Jerry Rademacher’s livelihood and lifelong passion was cut short in December after a 19-year-old driver ran into him while he was walking home to Berard Circle from work at the bike shop.
Jerry A. Rademacher, center in wheelchair, is surrounded by friends helping to promote a fund-raising day of fun and bike rides to benefit Rademacher, owner of Pro Bicycle Shop in Springfield, who was injured in December when hit by a car while walking. From left behind him: Eric A. Cohen, of East Longmeadow, Christopher W. Fonda, of East Longmeadow, Andrew S. Hayes, of Springfield, Douglas W. Gray, of East Longmeadow, and George E. Willard, of Easthampton. The event is Aug. 28 at the Hatfield Lions Club. SPRINGFIELD – Most Americans master a bicycle by adolescence, but few ride like Jerry Rademacher has.
The middle son of an Olympic skier and a research chemist of German descent whose surname loosely translates to “wheel maker,” Rademacher embraced cycling as soon as he was old enough to pedal.
He, his father and his two brothers were riding English three-speeds the 135 miles to his grandmother’s in Hanover, N.H., by the time he was 12. The family began a bike parts-and-sales business in the basement of their Springfield home, and later moved it to a squat, brick building on Allen Street in the early 1970s.
As a noted “sprinter,” Rademacher had the quick muscle response that allowed him short, critical bursts of speed in competitive cycling.
The Rademachers used their powerful legs to make a name for themselves in regional racing and bicycle touring circles.
But, Jerry Rademacher’s livelihood and lifelong passion was cut short in December after a 19-year-old driver ran into him while he was walking home to Berard Circle from work at the bike shop. His spinal cord was severed.
The husband and father of two now watches from a wheelchair as his family’s home is gradually being converted to accommodate a paraplegic instead of an avid cyclist.
“When I woke up in the intensive care unit, I saw all these tubes and gauges around me,” he recalls. “My legs were in full braces, and I could tell pretty quickly that I couldn’t move my legs.”
“I didn’t cry about it though,” Rademacher said. “Not on that day, anyway.”
Rademacher remained hospitalized at Baystate Medical Center for all of December, then moved to a specialty rehabilitation center in eastern Massachusetts for three months before returning home.
Rademacher’s younger brother, Kris, struggled to keep Pro Bike at 1344 Allen St. open for three months after his brother’s accident. But, with his own shop in downtown Palmer, it became impossible, especially when the cycling season began to ramp up in early spring.
“The more time I spent at (his) shop, the more I realized Jerry did a lot for people who didn’t have much money in his neighborhood,” Kris Rademacher said. “People would come in and tell me Jerry put air in their tires, and tightened their chains and made other little tweaks for free.”
Some customers were resistant to letting him touch their bikes at all, not trusting anyone but his brother with the work, Kris Rademacher added.
“Some people who have these exotic bikes, it would take me a little bit of talking before they’d let me work on the bike instead of Jerry. It’s not exactly rocket science, but working on a bike and making it run quiet and smooth, it’s something that takes decades of experience,” he said.
Many of those customers have become longtime friends of Rademacher, and are organizing a fund-raiser for him in late August. They hope to finance a wheelchair accessible van and off-road chair.
Jerry Rademacher began walking the mile back and forth between the shop and his home two or three years earlier, believing that riding his bike along the busy route was too dangerous, according to his brother.
The driver involved in the accident, a woman who lives on a neighboring street, was not cited by police.
Jerry Rademacher is quick to tell people he is neither vengeful nor angry, and is not looking for sympathy over his plight.
When asked how he is coming to terms with the accident and its results, he quickly averts his eyes while admitting he has “down days.”
His brother, however, notes that even the smallest tasks are now time-consuming for his brother: getting out of bed; getting dressed and getting in and out of his wheelchair, for example.
Before the accident, Jerry Rademacher spent many of his hours outside the shop, logging miles with the Cyclonauts racing team. His father helped revive the local group in the 1960s, and it produced touring and triathlon offshoots over the years, groups which now maintain their own memberships.
Doug Gray, a sales executive from East Longmeadow, first met the Rademachers in 1974 when he would bike with his colicky infant son around the track at Forest Park.
“I’ve been riding with them ever since,” said Gray, a member of the Cyclonauts and organizer of the upcoming fund-raiser. Gray said the event is open to noncyclists and beginner cyclists.
“We’re a close-knit group,” said Gray, adding that the club is coed, although heavily male, with biking enthusiasts of all ages. The group includes a retired component that the others affectionately called “The Recyclonauts.”
Among the riders, they raised $7,000 through an impromptu call to the members on Jerry’s behalf. They need to raise a little over $20,000 more to purchase the rig, according to Gray.
“It would be very easy to sit in that wheelchair and wait in the house for friends to drop by with a case of beer,” Gray said. “But, he’s an avid photographer and has full use of his upper body. This van will make his quality of life so much better.”
And, while Rademacher was injured while on foot, serious cycling accidents and collisions with motorists are part of the lore of the sport. There, but for the grace of God, go any of them, Gray reasons.
At Pro Bike on Allen Street, children’s bikes and racing bikes still stand in the store waiting to be sold. A half-empty gum ball machine stands near the wall, and a snow shovel and winter decorations are propped near the front window, making it seem like a scene frozen in time.
A hand-written time is taped on the front door that reads: “Store will re-open ASAP. Jerry is still recuperating.”
Jerry Rademacher says it is his goal to re-open the store, hopefully with some help to assist him in lifting bikes and other tasks the accident left him unable to do.
The Merlin racing bike he built for himself in 1991 still hangs in his basement, untouched.
He has admired some three-wheel, arm-powered bicycles since his accident, but is not sure whether he will ever invest in one.
“I used to put more miles on my bike every year than I did on my car. I think I logged enough miles though,” Rademacher said.
FUND-RAISER FACTS
Event: “Jerry’s Ride”
When: Aug. 28; registration, 7-9 a.m.; social, 1-6 p.m.
Cost: $25; kids under 12, free
Details: Includes 25-, 60- and 100-mile routes; food, music, raffle and social event will fol´low
Proceeds: Help Cyclonauts bi´cycling club raise funds to buy van and wheelchair for mem´ber Jerry Rademacher
Where: Hatfield Lions Club, Billings Way, Hatfield
For info: Call Bob Majowicz, (413) 665-7505, email bmajo´wicz@comcast.net; George Willard, (413) 527-0330; email, gwill@verizon.net