Humble war veteran of the York Region cycling scene has a backstory to remember
Leslie Robinson passed away at the age of 90
For riders and cycling enthusiasts in Keswick, Ont., there’s a particular gentleman who may prove more recognizable than most — and whose passing was marked by locals with particular honour, for more reasons than one. Generations of Keswick cyclists have called him “The Bike Guy,” YorkRegion.com reports.
But for friends and family, he was good ol’ Les.
Leslie Robinson was a character whose reputation in his community was a humble one. After his retirement at the age of 65, Robinson — characteristically, those closest to him would say — kept his hands busy, making the rounds of local garage sales to buy bikes which would then be refurbished and re-sold. Some, would go to members of the Keswick community after the rides were painstakingly re-engineered at his quiet cottage. The rest would be shipped off to Africa.
His experience as a bike repairman made him a local legend of sorts, but it was just another aspect of his long-standing community prestige. For years, he worked as a janitor with the Toronto board of education, then a chief engineer with the same organization. Before that, he delivered milk, with the aid of little more than a horse and buggy.
As a youth, however — long before any of the above — “The Bike Guy”‘s day-to-day was anything but quiet.
Like many other Canadian men, Robinson enlisted in the Canadian Forces before the legal age — being only 16 years old at the time — and trained as a Calgary Highlander, which led to his deployment on June 6, 1944, not long after D-Day. At the battle of Falaise Gap, Les was struck by a round of German shrapnel. Though it luckily hit him in the belt buckle, and though some battlefield heart surgery in a cave ultimately saved his life it was enough to take Robinson out of the war, and place him on the path that would lead him to become one of York Region’s best-kept cycling secrets.
The rest, of course, is history. You never know what stories the old-timers on two wheels in your hometown might be sitting on. Leslie passed on at the age of 90 leaving behind two sons.
