It all started when a Street Roots customer gave a bike to vendor Mike Lang.
Mike describes what happened: “She bought a paper and asked me how it was going. I said, ‘It’s not too bad. It’d be nice if I had transportation to get around.’ All of a sudden they took off. Ten minutes later, they came back and pulled this bike out of the car and said, ‘Here, how about this? It’s been sitting in the garage for the last five years, and we don’t ride it.’”
Shocked and pleased, Mike took the bike and was able to sell papers in locations distant from downtown Portland.
In the process of repairing the bike, Mike discovered Bike Farm and learned new skills. Bike Farm is a nonprofit that promotes green transportation and has volunteer mechanics that guide bike owners through their own repairs.
“I had to put a new crank in the bottom, buy new tires, and then the spokes broke,” Mike said. “One of the (Bike Farm) volunteers told me what to take apart. You do all the work yourself. So now I know how to fix things the next time that I need to change the bottom bearing or to help somebody else.”
Now Mike volunteers in exchange for using repair tools and a bike stand at the nonprofit.
“There’s always something to be done, always,” he said. “It could be sweeping the floor to rebuilding another bike to helping a customer.”
His repair skills also help the wider community.
“I ride with all the other bike riders, and once in a while I see somebody that needs help. If somebody’s got a flat tire or something, then I stop and help them out.”
Born and raised in Spokane, Wash., Mike grew up riding bikes.
“When I was a kid, we used to jump over trash cans,” he said. “I also taught my little sister how to ride a bike. I’d take the training wheels off and go beside her.”
When he was 19, Mike moved to eastern Montana and was an oil rig roustabout, installing pipelines and tanks. Later, he became a certified truck driver and drove across Canada and the United States, delivering lumber, animal feed and toys.
While driving the truck, Mike often had a bike with him.
“You can bungee cord it on the back of a truck, right behind the cab,” he said. “If you’re laid over two, three days, you can take the bike off and vroom, go for a ride.
“Me and another guy, we rode from Whitefish all the way down to Missoula – just for something to do. Took us two days, but it was fun.”
Mike arrived in Portland last December and sleeps in the rough, away from the downtown center.
“When I sleep somewhere, I get up the next morning and you’d never know I was there,” he said. “I don’t leave garbage lying around and I don’t homestead.”
He started selling Street Roots shortly after he arrived. His turf is at the post office and Starbucks near the corner of Southwest First Avenue and Southwest Madison Street. Mike starts selling papers at 6 a.m. and greets people going to work or jogging.
He especially likes introducing Street Roots to new customers.
“I had a gal that works down there, and she walked by me, probably 15 times. She said, ‘What is Street Roots?’ I explained to her what the paper was and she says, ‘Well I’m going to have to buy one just to see what it is.’ She came back and told me, ‘You know I love that paper. I love the meaning of it.’ She buys a paper every week now.
“If it wasn’t for the customers, there would be no Street Roots.”
With his Street Roots earnings, Mike bought a new mountain bike that fits his tall height and donated his old one to Bike Farm.
“I love all my customers’ loyal support,” he said. “I wouldn’t have that bike if it wasn’t for them. I wouldn’t have new clothes and clean clothes.”
In the future, he mused, he would like to go back to “Spokane and go work in a bike shop. Or even here, there are so many bike shops here. I’d be glad to take people on a bike tour.”
In the meantime, Mike is not one to sit still.
“Being a couch potato is just not my thing. I enjoy reading, but I just get more out of going out and actually experiencing things,” Mike said.
“I’m healthy, I’m blessed,” he said. “I love bikes. I’ll ride until they put me in the ground.”