Monday morning, August 22nd after completing a pre-ride of the course for the State Time Trial road race. It came as a surprise to all that Charlie would ever have a heart attack with his level of fitness and excellent eating habits.
Charlie captured my attention about three years ago when, just shy of 70, he came into the shop and said he had always wanted to build a bike completely from the frame up. He said he had wanted to do this since he was a kid. I found a road frame laying around and began talking to Charlie about all the different levels of components and helped him pick a variety of parts that would be compatible.
Charlie has basic mechanical and engineering skills but turned
out to be quite good with a set a bicycle tools as well. It wasn’t long after picking up his parts that Charlie was bringing back the complete bike for me to check over. The bike was built nearly flawlessly – only off on a few torque settings. The most amazing part is he hand-built the wheels for the bike with little knowledge of proper wheel building techniques. As if that wasn’t
enough it was on a wheel truing stand that he had made from aluminum and various hardware. It was obvious that Charlie was one of those people who could do anything he set his mind to.
It wasn’t long before the addiction set is and Charlie bought and built up several other frames and really got into the sport of cycling. It was a weekly event to see Charlie on Friday stopping by the shop with fortune cookies from China Royal for the guys. He drove here from Danville in a van every week to have Chinese, talk about bikes, and visit his son. Charlie was a man who
always had a good joke and some helpful advice on life that he’d picked up along the way –and you could always count on 2-3 bikes being inside that van that would be ridden soon.
With Charlie’s character, it was no surprise that he would want to raise the bar and tackle a new challenge. He wanted to do a bicycle race and had made up his mind that he would do the State Time Trial scheduled for this weekend. For anyone who might be doing that race this weekend I hope that you will think of Charlie.
Charlie is someone that everyone here at the shop, myself especially, respected and looked up to. We will all miss him dearly and appreciate his last bit of advice that he gave that day pre-riding the course. Make sure you go doing something that you love.
Our prayers go out to his family and those who will remember him.
Davy Hazlegrove
Blackwater Bike Shopinfo@blackwaterbikeshop.com
