The Oregonian: Cyclist cruised through life with smiles and skill, pals say

Brett Jarolimek was such a skilled cyclist, friends say, that he made steering down steep mountain bike trails or handling messy cyclocross courses look easy. But it was a short paved downhill stretch on Portland’s North Interstate Avenue where the 31-year-old lost his life. The longtime cyclist was killed Monday by a garbage truck that crossed the bike lane as it made a right turn in front of him. Friends, fellow cyclists and co-workers from the Bike Gallery in the Hollywood district Tuesday retraced Jarolimek’s route down the hill to the fateful intersection where he died.

They cried, exchanged stories and tried to square the image of their tall, skinny, grinning friend with the news. “He was just a super, happy, funny guy,” said Matt Cardinal, a close friend who met Jarolimek several years ago in art school. “We are all in shock.”

Friends gathered around the “ghost bike” — a bicycle painted white to commemorate cyclists who have been killed — which was covered with flowers and photos of the North Portland resident. Another memorial made of a rusted chain formed into the shape of a cyclist sat nearby. “He always had a smile,” said Matt Cardinal’s wife, Elizabeth. His grin mirrored his positive personality, friends said. “If he wanted to lighten up the situation, he could do it in two words,” said Matt Cardinal.

And sometimes, it wouldn’t even take that. Jarolimek, he said, had a chipped tooth. At times, he would take out the crown, put on a straw hat and play his banjo, hamming it up for laughs. Jarolimek also played the trumpet for fun with two friends in a band they called the Brass Monkeys, said former roommate Roll Hardy, who met Jarolimek seven years ago at art school. “It was the most horrific sound coming out of the house,” recalled Hardy, laughing. Although cycling was a big part of Jarolimek’s life, he was also an oil painter and had a framing business.

He seemed to always keep busy, whether it was playing instruments or making furniture. “You’d be hanging out one day and you’d come over the next day and he would have stripped the dining room table and refinished it,” Hardy said. Jarolimek was not a novice cyclist, friends emphasized. On Monday, he had called his girlfriend shortly before the crash to let her know that he was headed home after a two-hour ride.

“He’s an experienced cyclist who really knew how to handle his bike,” said Erin Playman, a friend and fellow cyclist. “If he couldn’t handle the situation, then he was put in a situation that no one could have handled.” Retracing Jarolimek’s last ride cut deep. The ride helped give some closure, Hardy said. But at the same time, “it was really hard to ride down this hill.”