A stark, all-white Ghost Bike for a cyclist who was killed while riding Cypress Bowl Road on Christmas Day in 2019 has materialized at the site it disappeared from just two weeks prior.
The memorial, put in place for family man and avid cyclist Ivan Young, had called a grassy roadside knoll on Cypress Bowl Road home for more than three years, when it mysteriously went missing on the evening of May 13.
On May 25, following outcry from Young’s family and the local cycling community, the bike was returned with no note, apology, or explanation.
“Somebody took it, and then somebody put it back,” said Bill McNaughton, who installed the bike in 2020 as a special memorial for Young, his friend and fellow bike rider.
McNaughton said the thief must have “really leveraged and smashed it out,” as the poles holding together the bike were bent and the post that it had been installed upon was split.
“I can’t understand it, why would someone do that? The bike is useless. There’s no brakes, there’s no gears, there’s no pedals. You can’t use it. There’s no usable parts on it, really.”
The motive behind thieving such a heartfelt tribute, McNaughton suspects, is nothing beyond classic tomfoolery. It was likely the result of “testosterone on a Saturday night fueled by alcohol,” he guessed, and a plague of guilty conscience being the reason for its return.
Despite the bike being “a little worse for wear” and stripped of some paint, McNaughton said he does commend the crook for attempting to correctly bolt it back in place, using a mixture of ill-fitting bolts and washers to mount it back onto its roadside post.
“Ivan’s family and friends are just really happy to hear that it’s back, they think it’s fabulous news,” he said. “A lot of work went into that bike, and a lot of people recognize it as a memorial not only to Ivan but to all riders.”
Determined to make a tangible, permanent tribute for his friend in the early months of 2020, McNaughton spent weeks modifying a donated bicycle, stripping it of its fenders, brakes, wires and pedals, replacing the handlebars to match those of Ivan’s beloved, now crushed, bike, and coating it in layers of white paint.
He had added accents of Ivan’s favourite colours – blue and pink – and stencilled on Ivan’s name alongside the description ‘dad, husband, friend.’ He framed a photograph of Ivan, beaming into the camera lens with his bike hoisted above his head, as a memorial accompaniment.
Each season McNaughton repairs and maintains the bike, often taking it down throughout the winter to protect it from the elements and repainting its white coat when the layers begin to peel.
Ironically in January this year the North Shore News received a tip from a worried resident who had expressed concerns the bike had been stolen after McNaughton had taken it down for maintenance.
At the time McNaughton had said the quick response from the public had been further evidence of the weight the bike held in the local community, and how important it was that it stayed on its grassy patch on Cypress Bowl Road, a route regularly travelled by tourists, locals and cycling enthusiasts alike.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
