by Thomas MacMillan | Aug 4, 2011 3:33 pm

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Posted to: Business/ Economic Development, Transportation, East Rock

An unusual sight caught Ben Schomaker’s eye on the corner of Orange and Cottage: a bike mechanic with an old three-speed up on a stand, at work replacing a derailleur cable.

Schomaker, who lives nearby in East Rock, quickly stopped and got a price quote. He needed the same work done on his Cannondale road bike. He said he’d bring his bike later.

“That’s how it works,” said Joel LaChance, the bike mechanic, as Schomaker stepped away.

It’s chance encounters with East Rock passersby that drive LaChance’s new plein-air street corner bike repair business.

Three mornings a week for the past couple of months, LaChance. who’ll be 60 in August, has set up shop outside the Orange Street Market and the Orange Street Liquor Shop. He wheels a wagon—emblazoned with “The Goatville Cyclesmith LLC, A Shade Tree Mechanic”—packed with bike tools from his home three blocks away on Bishop Street.

On a recent afternoon, as he worked on a 1973 Huffy Escape, LaChance described his new mechanic business as a wayto keep him busy in his retirement. He was a teacher at the Benjamin Jepsen school for 10 years, until last year.

His retirement job is a return to his earlier life in New Haven, when he ran the Cycles LaChance bike shop on Chapel Street. One year, the Special Olympics came to town, and LaChance was tapped as the bike mechanic for the competition. He figured out a way to pack up all his bike repair gear into a portable unit for the Olympics.

“I learned you could do anything remotely,” he said.

Traveling as light as he does means he has no overhead, almost literally. (Friday was the first day he packed an umbrella on his cart, to keep the hot sun off him while he works.)

The best part, LaChance said, is “the fellowship.” People stop to talk to him on the street, intrigued to see a mechanic set up under a tree. “They never see anyone do something like this.”

Claudia Tatinge Nascimento (pictured), a Wesleyan theater professor, passed by and greeted LaChance, who inquired after a job he’d done for her—helping her attach a bike-lock clip to her Cannondale.

She said she’s a fan of street corner bike repair. It’s more convenient to wheel her bike from her home on Lawrence Street than to pack it in her car and haul it to a bike shop, she said.

Tom Bowery, who owns the liquor store, said he also approves. LaChance helps attract business, he said.

A clerk ringing up customers at the market said she just enjoys watching him work, and she’s not the only one.

“Our customer response has been lovely,” she said. “It makes it feel like a family on the street.”

LaChance said it’s true that people do stop and simply watch him repair. “It’s like street theater, a little bit,” he said.

LaChance said he’ll be on the corner in fair weather Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. until it gets too cold to work outside.