Hi becyclers!
Just a few lines to tell you what happened today at the workshop.
Steve and I opened today. At about 1.30pm the Maths professor friend of Daniel came to give us a seat tube and a seat and to see if we had a thicker tube, but no luck.
Steve had a good go with his bike rear calipers, oiling the cable and adjusting them so that they kept centered when the brake levers were released. These brakes can be a bit of a pain in the low-back to adjust, and it took Steve a couple of hours to make them right!
Later on an Indian girl (cannot remember her name), friend of Hanna, came with two Colombian guys (a girl, Paola, and a boy, Alex), to fix a flat tire on Paola’s bike, a racing bike with low upper tube frame that was given to her by someone. She also cleaned and oiled the brake cables, replaced her narrow saddle for a wider one from ours and I also gave her a rear light. She borrowed a cable+paddlock (her contact details are in the notebook, she is a university staff).
Hanna’s friend was telling us that she could help us to find some sponsors from oil companies to get some funding, and that we should try to contact all the bike shops (I haven’t finished the document for Alpine bikes, sorry, but it’s on the way!). She will come back next week or the week after to get a bike. She also suggested us to contact Louise Napier (LNAPIER@aberdeencity.gov.uk) at the City Council to see if we can get some funding for the workshop.
While I was helping Paola another guy came to repair his bike. Steve assisted him.
One guy came to give us three outer tubes and two inner tubes (these need checking for punctures).
Tariq came to have a brake from his study time. He started fixing one mountain bike. His girlfriend borrowed one of the bikes that were ready for one week (Tariq entered this in the notebook).
A couple donated one violet, ‘female’ frame mountain bike. Tariq had a quick check before going, the bike is in good conditions, it just needs some brake adjustments.
I put a new saddle+tube to the Giant from the library whose seat had been stolen, and fixed the puncture in the rear wheel. The rear V-brake needs one of the arms to be replaced (the one that has to be put in is attached to the bike).
Dave Cheseldine, the guy from Aberdeen Cycling Forum (ACF) that first contacted Hanna and from whom I knew about Becycle, came to clean and oil his front derailer (or dérailleur). He will try to come regularly as a volunteer, and he will tell about us in the next ACF meeting. He was happily amazed of how well Becycle is going, and he suggested that we contact NESTRANS to get some funding from them for the workshop (NESTRANS supported the ACF film festival last June).
A couple of friends from Paola, medical doctors like herself, came to ask about the community project and to see if there were any bike to borrow. I explained them how it works and I said them to come back in September for the bikes, once that we have the lending paperwork a bit more organized. But I also suggested them to come some next weekend to help us checking through the other bikes from the police that need we haven’t check yet to ’spot’ and fix their favourite one for September. They say that the may well come.
And I think that was all today (Steve, Tariq, please help me if I have forgotten something).
I have left the keys to Steve, he will open the workshop next Saturday (I may not be in Aberdeen). Tariq, if you are here next Saturday and can come, that will be great!
Tha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-t’s all folks! ;p
Pablo
