Community comes to aid of Makawao bike shop after fire
Facing $1M in damages, owner feeling ‘a lot more hope’ that he can stay in business
Krank Cycles owner Aaron “Moose” Reichert was still clearing the rubble Sunday after his bike shop suffered major burn and smoke damage last week from a dumpster fire.
For the past 10 years, the Upcountry business has sold and rented mountain bikes to the greater community, which all started with a “credit card and dream,” Reichert said.
“When something that you give your heart and soul to and was just ripped from you in an instant, it’s just heartbreaking,” he said. “It was a big loss and there’s a lot of rebuild, but it’s not a total loss. Nobody got hurt and there’s something there — everything didn’t get burned to the ground — so there’s something there.”
A little after midnight on Jan. 23, Reichert got a call from the Maui Police Department that there was a dumpster fire outside of the Makawao shop and flames were working their way to the building.
When he arrived, the Maui Fire Department was already on scene and contained the flames.
There are three other businesses on the premises, including Pueo Family Medicine, Makawao Town Pharmacy and Freitas Rentals.
Krank Cycles took the brunt of the flames, sustaining both fire and smoke as well as water damage. Reichert estimated that the shop suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage but that insurance will only cover $25,000 in lost inventory.
The Fire Department put damage estimates at $1 million to the building and $200,000 to the contents.
The wall that caught fire had about 20 high-end electric bikes hanging on it that were compromised. They ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 each in value.
Even smaller items like knee pads, rubber tires, hats, socks and other merchandise that were covered in silt are “not salvageable,” Reichert said.
“We tried washing a few and the smell because of the rubber is just not coming out,” he said.
The cause of the fire, which occurred on the Minit Stop side of the shop, is still undetermined.
Slowly but surely, day by day, Reichert said that “we’re getting past it.”
“It was heavy feet, dealing with everything,” he added. “I just started putting one foot in front of the other, trudging, that morning, and just doing what I needed to do and mitigate with the insurance company and get my guys in and just assess the scene.”
Though it was challenging to see any hope at first, several staff members and people in the community have donated time and money to clean the building remains, salvage any inventory, rebuild bike racks and support Krank Cycles’ future.
“It was just so awesome yesterday, we probably had throughout the course of the day 50, 60
people filter through,” Reichert said.
In addition to the Makawao location, Krank Cycles expanded to a second store in Kahului last year, which remains open.
The business’s Maui Bike Mission, which offers free bike repairs, collected throwaways and donated bikes to keiki on Maui, Molokai and Lanai, will pause for the time being. The program, which Krank launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, has since fixed and donated about 500 bikes.
Meanwhile, for the Makawao store, Freitas Rentals is allowing Reichert to use the space to house some equipment and inventory for a pop-up shop.
He planned to do business from the space Monday.
“Definitely a lot of hope that I’m not going to have to close down. I was really worried about the guys that work for me,” he said. “I was just really wanting to push ahead and make sure we can keep going.”
A GoFundMe campaign for the business has raised over $23,000 of the $100,000 goal as of Monday. To donate, visit gofund.me/adb9f1e0.