MILWAUKEE — Ever since he was a kid, Peter Hoeffel has been working on bicycles.
“I used to race BMX as a kid, and that’s when I learned bicycle mechanics, and then I’ve been an avid bicyclist cyclist ever since I was a kid," Hoeffel, who lives in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, said.
He tinkers on old bikes and brings them back to life. However, fixing bikes has taken on a new meaning after a sudden trip to the emergency room.
"(The nurse) she’s like you don’t have a hernia, but I just want to be blunt with you. We found that you have a tumor in your colon, and it looks like it’s already spread to your liver.”
Hoeffel went into the ER with abdominal pain and left with a life-changing diagnosis. He has stage four colon cancer. He had a simple response to his doctor.
“I guess I gotta beat cancer, and she was like exactly.”
Now, he's in chemotherapy. But he can't work. He focuses his energy on bikes.
“It literally grounds me. It’s like it’s meditative.”
He fixes up bikes and sells them for a small profit at what he calls bicycle bonanzas. They help pay the bills a bit since his short-term disability hasn't kicked in, but really it's something he uses to distract himself. It keeps his mind on bikes and off of cancer.
"And it allows me to like you know not think about cancer, not think about how I’m feeling. it just sort of lets me escape and grounds me," he said.
Friends donate old bikes to him, or he buys cheap ones on the Facebook marketplace. He may buy a bike for $20 and sell it for $50. He hosts his bicycle bonanzas every few weeks. His next one is Sunday, July 23. You can attend the bicycle bonanza or donate your old bikes by contacting him on Facebook or emailing him at peterhoeffel@gmail.com.
"You know, supply good running bikes to people in the neighborhood and people around the city that are interested in a bike," he said.
He’s helping people like his neighbor Ellen Warren re-discover biking.
“I’ve been wanting something like this and didn’t know how to find it really, so Peter provided that opportunity," Ellen Warren said.
She bought a bike from Hoeffel about two weeks ago. Riverwest is home to the Riverwest 24, a 24-hour bike ride through the neighborhood. So, it's only fitting he is contributing to the community's bike culture.
"And he’s supplying as many people as possible with bikes, and we are in the bike community here so," she said.
It's the little things that are keeping him occupied and helping people get more access to bikes. After all, beating stage four cancer is tough.
“I wasn’t doing well when I was in the hospital," he said.
Fixing bikes is easier. So he will keep his hands on these bikes to keep his mind off cancer. When he beats cancer, he's going to keep working on bikes and plans on hosting more bicycle bonanzas.
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