Seattle’s cycling community took to social media this week to mourn the death of cyclist S.J. Brooks, who died from a cougar attack near North Bend on Saturday.
Brooks, who used the pronoun “they,” was at the time riding with Izzy Sederbaum, who also suffered injuries but survived.
Brooks was the co-founder of the Seattle chapter of the Friends on Bikes organization, which is dedicated to “fostering a community for women of color who love riding bikes.” According to the Friends on Bikes website, Brooks had been riding bikes since childhood, “crushing down the Shunga Trail” in Kansas.
It seems that was when Brooks caught the bug, a passion they brought to everything from bike commuting in Montreal to serving on the board of directors of Boston’s Bikes Not Bombs organization.
Brooks was also involved in efforts to make the biking community a more welcoming and safe place for women, trans and nonbinary cyclists of...