Klein Presents Custom Bike to Miami "Huckster"
By: Thanita Adams

Yesterday, Max Berger of Bikes to Go in Miami, Florida, made a call to Jose Arellano's house. When the youngster answering the phone asked, "Jose Senior or Jose Junior?" Berger wasn't sure. So, he said, "the one that fell off of the bridge."

But perhaps you haven't heard of the strange but true story (there were witnesses!), of Arellano's flight off of the Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami. Yes, in case you're wondering, that is the big bridge.

On Monday, January 26, Arellano, 26, was pedaling over the bridge and was about to take a pull from his water bottle when his front tire struck something. We've all been there - unexpected impact, and over the bars we go. Most of us, however, are lucky enough not to be riding on a 70 foot bridge when this happens. Arellano wasn't. He was thrown over the waist-high "retaining" wall (there is no railing) into the ocean below.

Fernanda Villalba, an eyewitness, saw the whole thing from her car. After making some U turns to get back to the scene, she looked over the retaining wall but couldn't see Arellano's body. Meanwhile, he had swum over to the older and smaller adjacent bridge where a passing fisherman threw him a rope and towed him out. Later, Villalba said that she wasn't sure if what she had seen actually happened, as no other drivers seemed to react to Arellano's sudden disappearance.

So - Arellano falls 70 some feet (fortunately avoiding the concrete supports) and hits the water. He is pulled out and, miraculously, feels good enough (only injuries: bruised ribs, a bloody arm from hitting the wall as he went over, some dizziness and hearing damage, all of which has since faded) to go back up to fetch his bike. The kicker: it's been stolen. Arellano believed that the bike did not go into the drink along with him, and Villalba agrees that the bike remained on the bridge after Arellano's fall.

Stolen: one yellow Klein from Rickenbacker Causeway area, purchase price $550 (about three years ago).

When Arellano told the guys at his local shop, Bikes to Go, they couldn't believe what they heard, repeatedly asking, "you mean the BIG bridge?" (there are two bridges in the area, one much smaller). When asked what was going through his head as he fell, Arellano reportedly replied, "what a hell of a way to go." When I told Arellano this, he said, "nah . . . that type of though might have gone through my head, but for some reason I thought if I kicked a lot when I hit the water, I wouldn'd lose consciousness. And it seemed to work. When I first hit the water, I was also thinking, 'man, I should have worn my helmet,' but then I thought what did it matter - I was in the water. Hold your breath and kick, hold your breath and kick . . ."

Klein heard of the bizarre event, and just yesterday informed Berger at Bikes to Go that they want to present Jose with a new Klein, an Aura XV. Ryan Atkinson, Brand Coordinator at Fisher, LeMond and Klein reports that Jose "decided today that he wants the 'Bones' paintjob with 'Nearly Broken' on the top tube."

Any symbolism to this scheme? "They took a ton of X-rays at the hospital," said Arellano. "It reminds me of that."

Atkinson added, "I don't encourage anybody to go jumping off bridges to get a free bike." So don't get any ideas, out there.