Photo by Steve Dykes
Mobile bike repairman Larry Cotton repairs a wheel in the EMU courtyard
Rolling bike repairman
provides mobile service
By DAWN GARCIA
Of the Emerald
Hitchhikers and hobos carry their lives on
their backs. Eugene s “bikeman” Larry Cotton
drags his behind his bicycle.
Cotton is a common sight along Eugene’s
bike paths. He provides the only while-you-wait
bike-tune-up service in the area from his cart
full of tools.
Cotton’s livelihood, his leisure life and his
friendships are built around bicycles, and he
wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Bike life has a lot to offer,’’ says the
29-year-old bike mechanic. “I’d like to see life
revolving around bicycles the way it revolves
around cars now.’’
That idea isn’t so far-fetched in Eugene,
where bike traffic past one of Cotton's tune-up
stands on the footbridge bike path has been
documented at 1,000 or more bikes a day.
The number of bicyclists and bike paths in
Eugene caught Cotton’s eye on a cross
country trip he made in 1975 from his home
state of New York. Upon returning home to his
bike shop, Cotton says he realized Eugene had
more potential for a bike business.
Cotton set up his outdoor shop in March of
1979 and has been here ever since.
“I’d fallen in love with this area," Cotton
says. “I was really impressed by the amount of
bike usage in Eugene.’’
Although he began working at an indoor
shop, Cotton says he didn’t enjoy the tense
atmosphere inherent in many mechanic-cus
tomer relationships at ser vice centers. People
tend to maintain a "car mentality" that way and
are likely to feel ripped-off afterward, he says.
"Out on the path, it’s not that way at all. Lots
of people are surprised and say to me, 'You
mean I can have it (a repair) right now?’ ”
At one of his locations — the EMU courtyard
— Cotton could be mistaken for a student
passing out leaflets or an artisan selling wares.
A closer look reveals his bright yellow cart
proclaiming “Cycle-Bi Tune-Ups.” Rows of
neatly displayed tools line one side of the cart.
Cotton waits patiently, hands in his pockets,
for passersby to bring him their ailing two
wheeled companions.
Looking like film star Gene Wilder with his
soft blonde curls, honest face and animated
blue eyes, Cotton’s success seems to originate
from his charm as much as from his mechan
ical ability.
"I’ve had people come up to me and hand
me $5 and say 'Here, I want you to have this,’ ’’
Cotton says. "And they didn’t even have a
bike.”
Money usually doesn’t come that easily,
though. And the chilly, wet weather Eugene is
famous for doesn’t help business much, Cot
ton says.
"It’s hard when times are bad, and this
winter things were really bad. Sometimes I
work in the rain all day and I don’t eat too well,
but most of the time I do O K.”
With warmer weather on the way, Cotton
expects business to pick up. This summer he
also hopes to lead bike tours to supplement his
income.
"The best kinds of tours are the real long
ones,” Cotton says. "Once you start touring,
you don’t want to stop.”
His other future plans include building bike
accessories, such as an all-weather cabin that
fits over a bike and a light system that runs off a
solar battery.
Most of all, Cotton would like to see the world
become more bike-oriented. A bike life would
include food outlets that cater to bikers, bus
service that carries bikes, bike rentals all over
the city, and an even more extensive bike-path
system.
"It’s not just a nice way to travel,” Cotton
says. '.‘It’s a beautiful way to live.”
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