@2CB@urbanists.social
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

2CB

@2CB@urbanists.social

I want everyone to have a bike so I "rehome" bikes from donors to give to people who can't afford one.
Some I do a major overhaul; some just need air and maybe adjust brakes a bit. All get delivered in good mechanical condition, cleaned up, lubed. See my website linked below for more info. Avatar is cartoon kid on bike. Header is my truck with 4 donated bikes loaded on rear bike rack.
#BikeTooter #BikeRepair #Bikes
#Refugees #Homeless
#SecondChanceBikes

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

2CB, to random
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

🧵1)
I picked up two pretty grungy bikes donated to Repeat Boutique several weeks ago. They are good sturdy machines that can provide transportation to someone who shops there for free clothing, household goods, etc. But not in the shape they were in. Both are mountain hybrids with handlebar extensions and rat trap pedals. Lots of mud, 4 flat tires, 1 chain jammed, 4 nonfunctional combo shifter- brake levers, no kickstands. Ugh. So Friday I ⤵️



2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

🧵2)
tackled them. Put twist shifters, brake handles, all new cable. Patched two tubes, replaced two blown out tubes. Replaced a tire & wheel. Built the wheel from scavenged parts. Deep sixed the extensions and pedals. I added pedals and kickstand to one, have to source for the other. Test rode both yesterday; one is 21, the other 18 speed. Both get to highest and lowest. In beween is best effort, since the 7 speed shifters I received a case of don't match⤵️

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

🧵3)
either drivetrain exactly. I tell people to live with that. What I furnish is not for racing or long distance mountain cruising. It's mostly for going a few miles to a low paying job, or maybe a trip to the store. Photos are both bikes, one finished, the other before I started. The finished one was the real mudder. I plan to put a rear basket on the finished one and drop it off tomorrow. I used my last donated kickstand, the last⤵️

As-received Wheeler bicycle

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

🧵4)
large-stem pedals, and will use the last rear basket today. If anyone feels inclined to chip in, I'm updating the wish list when I finish this thread. I spent the cash donations received at the bike clinic I worked two weeks ago on tires and short handgrips.

My Amazon wishlist:
https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/2WQM567JKIZJB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2AcHCbTJFJ52K

  • finis
2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

I have a ton of 1/2" shaft pedals scavenged from scrapped bikes. I used my last two 9/16" drive ones on the first of these two bikes. I need a set for the second bike and a few pairs in inventory would help. I added to wish list.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

Some pedals are sold with adapters so they can wotk with either 1/2 inch or 9/16 inch crank holes. If anyone knows where to get those adapters searately, please tell me.

2CB, to BikeRepair
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

I have seen plenty of blown out inner tubes but this is the prize winner!

2CB, to random
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

I am going to be one of the "maintenance experts" at an annual bike clinic this Saturday. In years past several attendees have donated bikes and/or cash The sponsoring church passes all that to me,. I hope to get an ideal bike for my newest surrogate granddaughter. She is a sweet kid, amazingly upbeat given the circumstances. I have one for her brother. The cash may allow me to buy some parts for a couple of otherwise high quality bikes. I will have to scrap them if not.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

After the bike clinic I went to a refugee family friend's house to fix her son's bike. It is a dual suspension Mongoose that I gave him. The handlebar clamp had gotten loose and the bar rotates and slides sideways. I have seen that a lot on low-budget big box store bikes. I took him a few tools & lube, fixed the handlebar and then showed him some basic maintenance/tuneup stuff: what barrel adjusters and the setscrews on derailleur and brakes are for. I think he was ⤵️

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

(Cont)
dazzled at the improvements that can be made so simply using features that were right there all along!
Then enroute home I stopped at Prairie Path Cycles to see if they had any tradeins to donate. They had this one, which is perfect for my newest surrogate grandchild, mentioned earlier.
What a spectacular day.

Another view of same blue and white 21 speed girl's bike. Straight handlebars, trigger shifters

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

Got an email that the clinic sponsor had forgotten to tell me these three were donated for me. I'll pick them up.

2CB, to random
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

🧵 1) Last Saturday I went in my truck to carry luggage with a Bumese refugee friend to meet his friend's family at the Chicago airport. They were arriving as refugees after a long (16 yrs plus) wait in Malaysia and then a 3-day delay at Dubai airport, shut down for crazy weather. Arrived at last, but luggage AWOL. That would be the family's complete stock of worldly possessions. I did what I could to file luggage claim, took one of the kids who speaks ⤵️

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Something a lot of white folk don't realize happens to Black people a lot:

When there is a competition between a Black person and a white person for a coveted prize, if the white person wins, they're celebrated. If the Black person wins... they're asked to share the prize with the white person that came in second place.😮

This happens to Black women more often than Black men.

Literary awards (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/15/bernardine-evaristo-margaret-atwood-share-booker-prize-award)

Whitehouse invitation for championship teams:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167965013/iowa-lsu-jill-biden-ncaa-basketball-championship

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@mekkaokereke
Terrible move on Jill's part. The worst part of it, to me, is I don't believe it was a conscious thought about color. Jill should be looking at herself and going holy crap! Did I really do that? As should all white folks who believe they don't have built-in racism. I have second- guessed myself many times thinking "crap! I know how that must have looked and I did not mean it that way at all - or did I?"

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@mekkaokereke
Angel is gonna be SOOO welcome here in Chicago! And Clark will be just down the road in Indiana, so they will go head to head a bunch.

2CB, to random
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

Yesterday I put new shifters and 4 new cables on a Mongoose bike. Today I'll finish it up and get started on one of the big road bike conversions. I have 4 of those to do. Need to buy some handgrips; I think I have everything else. Serious yard work coming soon; i hope to get those 4 done and delivered first.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

Dang it! I discovered I am out of the short handlebar grips. Ordered 2 pair but thought I'd add to wish list as a fairly low-cost item people who were inclined to help could send. None of them are available to sell via list since they are 3d party fulfillment items. $5 per bike won't kill me but it's annoying that what was a super convenient way to crowdsource got blown up by whatever triggered this policy change that they have been calling "temporary" for over a year.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

I waited for the handgrips. I put grips on first, then position shifter & brskr lever snugly against. So i deferred connecting & tuning the derailleurs. Did people's taxes all day yesterday. Today the shifters arrived & i got back to the Mongoose. Got all cables hooked up, was adjusting rear brake, found s broken spoke. No, 2 broken. No, 3! So i took wheel off, removed cassette, replaced spokes, trued wheel on my newish toy, put it on, added my label.
Some kid is getting a Mongoose!

2CB, to cycling
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

Metra is the Chicago area commuter rail system.

https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-allows-bikes-all-trains?fbclid=IwAR1BnYWwErmqwLNxvR5AxQk0gq7FtYpplNrbP72tQP_mPXNiK9KGDj8ZQcs

ascentale, to cycling
@ascentale@sfba.social avatar

What about mirrors? @ai6yr asks:

Q7. Question for the community: I've been trying to switch from driving to bicycling, and keep wishing I had a rear view mirror (as a speeding SUV comes rushing past my left side...)... thoughts on mirrors for bicycles? Yay? Nay? If Yay, what kinds would you recommend?

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@edd @ascentale @ai6yr
I must have a helmet mirror.
No big deal on trails, just nice to have.
But on the shoulder of a busy road, especially when needing to cross over for a left turn, i find it essential. I will turn my head to look back once to confirm, but watching for a break in traffic while staying on edge of pavement every head turn is a risk of a swerve into traffic or ditch.

I've never had a bar end thst stayed put, and they cannot be manipulsted to scan like a slight nod will do.

Alice, (edited ) to random
@Alice@beige.party avatar

My husband and I don’t fight very often, but one thing we do fight about is how he calls aluminum foil "tin foil" and he's like "IT'S THE SAME THING!" and I’m like "bruh, they are completely different metals, so please go consult the periodic table I've hung above our bed."

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@Alice
But do you recycle your tin cans?

Rome_and_stuff, to philosophy
@Rome_and_stuff@mastodon.social avatar

The damaging effect of car on an capital near the Markets of Trajan.

image/png

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@Rome_and_stuff
Symbolic of what the past 200 years are doing to the entire planet

dancinyogi, to random

I wish I would have kept it so I could have screenshotted it. The HOA sent out a letter last week with 'suggestions' for Halloween. They included a list of appropriate candies to accommodate allergies, one hour of trick or treating (between 6-7 p.m.), no haunted houses, and nothing that could 'frighten or traumatize a child', including decorations or costumes that might be offensive.

I mean...

Is it me? What's the point of even having Halloween?

Thankfully, this is my last Halloween here.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@dancinyogi
Finally, an appropriate instance for the pejorative w-word!

I played Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in high school. So of course I broke out the costume & makeup at Halloween. Went to a friend's house; he would open door and let them all say Trick or treat," start to dispense candy, and I would scuttle out from behind him mumbling something. Most enjoyed; one turn & ran screaming "mommy!" Then one stared for a minute and said "you stupid fool!" Ah, the good old days.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Looking at social media rn and I keep seeing articles about: ever larger, ever more-expensive cars, SUVs and trucks out-selling smaller vehicles, rants calling for the abolition of public transport, hate campaigns directed at cyclists, an insistence that driving is the ONLY valid form of transport—

The car industry is panicking. End of fossil fuel burners plus €10,000 for a car-sized battery pack equals end of a viable motoring economy (cheap second-hand cars can't exist in an EV future).

/1

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@steely_glint @cstross
My 12 year old gas burning Ford Ranger cost me $20k when I bought it used with 20k miles on it 10 years ago. I have only added 50k more miles to it in short local trips. It got 30 mpg on the highway on the few trips I've taken. Its blue book value is still around 17k. Electric would have cost more then and even this 12 year old not affordable to many. I am trying to find a car for a refugee friend and there just isn't anything within her reach.

QasimRashid, (edited ) to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

POLL: Politicians who claim to stand with UAW workers—but have taken tens of thousands in campaign contributions from GM, Ford, & Stellantis, including up through 2023—as those corporations exploited and underpaid UAW workers.

Is taking that money crossing the picket line, or nah?

[PLEASE BOOST SO WE CAN GET MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION]

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@QasimRashid
Depends if they took it during the strike.
But even if not technically crossing, it shows where their loyalties lie.

2CB,
@2CB@urbanists.social avatar

@QasimRashid
I tend to split hairs for accuracy. I did NOT say it was ok to take. It is not crossing a picket line if there is no picket line at the time. Crossing a picket line is an actual overt act. If they lean toward supporting management against workers because of the $, then it is analogous to crossing a picket line, and I suspect that is the case. I want all the corporate money to go to paying taxes, not politicians.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • provamag3
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • Durango
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • magazineikmin
  • cubers
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • kavyap
  • megavids
  • InstantRegret
  • everett
  • tacticalgear
  • vwfavf
  • tester
  • normalnudes
  • modclub
  • ethstaker
  • khanakhh
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •