You might not have thought there was anything good about the shutdown months of 2020, but with little to nothing to do recreationally for Crys Bunker there was a renewal of interest in biking. “I was looking for something to do because there was nothing going on anywhere,” the recently hired Provo Bicycle Collective mechanic tells me at the beginning of our interview.
I met Crys several months ago at BikeWalk Provo’s Year-End Meeting where he mentioned that he commutes to Provo from Spanish Fork four days a week, a distance of eleven miles, in all types of weather except for snow. He was volunteering at the Collective at that time and had a job on Cougar Boulevard, and up until last summer when he connected with the Collective to take part in their Social Rides, then began following BikeWalk Provo’s Facebook page, Crys was mostly using his car to get around. “Wanting to build up my strength, the longer I rode the better I felt, much happier!” Also saving on the cost of using his car, Crys increased his biking, even “challenging himself” to see how much he could do with his bike and do without a car.
It was at the age of fourteen that Crys became serious about biking, when he made a trip with the Boy Scouts to Moab and took along his GT Karakoram Elite… a bike that he had originally “pulled out of a dumpster.” Later he and his brother would occasionally ride their bikes from Pleasant Grove to high school classes in Springville.
But it was his connection with the Collective that really ramped up his passion for biking; “that led me to the volunteer program that led me to BikeWalk Provo and a job” in early January as a mechanic. “I’m genuinely interested in bike work,” he excitedly voiced without any prompting.
Crys is also required to handle other roles in his position at the Collective, he greets customers at the door, helps them sort out the problems that they’re having with their bike, and then directs them to the appropriate station or staff person that can solve their issues (90% of which for him are tune-ups). If it’s something that falls into his realm, he fills out a tag and takes the item to be worked on directly to his own station—a sectioned work area in the shop that was recently assigned to him.
Wanting to learn more about bikes and urban planning regarding active transportation, Crys peruses BikeWalk Provo’s Facebook page and other informational websites about biking. This helps him with his commutes as well, as the information posted is always pointing out better routes to take or routes and streets to avoid.
One such route that he’s happy with and uses often includes 750 West in Springville and Kuhni Road, a route of which he says, “90% of the time is enjoyable.” But “bad drivers” and “inconsiderate people” can annoy Crys, some drivers pass by much too closely and others won’t slow down when passing on a narrow road. He wishes drivers would think of that person riding a bike as if they were “a family member.”
When Crys is in Provo and has some free-time he likes to cruise the streets of the downtown district with his bike looking for unusual or artistic sights, one of these being “a garage door on Center Street” at 241 W. A couple of years ago he was using his car 70% of the time, now it’s only 30% and declining as he finds more innovative ways to haul groceries and cargo.
