Following Edge

I had a great experience today. Of course, it was Tuesday and I spent part of the day with Lauren and she was exceptionally cooperative and we'd both gotten a good sleep last night, so that was really great. But, this elevated even that. It was all about... bicycle repair.

In response to a recent post about Sri, Bob (a reader and local blogger), wonderfully offered a neglected bike sitting neglected in his garage as an improvement to Sri's lacking transportation options. Bob was nice enough to drop it by my work, but, when I arrived the next day, my co-worker suggested, "Wow, it's a mess".

It really wasn't that bad, but it did have flat tires, no pedals, to grips, and a bit of shifting trouble. Bob thought it might have been stolen at some point and he had got it three years ago from a dumpster, which might have explained part of the condition.

I decided to go easy on my wallet and visit the Center for Appropriate Transport in Eugene, because I'd heard that they had a good bike shop you could use and suspected they had some parts to pick through. I didn't have high hopes, because these non-profit grassroots places are often disorganized and hard to figure out, with a sort of "we're more liberal than you" cronyism.

What I found instead was a well-stocked shop that I could use for $6 an hour, boxes and boxes of really cheap used bicycle parts organized by type and (sometimes) size, and some really helpful (though spread thin) employees or volunteers available to help for $1 per five minutes.

The place also houses a bike manufacturer, bike valet service, bike delivery service, and other pro-bike groups. They helped a bunch of people while I was there... repairing a food bank delivery bike trailer, helping set up some equipment for a fellow in a wheelchair, and more mundane, but probably personally important, things.

Anyhow, I was slow and used a whole hour in the shop with 5 minutes of assistance from an expert. I added the pedals, grips, another reflector, shortened the seat, fixed the shifters, adjusted the brakes, and even added a water bottle. All for $10. Plus, another kid was there and Lauren and she had a great time cruising around the place on tricycles.
I would have been out of there really cheap, but I decided that I needed to support such a great thing and gave them a $50 cash donation.

If you need something fixed up on your bicycle, I would highly recommend going down to CAT. You may be able to try it in your garage, but why try that when you can have the tools, parts and expertise at your disposal for a pittance.

Now, I hope that the super-fixed bicycle is the right size for Sri.