Kink Hats

Shopping and Product Reviews

U.P. bike shop owner killed in traffic accident
Bmx Dealers

U.P. bike shop owner killed in traffic accident

U.P. bike shop owner killed in traffic accident

Steven Pringle, the 57-year-old owner of Build a Bicycle — Bicycle Therapy in the U.P. town of Kingsford, who was the subject of a recent profile in the Detroit Free Press, was killed in a car accident in Punta Gorda, Florida, on Nov. 23.

He had driven down there that day to hand out free bicycles to kids displaced by Hurricane Ian in September. And so his last gesture encapsulated his life’s purpose.

The story in the Free Press, which was published Nov. 6, followed him on a two-day spree of impulses and random generosity that ended with the police being called on him for riding a horse through downtown Iron Mountain.

Steven Pringle, owner of Build a Bicycle - Bicycle Therapy, delivers three bikes as donations to surprised nuns at the Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Cross in Iron Mountain on Friday, July 29, 2022. Years ago, when he was struggling, Pringle wrote to the nuns asking for their prayers, and ever since then, he tries to return the favor by bringing unannounced gifts.

He was born and raised in Marquette, enlisted in the Army, served in Lebanon in the ‘80s, came home to Michigan, became a car salesman and eventually had his own auto dealership.

But he fell on hard times and lost everything. A few years ago, while down on his luck and living in an old camper, he had an epiphany one night that led him to start a bike repair business with the sole purpose of giving troubled veterans something to take their minds off their problems for a while. “Bicycle therapy,” he called it. Somehow it evolved into a real bike shop. And even though he kept giving away bikes for free despite everyone’s advice to quit doing so, the shop inexplicably kept growing more successful.