That guy on the right looks a little sus, eh?
Every year, club members Bobbi B and Marty A do a community ride to benefit the South Brunswick Board of Ed, and this is the second year they've asked me to wrench for 'em. So I loaded up the Ramblin' Wrench Prius, and met 'em at the South Brunswick High School at 7am on this Sunday morning.
The rides range from 25 miles down to 4, which is nowhere near enough for an enthusiast to come out, but this ride is geared towards the families with schoolkids. And with that in mind, the bikes we see run the gamut from really top-end stuff, through mid-range specialty bikes, through good-quality big-box-store bikes, through older bikes that still have good miles left in 'em, to bikes that are barely rolling along... or AREN'T rolling, anymore.
Friend Albert P came to help out. Most of what we're doing is basic bike checks, filling tires, and adjusting brakes and shifting. But some of 'em are demanding; we had a bike on which the fork was mounted backwards (and on which the cables needed to be rerouted); another where the original assembler had set the shifting too tight to hit the easiest gear; a bike where the galvanized shifter cables had fused to the housing (and are never gonna move again); a bike where the fluid disk brakes appeared to be empty (beyond our power to manage at this workstation)...
They're mostly NOT great bikes. What they are, though, are bikes that are plenty good for the people who ride them. The bikes get ridden around the neighborhood, or occasionally taken to a local bike path, and, with basic maintenance (tires, brakes, lube, occasional cleaning), these bikes will happily do that for decades. It's important never to talk down the bike that someone brings in (although I think it IS OK to be realistic about whether a bike is worth trying to salvage, or should likely just be replaced).
And the folks are so happy to be there, and have such fun, even if they do come back tired from what, for them, is a demanding ride.
Y'want some more pics?
Bobbi B among the constables. (If I had that many police around me, I'd need a medication adjustment.)
Above, Albert rolling a bike in for attention.
I didn't get pictures of the busiest times. But it was a lot of fun. I hope to do it again next year.
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