2B - April 2, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
It takes two to tandem: The tale of Taylor Lewan's twosie
JI t took more than five decades
of living, but Joel Hakken-
who had navigated his way
from wildly successful business
owner to comfortably retired to
sports photog-
rapher, while-
in and out of
love, and back
in love again
- decided his
friend had ;
been right: "If
you tandem
before you get TIM
married, then ROHAN
you know-
what the mar-
riage is going to be like."
Life and tandem biking aren't
so different, after all.
Life led Hakken to a small,
two-stall shop in a plaza off Plym-
outh Road near North Campus,
where Hakken sells and repairs
bicycles, primarily tandem bikes.
The man, who grew up down the
street from Bo Schembechler in
Ann Arbor, hasa tired, weath-
ered face and hands that look
as thoughthey're familiar with
handy work.
Not every customer knows
what they're looking for when
they find him. Some do; others
stumble upon Hakken's passion,
Midwest Bike & Tandem, and walk
out having enjoyed a healthy con-
versation and traded new ideas.
Not of bikes, but of life, Hakken's
hometown, its people and its
school.
"Half the time, I don't know
what he's talking about," said
Hakken's son, Dylan, who had
been busy fixing a deep-blue-col-
ored tandem bike, and who lov-
ingly called his father a hippie.
In the 1970s, before his first
tandem, Hakken indulged his first
love studying fine-art photogra-
phy at Michigan. He practiced
as a professional photographer
briefly, then decided to get his
graduate degree, also in fine-art
photography, at Ohio University.
To scratch his itch after col-
lege, Hakken taught part time at
Washtenaw Community College
and started his own business
selling and renting photography
equipmenton the side. Hakken
was married and enjoyed bike rid-
ing in his free time.
"My wife and I rode at two dif-
ferent speeds. So we said, let's get
a tandem and we can ride togeth-
er," Hakken said.
Tandem bikes are romantic
at their essence, Hakken says.
With a normal-bicycle look, but
extended and built for two, it
takes teamwork, coordination,
trust and communication for the
captain - who controls the steer-
ing, sitting in front - and his or
her partner to ride painlessly.
Hakken surely imagined sum-
mer afternoons spent biking
serenely around Ann Arbor with
his wife when his photography
business took off, and he sold it
for enough money that he thought
he could retire. But five years
after his first tandem purchase,
FTAIU YE l
MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily M
Joel Hakken stands outside his bike store near North Campus. Joel Hakken works ona tandem bike inside Midwest Bike &T
300-plus pounds, which would be
the measurements of the biggest
person to ever buy one of Hak-
ken's tandems.
Lewan has an entourage with
him, including Chris Brown, the
hockey team's imposing right-
winger, who looks small next to
Lewan. Hakken has seen college
kids before: they come in, take a
look, but never buy his bikes. He
doubts Lewan will.
It doesn't take long for Lewan
to spot the 1962 Firestone and
announce, "That's my bike!"
Everyone laughs, but Hakken
starts preparing the bike for a test
ride. Hakken figures, OK, they'll
ride it up and down the parking
lot and that'll be that.
Lewan takes it for a spin, try-
ing to move his weightback and
lift up the handlebars and get the
classic tandem in the air while
going overthe parking lot's speed
bumps.
ARISSA MCCAIN/Daily Later, Lewan will tell report-
Tandem. ers that he's more serious now.
He will be a redshirt junior next
F fall and he expects to be a leader.
He will say there are a times and
places for his humor, including
the impromptu mustache readily
tattooed on his index finger and
the tattooed "right-hand man"
stick figure.
He will sound sincere and more
mature.
"Football players cannot fly!"
Hakken shouts. Nowis the time
for fun.
Hakken asks Lewan where the
coeds are goingto sit, as he rides
around with his friends. Tandem
bikes are, after all, romantic.
"No girls are goingto ride my
twosie," Lewan says, incredulous-
ly, and Hakken laughs again. He's
never heard anyone call a tandem
that before, but he chooses not
to correct Lewan, who makes it
clear he's serious about buying
the bike.
"Can you do me better on the
price?" Lewan asks.
"Yeah, Ican do you a little bet-
LSY OF TAYLOR LEWAN ,
-tall. ter."
"That's good, that's what I was
heir outrageous hoping. We've got a deal."
x, they needed Hakken will later admit it was
I said, it wasn't the cheapest he's ever sold a bike.
hat I normally And no more than 30 minutes
bad for them." after they walked in, Lewan had
ed the bike, which his twosie and Hakken had two
iful, "borderline new friends.
never sell. When Lewan's also the youngest per-
it out for two son to ever buy one of Hakken's
e elderly couple, tandems. One day, Lewan will put
ld be the bike's away his right-hand man, he will
hide his mustache, and, instead,
eet some of the he will pursue or nurture love, as
n tandem bikes," Hakken did, riding his first tan-
dem. Until Lewan does, Hakken
ago, Hakken met will hope he "is wearing the thing
right out."
Life and tandem biking aren't
*** so different, after all.
"Don't tell coach that I'm riding
an football this thing!" Brown shouts as he,
approaches the Lewan and their friends scamper
onders whether out of Hakken's store.
6
"
Redshirt junior left tackle Taylor Lewan tweeted this photo of himself and a teammate riding the 1962 Firestone 'twosie' outside Schembechler F
after many bumpy rides, Hakken
divorced his wife.
"The tandem wasn't the root
of the cause, but it didn't help,"
he said.
Half of his money gone, Hak-
ken found work at The Wolverine
magazine asa sports photogra-
pher. He stayed three years, but
they were painfully revelatory
years: he saw his friends pushed
out in favor of quantity and profit
over quality. Life wasn't as hope-
ful. He swore off journalism.
With similar passion, he had
sworn to his mother that he
would never marry again. Then
he met Wendy, a Ford Motor
Company engineer who lived two
doors down and who said "sure"
when Hakken asked her to ride
the tandem. They rode comfort-
ably together.
They weda few years later and
decided their wedding present
would be a tandem. They settled
on a bike that had been built
in Eugene, Ore. Since they had
friends in Seattle, they planned to
visit and pick it up from the man-
ufacturer, Co-Motion Cycles.
Always a people person, Hak-
ken met everyone who worked at
Co-Motion and befriended the
owner, who complained about the
company's lacking presence in
Ann Arbor.
Hakken said, "Well, I'll see
what I can do," and started refer-
ring potential riders, who he had
a knack for spotting. Three years
later, Co-Motion came to him.
"They said, 'Just open a store,
you're selling enough bikes just
referring people, just open your
own store,"' Hakken said. "That's
how we started."
Since September 2008, Mid-
west Bike £b Tandem has been
owned and operated and embod-
ied by Hakken. He has indulged
his creative side by designing
bikes for Co-Motion and build-
ing prototypes himself: In 2010,
he entered a remarkably light
20-pound tandem in the North
American Handmade Bicycle
Show in Richmond, Va.
Currently, Co-Motion is build-
ing the 20-pounder with a few
modifications, Hakken said.
For him and Wendy, the wed-
ding present remained the "coun-
terpoint of our summer existence,
getting out on the bike, getting
away from phones and enjoying
each other's company."
Hakken's line of work intro-
duced him to more eclectic com-
pany, the kind that would make
interesting dinner guests. He's a
pied piper of sorts, hosting 420
riders at last year's Midwest Tan-
dem Rally and selling tandems to
people all over Michigan, Indi-
ana, Illinois and Ohio. One day,
an elderly couple offered to sell
Hakken a teal-blue-colored, two-
speed, 1962 Firestone tandem
with its original paint.
"It's a terrible, sad story," Hak-
ken said. "With t
state property ta
some money. So:
the type of bike t
buy, butI felt so t
Hakken figure
he called a beaut
antique," wouldi
asked, he loaned
weddings, but th
in his mind, wou
last owners.
"You get to me
neatest people ox
Hakken said.
Three weeks:
Taylor Lewan.
As the Michig
team's left tackle
door, Hakken wo
0
he can fit through it and whether
his alma mater has desks big
enough for a man this big. He
guesses Lewan's about 6-foot-8,
- Rohan can be reached
at trohan@umich.edu or on
Twitter @TimRohan.
for more information call 734/615-6449
thescollege of literature, science, and the arts
presents the 32nd distinguished senior fatuity lecture
Third doubles pair sparks Michigan win
By JEFF KAPLAN
For the Daily
When the No. 1 doubles team
for the Michigan men's tennis
team, consisting of junior Evan
King and sophomore Shaun Bern-
stein, went down 5-1 on Saturday
against Purdue, the weekend was
already off to a bad start. But due
to the play of the No. 3 doubles
team and a comeback from King
and Bernstein, the Wolverines
were able to turn their poor start
into two decisive wins.
"(The weekend) was great, "
said coach Bruce Berque. "Pur-
due and Indiana are both talented
teams. Indiana, we lost on the road
to last year, 4-3, so that's always
more satisfying."
On Saturday, the Wolverines
defeated Purdue (1-2 Big Ten, 7-8
overall), 5-2, then followed that
up with another 5-2 victory on
Sunday against Indiana (2-3,14-7).
Both of these victories included
winning the doubles point, which
allowed Michigan (4-1, 11-5) to
take a lead into the singles match-
es.
The decisive victory in the dou-
bles match on Saturday came from
the No. 3 team of freshmen Alex
Petrone and Michael Zhu. After
getting out to a 2-1 lead, the third
pairing never looked back, cruis-
ingto an 8-5 victory.
"I think the doubles point was
big," Berque said. "We would have
been confident that we would have
had a great chance to come back,
but we took an educated gamble to
take Shaun out of the lineup. And
having won the doubles, we were
a little more confident. It gave
us a big lift, and I'm sure Purdue
thinks it was a point they felt they
could have and
winning the game and used the
momentum to finish off seniors
Stephen Vogl and Will Kendall.
That sealed the doubles point for
two straight matches.
"I think we fell off a little bit
(earlier this season), but we are
getting back on it because me
and Mike, we jell pretty well as a
team, and I think we will get the
momentum going again," Petrone
said.
Both matches showed the mat-
uration of Zhu
should have and Petrone.
won, but we Despite their
stepped it up at "W e jell pretty youth, they
the end." j p both have had
Petrone well as a team ." to play impor-
and Zhu came tant roles this
through again season on a
on Sunday, but team without
it was a bit more difficult. After any seniors. On Saturday, they
going up 3-1, they lostfour straight were thrust into playing a bigger
games, putting them in a hole role. With Bernstein unable to
and possibly sending Michigan to play singles because of a strained
start singles with a 1-0 deficit. But shoulder, Petrone moved up from
Petrone and Zhu rallied back, tak- his usual No. 3 slot to play in the
ing a one-game lead. second spot. The change didn't
The Indiana No. 3 doubles team affect him, as he won, 6-2, 7-5.
went up 40-0whenthe match was "No different than any other
tied at 7-7, and the Hoosier pair match," Petrone said. "The guy
was on the verge of taking all the was pretty good, pretty solid from
momentum back when Zhu and the baseline, but I came out firing
Petrone rallied. The duo ended up and I did a good job of keeping my
energy up. I got a little tight serv-
ing for it and was up 5-4 in the sec-
ond, but (I) regrouped and got the
job done."
Zhu was also forced to play up,
moving from the No. 4 spot to the
No. 3 spot. Just like Petrone, Zhu
didn't miss a beat, winning, 7-5,
6-3.
"I think (Zhu's) really learning
everythingthat's involved in com-
peting at a high level in college
tennis, even when he's not hitting
the ball at hisbest," Berque said. "I
think that's his biggest thing that
he needs to learn, but he is defi-
nitely learning it. He was the lead-
er in doubles on that court, like he
has been so many times."
With Bernstein back in the line-
up on Sunday, both freshmen were
able to secure a victory. Zhu won,
6-2, 4-6 (10-8), and Petrone, 6-2,
6-0. With only conference match-
ups remaining, both Petrone and
Zhu will need to keep playing
with the same vigor, especially
next weekend, with the team trav-
eling to powerhouses Illinois and
Northwestern. Berque has confi-
dence the pairwill keep itup.
"They are competing really
well," Berque said. "They figured
out what they're good at and what
they're not as good at."
gillian feeley-harnik
kathleen gough collegiate
professor of anthropology
tuesday, april 3, 2012
LSA rackham amphitheater
4:10pm
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