I was prowling the Vancouver Downtown Eastside early Sunday morning when I spotted a couple of shopping carts piled high with bike parts. As I was pulling out my camera to take a couple of shots a guy pulled up on a bike and said the parts were his. I told him I was heading over to the alley off Columbia to photograph graffiti and asked if I he minded if I took s few shots of the carts. I asked him his name and he said it was Mike and everyone called him Bike Mike. He fixed bikes for the locals and the reason he had all the parts in carts was he just got kicked out of his place and was moving to another place over by Prior and Hastings. He said he knew what I was thinking - the parts were stolen - but assured me they were legit and the police had actually checked him out a couple of weeks ago.
I took a few photos while he ate his porridge but now my real plan was to photograph Bike Mike. I asked if I could grab a few shots of him with his bike. He said it was a restoration for a customer and proudly explained how he rebuilt the brakes and derailleur while I took pictures.
I slipped Bike Mike five bucks and as I was about to leave a friend of his wandered over. They were soon deep in conversation so I snapped a few more photos and left.
