Wrenching again, for no pay even!

For the first time in over 10 years I was in a shop with somebody else's tools working on somebody else's bike.

On Wednesday evening, I went over to City Cycle with my Klein Rascal frame to have Drew take a look at the bottom bracket spindle and chain alignment before I started any real assembly of the bike. Drew gave the seal of approval to the bottom bracket, which is a bit out of line but should do fine so I'll roll with it. While I was there he asked me if I was going to stay for the bike building party. I said "huh?"

Drew is supporting a local non-profit called Jax Recycles, which collects abandoned bikes from all over, like apartment complexes and even curbside garbage, and then works with Drew's shop and volunteers which donate time and space to helping get the bikes back on the road so they can be redistributed by JR to folks who can't afford a bike...someone in a local shelter program or what have you.

We ate pizza, and wrenched on some old department store bikes and cruisers and such, cleaning them down and getting as many as possible back on the road. It was a good time! I haven't worked on Huffys and Murrays in forever, and it's always a blast to remember those days years ago when I had to do that to earn enough dough to eat my frozen peas and pasta. The younger bike crowd was in heavy attendance, with their fixies and skinny jeans and affinity for that Yuengling swill...funny bunch.

I guess there was some pay...there were three wheels that had either rims or a hub that I thought had value even after they were deemed irreparable. What goes in the garbage is up for grabs! Two Ritchey Vantage Cross Sport rims and an old UG Shimano Ultegra hub/Mavic MA40 wheel with a bunch of busted spokes. Maybe my work to reintroduce these wheel parts back into the rolling community will find them back in some similar volunteer program sometime 10 or so years from now.

Good times!

"Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little."
Gore Vidal