North Fork’s only traveling bicycle repairman is on a roll

Recently in Greenport, a long-idle bicycle — tires cracked with age and brakes seized stiff — got a second chance. It hadn’t rolled in decades. But by the time Danny Franc packed up his tools and waved goodbye, the grateful owner was gliding down the street.

“It’s really exciting, after 20-something years,” she said. “There was a sense of freedom even just taking it for a test ride.”

Since the 2023 closure of Country Time Cycle in Mattituck, the North Fork has been something of a bike repair desert. Most residents have had no choice but to haul their bikes to Hampton Bays for service. Until now.

Enter Franc — who appears to be the North Fork’s only traveling bicycle mechanic.

“I saw a void,” he said. “There’s no one here to keep these people riding their bikes — and the North Fork’s awesome for biking.”

Franc, of Rocky Point, describes his mobile service as “like a bicycle Geek Squad,” offering on-site tune-ups, repairs and restorations all across the North Fork. Earlier this month, at the Repair Café Greenport event at Floyd Memorial Library, he worked his magic on several neglected bikes.

“They were in really bad condition,” he said. “But I love this work. I can fix bikes all day and never get tired of it.”

A few weeks ago, Franc reached out to Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi — known for biking around the village and often parking his ride outside Village Hall.

“He was supportive of it, because he recognized the lack of people fixing bikes on the North Fork and out in Greenport. There’s no one. And it’s so flat out there. It’s perfect for bikes. If you have a flat tire in your garage right now, you’ve got to go to Hampton Bays to fix it.”

Soon after their conversation, Franc received a text from a local resident looking for help — a mayoral referral.

Franc’s devotion to two wheels runs deep. “Getting people on their bikes, riding their bikes, is so rewarding to me,” he said. “I know it sounds corny, but I really believe people riding bikes can change the world.”

His love affair with bikes got started early. By age seven, he was tearing around Plainview on BMXs with his friends and on mountain bikes with his father. He was captivated watching his dad tinker with bikes.

“When I was on my own, it became a necessity, so I just figured it out,” he said.

He found a second home at a shop around the corner from his home called Bicycle Planet — where he’d wander the aisles as a wide-eyed young boy, and later land a short-term job.

Franc’s affection for the North Fork took root in the early 1990s, during childhood trips with his grandfather to the American Armored Foundation Tank Museum in Mattituck and ferry adventures to New London with his grandparents.

But it was the Greenport Village Skate Park — which first opened in 1998 — that sealed the deal. “It used to be the only skate park on the entire Island that allowed bikes,” he recalled.

As teenagers, he and his friends would load up their bikes, drive out at night, flip on the floodlights, and ride into the early morning hours.

“We would get there at like nine or ten o’clock at night, turn the lights on, ride ‘til God knows when, and then come home. It was pretty cool.”

Last year, he briefly worked for a large bicycle retailer in Suffolk County — an experience he said left him cold.

“It was hellish. It was about money, not about people and community.”

Now, with his weekend mobile repair business, Franc aims to keep prices reasonable — typically between $45 and $200 depending on the job.

“It’s going to be a little more for a mobile unit versus a bicycle shop,” he acknowledged. But he said he charges the most modest rates he can.

The only repairs he avoids are e-bikes.

“A lot of [e-bike] repairs involve electronics, and I don’t really like touching that stuff.”

Franc can be reached at (934) 344-1220, by email at nofobikerepair@gmail.com, or on Instagram at @nofobikerepair.