According to Garland police, the man suspected of killing Kincheloe, Wesley Don Johle, 58, the namesake of the shop where Kincheloe worked, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when officers arrived to arrest him. The details surrounding the murder are still being investigated, but one thing that isn’t a mystery is the impact Kincheloe had on those around him in the mountain biking community.
The parents of two young boys, Kincheloe and his wife, Daisy McKee, had been together for about six years. Kincheloe had been into bikes since he was big enough to get on one, and before suffering a hernia recently, he regularly rode his BMX bike to and from his shifts at the bike shop, about nine miles each way, McKee said.
“He [Kincheloe] never even bothered learning to drive,” she said. “He was perfectly content never getting behind the wheel so long as he could still sit upright on a bike and pedal.”
Kincheloe was an advocate for not only the health benefits that bicycling can bring, but for the financial benefits too. He was all too happy to save money on gas and car payments. His joy for biking was most apparent to his wife when it came to how he incorporated bicycles into the family’s routine.
“We loved to ride with the kids in the pull-behind trailer,” she said. “We even used it to take the older boy to and from school on James' day off. The most special to me was the effort he put into making it an activity I can safely enjoy. He put a lot of thought and effort into making sure I could ride with him when I wanted to.”“He [Kincheloe] never even bothered learning to drive. He was perfectly content never getting behind the wheel so long as he could still sit upright on a bike and pedal.” – Daisy McKee, wife.
tweet this
Outside of his home, Kincheloe’s zeal and creativity attracted many mountain bikers, both old and new. Local musician Josh Clark said that Kincheloe could tell he was a new customer, unfamiliar with mountain biking. Clark wasn’t quite sure he was ready to spend the time and money he figured it would require to take mountain biking up as a hobby, but Kincheloe’s openness and patience made all the difference.
“He had a childlike fascination with all things biking that most people lose as they become boring adults,” Clark said. “It was so infectious.”
Clark added: “James is literally the only reason I have a mountain bike or got into it at all.”
Local mountain bike racer Cliff LeGrande got to know Kincheloe over the past couple of years as a customer. Every trip LeGrande made into the shop, he said, resulted in at least an hour-long conversation about mountain bikes with Kincheloe. Recently the two men had finally welcomed the arrival of the new bikes they had ordered some time ago. As they waited for the supply chain to slowly produce their new purchases, they spent hours discussing the customizations and upgrades they would make to their bikes.
The new bikes arrived as Kincheloe was waiting to have his hernia surgically repaired, so testing out the new rides together on a local trail had to wait. LeGrande figured they had plenty of time to make it happen down the road.
LeGrand said that he and Kincheloe talked a lot about their kids and getting them into riding bikes. Kincheloe also loved gaming. When Kincheloe was putting LeGrand’s new bike together at the shop not too long ago, he would send funny memes and videos he made to LeGrande documenting the progress.
A video of a bike being built set to the theme music from the videogame Halo sums up the kind of energy and excitement Kincheloe brought to his family and friends in the biking community.
“He was a very passionate guy that loved to share his passions,” LeGrand said. “He wanted you to feel the same excitement and energy for something that he did, and he was good at making it happen.”
