Salt Of The Earth: Chapter 6

Sergey, the bike guy

I did a post last week about the guy who fixes bikes in town, named Sergey. His role differs from my drinking buddy Vasily because Sergey sells and fixes old bikes. If you need to buy a new bike, parts, tools, or in my case, innertubes, you go to Vasily. If, say, your tube gets a thorn in it and you don't know how to use the patch kit Vasily sells you, then you take it to Sergey and he will patch it for you...all the while admonishing you for not feeling inside the tire for broken thorns. I think he just likes to goof on me because of the things that are considered common knowledge to bikers in general and specifically to bike riders in Razdol'noye tend to elude me. I tried to explain that when my tire was punctured I found the thorn and replaced the tube. I hadn't realized that the thorn had broken off and promptly punctured the new tube with a small pierce. It took a few days before I came out in the morning and it was completely flat. Damn! I looked at the tire and found another thorn. I took the tube to Sergey who patched it for me. Only when I went to pick it up he showed me that he had fixed two holes and that since the holes were in the same spot on the tube, I was obviously not checking the inside of the tire with my hand. I had equated finding and removing the thorn with feeling inside the tire. Why should I check if I had already found the culprit? Well now I know. I think Sergey takes a certain amount of glee in both teaching me something I should know, but also showing me the error of my ways...and not necessarily in that order.
My friend Oleg took me to meet Sergey when I first mentioned that I wanted to buy a used bike. Sergey speaks no English and the terminology needed to discuss bikes was something that Oleg could help me with. To this day I understand very little of what Sergey says. He refuses to slow down and use easy words for me which usually just frustrates him when I stand there with a blank stare trying to think of the words to rephrase his question to make sure I got what he said. The way it usually works is someone (anyone) says, in Russian, "the velocity of that vehicle is at quite an accellerated level" then I think for a moment and respond with "that car goes fast?" and they smile and say "yes" then I can give an appropriate answer. With Sergey our conversations are more like:
Sergey: "Sim, thevelocityonthatvehicleisatquiteanaccelleratedlevel".
Sim: "something about car and speed?"
Sergey (voice raised): "NO, thevelocityonthatvehicleisatquiteanaccelleratedlevel"
Sim: "don't raise your voice to me. Can you just fix my tubes?"
Sergey (snatching tubes): "give them here!"
Sim: "thank you, I will pick them up tomorrow"
Sim (wallking away): "what could the speed of the car have to do with fixing my tubes? My Russian sucks."
Nonetheless, as with many people around here Sergey understands what I am asking for between my Russian and charades. It's not my asking, it's his answering. I always get what I want and sometimes, out of frustration he will (literally) take me by the hand and show me something knowing that I usually understand better if I see it. He is actually the one that introduced me to Vasily as the place to by the parts that I wanted him to install or fix on my bike. He has treated me more than fair on the prices and he has always come through when he said he would. Additionally, the first day I met him he gave me his phone number and told me that if had a problem with the bike on his day off, to call and he would help me out. It is that kind of customer service commitment that allows me to rank Sergey among the people that make my Ukrainian experience that much better.
He can be a little gruff with me sometimes, but when I asked him if I could take his photo today he didn't ask "why", like a little boy he jumped out of his seat, stood by his bike, and told me that the light would be better if I stood to the side. I took the shot and as I thanked him and was putting the camera in my bag he raised his voice to me and said "Sim, Iwouldliketoexaminetheimageyouhavejustpermanentlycommitedonyouraparatus". I looked up and said "you want me to show you the photo?" As he said "yes", his voice got softer and he added "please". That, I understood too.

Post Script: I sold my bike today! The weather is starting to turn a little colder and I didn't think I would be riding it much longer this season. My friend Anne came to visit today and was telling me how she was having an impossible time finding a used bike in her town and that a recent move left her with a 30 minute walk to work on a dirt road. She had come in a private van with room to take it back home with her. I wished her well with it. I thought to myself, I can still stop in and say hello to Sergey when I am in the market. I would like that.