Man gets bike back 35 years after he last saw it

Matt Fuks of Brookings, South Dakota, has finally got his bike back. Being as he last saw it in 1979, when he was 13, it probably isn’t the right size for him now.

The Associated Press reports how the purple Iverson Road Runner, which boasts three gears and a ‘banana seat’, was spotted at a Brookings Police bike auction by Sergeant Joel Perry.

"I was looking through our bicycles one day and I saw that particular bicycle. It's kind of an older bike, so it caught my eye.

"When I looked at it, I saw a sticker on the back end that said 'Matt Fuks.' I went to high school with Matt, so I took a picture of it and sent it to his wife. I said: 'Hey, look what we have in the bike rack'."

Matt’s wife, Kari, responded saying that he hadn’t seen the bike since about 1979 and went and picked it up. Perry says the bike had been abandoned and handed in to police in the autumn.

Matt first received the bike when he was eight, when his father was stationed at Stewart Army Subpost, New York, but it came with the family when they returned to Brookings, the town where Matt was born. He says that it got plenty of use during the five years he had it.

"I do remember just using the heck out of it, going up to the swimming pool and over to the Dairy Queen when it used to be over by Pioneer Park, and all over town. Rode it to baseball practices.

"The last I remember it is 1979. I was probably a little too tall for it anyway and I was just about ready to turn 14, so I was way more interested in cars than my trusty bicycle.

"So I really don't know what happened to it. I don't know if it got stolen or if we sold it or any of that stuff. It just kind of fades out of my life."

Despite its age, the bike looks surprisingly good. Matt says it is now slightly rusty and is missing the shifter knob and a couple of reflectors, but is otherwise in decent condition. On the basis of this, he and Perry assume that it has been looked after and perhaps left in a garage for a number of years.

But will Matt allow it to fade out of his life once again? He says his daughter, Madison, has been eyeing it.

“Probably when the weather turns a little bit warmer, we're going to put some air in the tyres and make sure the brakes still work and all that kind of fun stuff and let her ride it around the neighbourhood. I haven't made any plans beyond that. She's got her own bike already, but she definitely wants to ride that one around at least for the nostalgia factor."