"For the first couple hours, all I could think was 'I'm ruined. I'm ruined.' They just totally cleaned me out," said Tom Daly as he stood in his Southeast Portland bike shop.
What was supposed to be the culmination of a dream, instead turned into a nightmare. As Daly arrived at Well Tuned, Fast Bikes Saturday morning, he found he'd been robbed.
"These were my flat wrenches for adjusting bearings. These were my headset wrenches," said Daly as he pointed to an empty peg-board.
Daly was set to open WTF Bikes on Wednesday. His inventory was stocked, years of planning and saving was about to pay off, and then it was all ripped away.
"I realized just yesterday they also stole two fishing tackle boxes full of nuts, bolts, small headset parts, cable parts, and spoke parts. I'll be discovering things missing from my used parts for some time. It's like reverse Christmas," he said.
Daly figured he was done before he even started. But as word of the break-in spread, the Portland bike community did what it does so often. Like a peloton waiting for a downed rider, they helped bring Tom back into the field.
"People in this town talk about community and they talk about sustainability. The community helped me sustain," Daly said.
Within minutes of Daly's story appearing on BikePortland.Org, donated tools and parts were arriving. Money was flowing into his PayPal account and in a matter of hours, he was back in business.
"I got a bunch of components, so major major props to North Freak," Daly said.
WTF Bikes will now open as planned. From a dream shattered to a dream come true.
