Best bike mechanic: Hank Glowiak

Just like you wouldn’t trust a skinny cook, you wouldn’t trust a guy to fix your bike who doesn’t ride one. Hank Glowiak, owner and head mechanic at Chuck’s Bikes in Morrisville, doesn’t just ride bikes. Practically the only time you’ll see him sitting down, is on a saddle with his feet in the pedals.

Glowiak has an intimate knowledge of every bolt, cable, tube, sprocket, spoke and allen-screw on a bike because he has to. Riding as hard as he does, a repair in the woods or the side of the road isn’t a question of if, but of how many times this season. And that knowledge comes in handy in the shop, where he has all his tools, soft shop towels, and plenty of bikes that await his attention.

Chuck’s Bikes can be a busy place on the weekend, with Glowiak and his crew fixing up dozens of bikes while customers wait. But with a gruff voice and round, bespectacled face on a set of biker’s legs that one of his employees said have calves growing out of his calves, Glowiak has been known to put aside a paying customer’s bike to make a free quick adjustment for a kid who just wants to get back out and ride.