One Hundred Eighty-Nine
Saturday (yesterday) was fantastic. I left the house aroud 6:15 in the morning and rode up Cornell, over Skyline, to the Community Cycling Center. Neal Armstrong, volunteer coordinator at the CCC, sent an email on Wednesday to people who attended the volunteer orientation class last Tuesday. Neal asked for help with a “Hands on Portland Day of Caring” event at the CCC. Volunteers from Liberty Northwest Insurance Company were coming on Saturday to help tear down bikes and Neal needed some help leading people through the process.
About 25 people from Liberty Northwest showed up a 9:00. I got to Alberta street around 7:30 and had a cup of coffee, two potato pancakes, and a scotch egg at a nice little dinner a couple of blocks west of the CCC. Shortly after 8:00 I started helping Neal set up tool boxes for the volunteers.
Each tool box is a different color and most of the tools inside are marked with the color of the box they belong to. The boxes contain a pretty amazing number of tools. I wish I had one in my garage. Although I don’t really need seven different freewheel remover tools, the CCC uses all of them and more!
I taught Paul and Laura, from Liberty Northwest, how to identify the freewheel remover required for a particular wheel, secure the tool in a vice, place the freewheel on the tool, and remove the freewheel from the hub. The shop had another bucket of tools for freewheels that couldn’t be removed with one of the tools in the colored tool boxes. Even with those tools, there were a handful of wheels that we couldn’t find the tool for. By 11:30 Paul and Laura had removed about 30 freewheels. There were a few wheels with cassettes, and I showed them how to use a chain whip and one of the Shimano tools to remove the lock ring and slide the sprockets off.
Most of the bikes weren’t worth trying to save. The objective was to salvage some of the components and recycle the rest of the material. In two hours, about 100 bikes were processed. There were a few frames that we wanted to keep. I had fun teaching a couple of people how to remove the cranks and bottom bracket from two of the frames that are going to be reused.
After things were cleaned up and the volunteers had left, I bought a used bike as a surprise for my wife, Julia, who has never owned a bike since we moved to Oregon in 1996. I forget what brand the frame is, but I remember it’s red. It has mountain bike bars, V brakes, 26” slick, moderately fat tires, lots of clearance for some coroplast fenders, Shimano components that seem to be in decent condition, and a kickstand. I’ve got an old Nishiki frame taking up space in the garage. I plan to donate the frame tomorrow when we pick up the bike. I’m excited. The other day Julia was saying she would ride a bike to the pool if she had one. Hopefully she does. I’m proud that our kids are good swimmers now, and Julia is making progress too. I like to think that I played a role in encouraging them to swim. Next step is to get everyone out on bikes more often. Oh yeah, I also bought two super bright Planet Bike taillights at the CCC. I put one on the seat post of my Country Road Bob and the other on the trail-a-bike. I've always been concerned that we don't have a light on the back of the trail-a-bike when I take the kids to school.
Hands on Portland had a celebration event at the Rose Quarter where people who had volunteered at various places around the city in the morning got together for lunch and entertainment. The Hands on Portland project has been growing by about 500 volunteers a year for the last three years. This year there was just shy of 2000 people who helped with things like painting schools and the bike tear down at the CCC. Outback Steakhouse served a fabulous lunch. I had to wait in line for a while, but it was worth it. Just as I was finishing my dinner, a lady sat down next to me, because she noticed my cycling clothes and wanted to talk to the “biker”. We really hit it off and talked for a long time. It was fantastic. Her name is Sharon and I gave her one of my Sabertooth Salmon “business” cards. So if you’re reading this, Sharon, thanks for the company!
On the way home, I decided to take Leif Erickson trail over the hills instead of sticking to the pavement. As I was heading up Thurman, the Fat Tire Farm caught my eye and I decided to go inside. I’ve often wanted to see what the place is like. One of the guys working there was real helpful and gave me some advice about keeping my feet and hands warm this winter. I bought a pair of Gortex socks and a pair of Descente gloves. They were a bit spendy, and the fact that the gloves are made in China doesn’t thrill me, but I felt good about supporting The Farm. I looked at some super expensive battery powered lights in the store (see http://www.bikelites.com/). I need something like that if I’m going to do much riding at night in the winter on roads like Old Germantown or off-road on Leif Erickson. I also got to hold a Chris King single speed hub for the first time. It reminded me of the first time I held one of my kids – sort of. I can’t wait to start riding one. It looks like I could put two cogs on at once and use both chainrings. I still love riding fixed, but I’m getting excited about coasting again too.
On the way home I did more thinking about life, work, riding, values, priorities – deep stuff that seems so profound at the time but often a little embarrassing afterward. I believe I had some pretty interesting epiphanies this time. I’m gonna sleep on it. Maybe I’ll share more later.
Lights out.
About 25 people from Liberty Northwest showed up a 9:00. I got to Alberta street around 7:30 and had a cup of coffee, two potato pancakes, and a scotch egg at a nice little dinner a couple of blocks west of the CCC. Shortly after 8:00 I started helping Neal set up tool boxes for the volunteers.
Each tool box is a different color and most of the tools inside are marked with the color of the box they belong to. The boxes contain a pretty amazing number of tools. I wish I had one in my garage. Although I don’t really need seven different freewheel remover tools, the CCC uses all of them and more!
I taught Paul and Laura, from Liberty Northwest, how to identify the freewheel remover required for a particular wheel, secure the tool in a vice, place the freewheel on the tool, and remove the freewheel from the hub. The shop had another bucket of tools for freewheels that couldn’t be removed with one of the tools in the colored tool boxes. Even with those tools, there were a handful of wheels that we couldn’t find the tool for. By 11:30 Paul and Laura had removed about 30 freewheels. There were a few wheels with cassettes, and I showed them how to use a chain whip and one of the Shimano tools to remove the lock ring and slide the sprockets off.
Most of the bikes weren’t worth trying to save. The objective was to salvage some of the components and recycle the rest of the material. In two hours, about 100 bikes were processed. There were a few frames that we wanted to keep. I had fun teaching a couple of people how to remove the cranks and bottom bracket from two of the frames that are going to be reused.
After things were cleaned up and the volunteers had left, I bought a used bike as a surprise for my wife, Julia, who has never owned a bike since we moved to Oregon in 1996. I forget what brand the frame is, but I remember it’s red. It has mountain bike bars, V brakes, 26” slick, moderately fat tires, lots of clearance for some coroplast fenders, Shimano components that seem to be in decent condition, and a kickstand. I’ve got an old Nishiki frame taking up space in the garage. I plan to donate the frame tomorrow when we pick up the bike. I’m excited. The other day Julia was saying she would ride a bike to the pool if she had one. Hopefully she does. I’m proud that our kids are good swimmers now, and Julia is making progress too. I like to think that I played a role in encouraging them to swim. Next step is to get everyone out on bikes more often. Oh yeah, I also bought two super bright Planet Bike taillights at the CCC. I put one on the seat post of my Country Road Bob and the other on the trail-a-bike. I've always been concerned that we don't have a light on the back of the trail-a-bike when I take the kids to school.
Hands on Portland had a celebration event at the Rose Quarter where people who had volunteered at various places around the city in the morning got together for lunch and entertainment. The Hands on Portland project has been growing by about 500 volunteers a year for the last three years. This year there was just shy of 2000 people who helped with things like painting schools and the bike tear down at the CCC. Outback Steakhouse served a fabulous lunch. I had to wait in line for a while, but it was worth it. Just as I was finishing my dinner, a lady sat down next to me, because she noticed my cycling clothes and wanted to talk to the “biker”. We really hit it off and talked for a long time. It was fantastic. Her name is Sharon and I gave her one of my Sabertooth Salmon “business” cards. So if you’re reading this, Sharon, thanks for the company!
On the way home, I decided to take Leif Erickson trail over the hills instead of sticking to the pavement. As I was heading up Thurman, the Fat Tire Farm caught my eye and I decided to go inside. I’ve often wanted to see what the place is like. One of the guys working there was real helpful and gave me some advice about keeping my feet and hands warm this winter. I bought a pair of Gortex socks and a pair of Descente gloves. They were a bit spendy, and the fact that the gloves are made in China doesn’t thrill me, but I felt good about supporting The Farm. I looked at some super expensive battery powered lights in the store (see http://www.bikelites.com/). I need something like that if I’m going to do much riding at night in the winter on roads like Old Germantown or off-road on Leif Erickson. I also got to hold a Chris King single speed hub for the first time. It reminded me of the first time I held one of my kids – sort of. I can’t wait to start riding one. It looks like I could put two cogs on at once and use both chainrings. I still love riding fixed, but I’m getting excited about coasting again too.
On the way home I did more thinking about life, work, riding, values, priorities – deep stuff that seems so profound at the time but often a little embarrassing afterward. I believe I had some pretty interesting epiphanies this time. I’m gonna sleep on it. Maybe I’ll share more later.
Lights out.
posted by Sabertooth Salmon at 2:54 AM
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