Bike Coop

I started my photo column Backstage on the Daily Lobo since Fall 2010 semester. It was an idea that has been in my mind for a really long time. I always want to go out and look for people's stories by myself and try to find something behind.

So far, I had a firefighter, a man in the Salvation Army Adult Rehab program, a Mexican boot maker, a barber, a veteran. This is my sixth column. It is about one of the oldest bike shop owners in Albuquerque, N.M

(Photo by Junfu Han)

Greg Overman, right, took over the Bike Coop on Central Avenue in 1998. He dropped out of New Mexico State University in 1972 because of financial problems. He was studying music at the time, and he worked in a bike shop in Las Cruces. He said he hadn’t planned on being a life-long bike mechanic.
　　
“But doing what you enjoy is quite a privilege,” Overman said. “Especially if that’s your job and you get to do what you enjoy.”

After moving to Albuquerque in 1973, he kept working on bikes in different shops around town. He said his mother taught him how to fix things.
　　
“When I was a little kid, I liked taking things apart and not always putting them together,” he said. “My mother made it clear to me that if I was gonna do that I have to learn how to put it back together, so it will work. And that’s how I started it.”
　　
“Life is short. All I have to do is enjoy as much as I can,” he said.

(My friend Chris Quintana helped me editing this essay. Thanks Chris!)