SOLON — Charlie Hiatt is “The Bike Guy” in Solon.
“I have been working on bicycles, wherever I’ve been, and trying to give away as many of them as I can in a manner where I know they’re safe,” he said. He’s an Iowa City native and 2002 City High graduate. “I always loved Solon, I always came out here, good people and good times.”
Solon has become something of a hub for bike trails, being located halfway between Cedar Rapids and West Branch on the Hoover Nature Trail (mostly utilizing the former right of way of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific RR), and for being the eastern end of the Mehaffey Bridge Road trail and the Lake Macbride Trail. Hiatt said while the trails are popular, it’s part of an emerging bicycle culture in Solon. “Times have changed with bicycles. Parents (used to) just give kids their bikes, and (send them off to) go play. Now, people are raising them, they’re riding with them, and they’re taking a more proactive approach to the bicycle culture. This town, to me, is not being understood as far as awareness of bicycles goes, and the impact the culture really does have on a child’s life. When I was a kid, there were no helmets. We were building ramps in the middle of the street, and now, the kids are getting in their gangs, they’re either wearing their helmets or they’re not, but if they’re with their parents, they’re wearing their helmets…which is a good thing. But for the kids around here, it’s just killing time until they get their driver’s license.”
For Hiatt, bicycles have been a way of life. “I’ve always had bikes. I’ve always had pieces of bikes that I found or was given, and I just always made the most out of them. If somebody else wanted to ride with me, I’d say no, the tires won’t hold. And then we’d pop the tires and be out of luck. No wheels. But it’s independence, it’s a responsibility that the kids don’t know, but they crave it whether they know it or not.”
That responsibility, he said, is something the kids, the parents, and event the community should be aware of. And it boils down to safety. “The only defense we have is the awareness, and the brightest clothes, and the strongest helmets. It’s about letting everybody know, out loud, that bikes are here, and don’t run me over, because I want to live too.”
Hiatt is an advocate for helmet use by riders of all ages. “The first time I ever thought about it, I was in a pediatrician’s office. There was a picture of a guy saying, ‘I don’t want to wear a nerdy bicycle helmet’ on one side, and a picture of a guy in a halo (metal clamps to keep a damaged spine in alignment with tongs attached to the skull), and it said, ‘much nerdier hospital helmet.’” A Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS) helmet is what he wears and recommends. “It’s meant to hit on any side, and it isn’t a standard on bicycle helmets (Hiatt has some horseback riding helmets manufactured to meet MIPS requirements), but it should be.”
Working on bikes, “keeps me out of trouble,” he said. “But I know there’s lots of kids, and their will be more who might need the same thing. Even adults. I’ve got a Harley-Davidson (motorcycle) technician who asked me if I can fix his bike. I’m like, come on! You work on Harley-Davidsons, and I wouldn’t even touch one of those, but he knows nothing about bikes. It’s just little things that I’ve learned. Bicycles are amazing and they’re never going away.”
For Hiatt, bikes will never go away. He grew up in an “upper-lower class” neighborhood in Iowa City, and his first bike didn’t have any tires, or training wheels. But, after overcoming those obstacles, “I learned how to ride, I loved it, it didn’t last long but I knew I had to work on it. I found a bike once that I put a ton of money into. I took it to the bike shops and spent like, $600 that I’d saved up. That’s like five times the worth of a Nintendo, just a crazy amount of money. And I rode the crap out of it, and then some college kid stole it. I remember that feeling, and I hated it.”
Misfortune followed him to Solon as well. “When I moved here, someone stole my bike again!”
A bike was donated to him by Scott Stork, “So I’ve pretty much had this one from the beginning. I had a friend who liked to cruise for deals (who would find tremendous bargains on bike parts at garage sales, etc.). So, for $20 I got like six or eight bicycles, two van loads just filled with stuff, and shelves, and paint, and tools.” Since then, people have asked him if he takes donations. “Sure! Why not? And then they just kept coming and coming. That’s why I work on bicycles, because we wanted to get around, we wanted to cruise, you know?”
From time to time Hiatt will sell a bike, “But not for very much though. I try to keep the prices down so that they just go. But the biggest problem for me is the safety. The smaller the bike is, the less sleep I’ll get worrying about, you know, is this bike gonna last? Is this bike gonna work for this child? Is everything gonna work perfect of this bike? When they’re younger, they (kids) just go through them (bikes) like shoes. They just tear ‘em up, and they drop ‘em. But there’s so many of them (bikes) and the newer they are, unfortunately the paint is nicer, but that’s about it. They’re made cheaper and cheaper, and it’s just the parts, it’s the parts that I watch for. Schwinn’s, I love them. From the 70s on they were tanks, but the prices have just gone way up.”
Donations, he said, keeps him going, and moves him ever closer to his dream, that being to have a full-time bike shop in Solon, rather than working out of a garage and a storage unit.
“It’s gonna be crazy bicycles around here. I never stop learning things about bikes. That’s why I work on them. I can hear the kids coming, ‘squeak squeak, eeeh eeeh, squeak squeak!’ And I’m like, oh, they’ll get by, it builds character. It’ll make them strong. But when it breaks, it can be bad. It can be something that leaves a scar, you know? Because I know I have a few.”
Previously Hiatt has worked as a mechanic and used to specialize in computer repair. He’s even spent time cooking at past Solon eateries including Reggie’s Weenies and Salt Fork Kitchen. But now his passion for bikes is his work (when he’s not working at Sam’s Main Street Market). “I don’t even tell people that I work on those things. I only enjoy working on bicycles, and the bicycles have gotten me from Point A to Point B, and back, over and over, and it’s been more reliable and safer for myself.”
Hiatt can be reached by phone at 319-471-5075.
“One thing that I would hope for the community that’s just getting into the wide world of bicycles, is wear your helmet no matter what. I say, ‘Helmet yes!’ because when you’re most comfortable, that’s when it happens.”
While Charlie Hiatt has a lot of fun with bicycles, safety is paramount, which means always wearing a helmet such as the Multi-directional Impact Protection System (MIPS) helmet he is wearing.