Tomak preparing to cast the bke mechanic runes

Photographer: Tim Malloch
From: Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) to Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada)

Tomak preparing to cast the bke mechanic runes

Alain was very proud of his Swiss made rear wheel Huge hub that he picked up in Nicaragua. As he freewheeled past you it would make a lovely little uniform chattering sound that seemed to encapsulate the concept of precision engineering. Well it did until 50km before the end of the Stewart Cassiar highway. Then it started to make a different sound and stopped working completely. Nothing we could do about this in the middle of nowhere. So Alain sticks out his hand. The very first truck gives him a lift to the junction. (far far easier than hailing a cab in London). At the junction we spy Tomak with two mountain bikes on top of his car. We ask if we can buy one of his back wheels. He replies that we can but his wheels cost 1500 dollars. This line of enquiry quickly peters out. It turns out however that Tomak is a bike mechanic and he takes a look at Alain's rear wheel. In the rain and with only a few tools he converts Alain's broken freewheel into a functioning fixed wheel using a ring off my keyring to replace a spring. Very impressive stuff. This solution worked for the next 4 days and 500 kilometers. Thank you very very much indeed Tomak.