ASHLAND, WI – A great big thank you on Saturday morning to Nick Pechacek and Eric Schultz, expert bike mechanics. Nick works at Bay City Cycles here in Ashland. Eric works just up the road 10 miles north at Washburn Hardware in Bayfield, which also is a Specialized bike dealer.
I encountered these patient men of the Upper Midwest following one of the stupidest oversights of my life on Thursday. Following a short stop at our hotel here we headed north to ride around Washburn. I put the bike on the rack but, for reasons unknown, forgot to tie it to the rack. A few miles up the highway, and at turnpike speed, the untethered bike flew off the rack and landed on the highway. I didn’t see it happen but realized a few seconds afterward that something was amiss. I braked to a full stop on the shoulder, ran back to the rear, saw the bike wasn’t there. Damn!
We retraced our route and found the bike splayed in the northbound lane looking injured and miserable. I know it’s inanimate. No feeling. No intelligence. Still, with its front wheel torqued in a twisted, beseeching mess and the rear wheel lying flat and scarred on the pavement, the bike looked like an injured animal. The bike I’d ridden for 10 years, probably 12,000 miles. The bike that had been great for my physical condition and calm soul for a decade. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.
More importantly, Gabrielle and I are on a hybrid Lake Superior camping and hotel trip that includes riding our bicycles. I gathered up the frame and immediately knew the bike was in real trouble. The front wheel was twisted. The rear derailer was misaligned. It was unrideable.
We headed into town, walked into Bay City Cycles where Nick met me with a wonderful assuring smile. I told him the sad tale and handed him the front wheel. He couldn’t have been more sympathetic, or more capable. He put the frame on his rack, noted that the hanger on the derailer was bent, and spent several minutes adjusting tension and positioning. He declared that replacing the hanger, a small piece that ties the derailer to the frame, would be a good idea. Otherwise he’d made the adjustments that would allow smooth operation of the gears. Tremendous.
Nick also went to work on the front rim, trying to bend it into some rideable condition. That wasn’t possible. The rim was shot. He got on the phone to find a replacement and suggested I visit the hardware store in Washburn. When I asked him to mark up a bill for his service Nick refused. Not necessary, he said, this is what we do. Hopelessly Midwestern, I replied. He laughed and then carried the frame out to the car. Thank you, Nick.
In Washburn I encountered Eric where he works at the back of the hardware store. He’s a guy who spent his early years in Key West, he told me, and worked his way to Washburn Hardware, where he’s been for three years. I told him the story of the mishap. He was aware of the important particulars because of his conversation with Nick.
Eric said he might have a replacement front wheel rim that could fit a Specialized frame. He departed for a moment to check the parts storage area in the building’s basement. He returned with a brand new 28 mm rim, slightly wider than the original rim, but seemingly capable of fitting the bike. It would need a new tube and tire.
Great. We agreed he’d work on the bike first thing the next morning and would call when he finished. I picked up the bike on Friday morning. Eric also suggested replacing the bent hanger and replacing cables. He’d put on a Specialized tired, adjusted the gearing, and assured me that the bike was ready to ride. Cost of repair? A fair and well earned $106. Thank you Eric.
On Friday I rode Madeline Island, a short ferry crossing from Bayfield, a largely flat and heavily forested landscape with one little settlement, La Pointe, where the ferry docks, and 45 miles of paved and unpaved roads. The day I visited the wind was up and getting stronger by the hour so I decided not to ride the full length of the island. Instead I rode the western reaches where the forest shielded narrower roads and the wind was tamed a bit.
Madeline, settled centuries ago by the Ojibwe Tribe and named for a young Native American wife of a white fur trader, is the largest of the 22 Apostle Islands, but not included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, established in 1970. Somewhere near 400 people make their full-time residence on Madeline, about twice as many as there were at the turn of the century. More retirees and some younger people seeking life in a place of neighborliness and off-season seclusion.
On Sunday we toured the shoreline region of the National Lakeshore, then on to the Minnesota shoreline where we camped at Lax Lake, near an 18-mile paved pathway along the big lake. Bike riding in store.
— Keith Schneider
