Monthly Archives: March 2011

Tuesday Open House — “Biker, this is your Drivetrain!”

Hey Commonwheeler,

Ever explore your inner gearing? Come talk it out with us, at our next event, “Biker, this is your Drivetrain”!

Following up on our past two weekly events, we’re going to host another Open House this coming Tuesday, March 29th, 6-9 pm, themed so we’ll all get to know our drivetrains better.

We’ll explore types of pedals, cranks, chainrings, and the bottom bracket, then move our way to the chain, rear cogs, and derailleur (if you have one). The discussion will go from there, and if anyone wants to figure out their gear ratio, we’ll bust out the pocket calculator and slide rule.

And, of course this will be an open house event, so bring your friends along with your bike.

Hope to see you there!

(ps. check it out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191301110907139)

Fix-a-Flat success

Our last event on Tuesday was a great success!  We had a bit of instructional from Marcus, our friendly volunteer mechanic, who taught us how to change a tube.  Then we devolved into an open-house style “fix-a-anything” that had people straightening frames, people building wheels and checking headsets, and of course the ever-popular “wipin’ & lubin'”.

We managed to get some shoddy iPhone pictures, to get a sense of the mood.  It was good stuff!  We’re going to keep the Open House Tuesday events going, so come by next week to get your bike-fix and say “hi”.

In various stages of (dis)repair

In the past week, we’ve been quite busy building out the the space — along with the Wipe & Lube party, we’ve gathered some friendly Commonwheelers to dig out the basement, donate bikes and bike stands, put up pegboard and tools, organized some of our miscellany, and (most fun) stripping about 30 donated bikes to assess usability.

Photo Bomb:

Bottom Bracket Check

Yahir and Bill checking the bottom bracket

Open Bottom Bracket

A good view of a grimy bottom bracket

 

Eric wipin his chain

Erin, cleaning his Schwinn Madison

Yahir and his full-suspension box store bike

Yahir and his full-suspension box store bike

Nate pulling off a fork

Nate pulling off a rusty fork

Michelle wiping

Melissa cleaning her whip, "Disco Puma"

mook lube

Mooky wipin' and lubin'

george lube

George, showing off his newly wiped down Jamis

ta da

Rust off the chain, grease on the hands

Welding

Elias, welding on some new brake mounts

Merch table

donations, instructions, posters, maps, stickers, and beers

And a good time had by all!

Fix-a-Flat and Wipe & Lube

Building off the success of our first “Wipe & Lube” party, we’re going to open our doors on Tuesday nights for more “meet and greet and fix-your-whip.”

This Tuesday, the 22nd, we’ll get together for another round of wipe & lube, and we’ll also run a refresher on how to fix a flat tire — that’ll include taking off wheels, and tires, pulling out tubes, searching for holes, patching holes, reinserting tubes, and tires, pumping up, and resetting wheels.

Come join the party, from 6-8 in the evening. For more info, feel free to email gmmook(at)gmail(dot)com.