Mtbr at Turning Wheels for Kids Bike Build

[francois]

We just got back from the bike build session At Turning Wheels for Kids. Perhaps around 1700 bikes were built by volunteers for needy and deserving kids. The bikes were bought by the Turning Wheels for Kids organization and today was the day when these bikes were assembled by volunteer teams.

Mtbr had a team lead by Nick Thelen, aka 'chum'. He spearheaded the effort and the team roster of 12 filled up in an instant! Other teams of note were Team Wrong Way, ROMP, Fox Racing Shox, ACTC, Ebay, etc. It was a loosely organized effort unpacking, assembling, testing, sorting and giving the bikes away. Workers from 5 years old to 85 just buzzed around and helped out.

Bikes ranged from tiny toddler bikes to 26-inch wheels mountain bikes. Our favorites were the Diamondback beach cruisers and the bmx stunt bikes.

More info is available here:
http://www.turningwheelsforkids.org/

Here are some photos:
(click to enlarge)

Miguel, our bike tester and news reporter:


This is our host Jack on the right. He is famous for bringing up the margarita machines to the Turkey ride every year.


Incoming!




JeffH


Plim


Darryl aka wddung


Sarah and Rensho


Jeff aka Justjeff


Dank


Rafael aka Grrah


Team Wrong Way and Fox Racing Shox area


Miguel and Kathleen aka mtbikermom



Jeni aka mrs. BR Lights


Mike Gin, their fearless leader


Frank, who is the glue between both booths


Kyle of BR Lights and Allan Sherlock


Erik, one of the kings of Kennedy


Riley and Schlachter factor


Lesley - she was in charge of ensuring all reflectors were installed properly. Apparently, mtbers had a lot of experience taking reflectors off but not putting them on.

[francois]

Brandy Chastain


New owner of a pro-built Diamondback


Wow!


Streamers


Superman bike!


After...


Discussing low light techniques


Test ride


Quality Control


Bike Delivery


Stress testing


Warranty issues

[francois]

Photos from Miguel's camera. Our rookie photographer gets the scoop.

Team leader Nick aka Chum


Jeni discussing torque spec requirements
















"dad, I'm hungry. it's time to go home."

[wddung]

Well done everyone! This year I blasted thru 4 builds and gave support to Quality Control volunteers until all the bikes were checked.

BIG THANKS go to Deborah for getting an additional 700+ bikes over last year. Thanks to all TWFK volunteers who help move things along. Many hands make light work. Mille grazie to Amato pizzeria for bringing pizza to the QC people who stayed to finish assembly.

What's it like at a TWFK build day?

I challenge all you home mechanics to test your wrenching hand against ours (MTBR folks) at the next TWFK build day (approximately 12/13/2008). Have your 13-14-15mm combo wrenches ready and bring it on. I'll be back in '08.

[fred-da-trog]

Awesome

There are some really great people in this world and I proud to know a few of them.

Nice job everyone.

[baycat]

Awesome of you guys!

[One_Speed]

u guys rule!!!!

[mtbikermom]

This should be a link to some more photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtbikermom/

No mention of Romp? We were in with TWW and the Fox group. My special request!

We had one guy drive down from Arcata to help out.



It was great fun. Even for those not into building bikes (like me), I spent lots of time hauling bike boxes to recycle and picking up garbage. Those TWW guys made a mess.


As for the MTBR t-shirts worn today:


It is always nice to put a few more faces to their names.

Kathleen

[bustamove]

A huge day for everyone. It was a lot of work and I walked out exhausted after 4 hours of turning wrenches, but well worth the effort. I did manage to shoot some photos between bike builds. Thanks Nick for adding me to the team at the very last moment. Chum was so busy working today, I didn't even get a chance to photograph him.

8:45am -- all is quiet on the South Hall floor before the labor begins


unloading 1 of 7 trucks filled with new bikes ready to be built




Sarah is a happy worker


Volunteers were all smiles throughout the whole event

[bustamove]

12pm - BAM! 1,700 bikes built in three hours








A little QA check after all the bikes had been built kept us busy for another couple of hours.


Thomas (aka Rensho) and his goofy smiles


Rafael (aka Grrah) happy to put in a good day's work


Darryl (aka wddung) ready for more bikes

[Stumpy_Steve]

wow, was there a thread on this previously? glad to see so much bikes going out. What I always say: a bike is a way better gift to get your child over an xbox. iffy on the wii, though...

[The Law]

You all rock for taking time out to do this. Thank you! And, the frosting on the cake-- hopefully, we'll get more kids hooked on biking so that we can grow our ranks and become more influential in terms of trail access...

Shiloh

[rensho]

That was a cool event. Great teamwork today. I was amazed at the rate in which the bikes were built. It was so cool to look at the sea of built bikes.

Benny, our Cityteam 7 year old child that received the bike was way stoked. He got a cool helmet and stout cable lock to boot. SJ Mercury news was there to interview him and document the whole proc. I asked him to promise us that he'd wear his helmet every time he rode his new bike a few times. He was fitted to the bike and got personal QA on the bike while his mom and sister waited.
If you go and volunteer next year, work in the QA area if you're a good wrench. You'll understand why.

Next year, we won't forget the headset wrench, 36mm.

[The Law]

Originally Posted by rensho

Benny, our Cityteam 7 year old child that received the bike was way stoked. He got a cool helmet and stout cable lock to boot. SJ Mercury news was there to interview him and document the whole proc.

Here's the article in the Merc. I'm pasting the entire article since the Merc site is even more slow than mtbr.

Bicycles for kids in need, memories for everyone
VOLUNTEERS ASSEMBLE BIKES FOR KIDS IN NEED
By Dana Hull
Mercury News
Article Launched: 12/16/2007 01:40:06 AM PST

Think back to your childhood. Was there one particular holiday or Christmas when you woke up to find a brand new bicycle under the tree? And then spent the entire day zooming around the neighborhood, showing it off to all of your friends?

Saturday, the San Jose McEnery Convention Center's South Hall resembled the spokes and wheels wing of Santa's workshop. Hundreds of volunteers from local companies and the South Bay's vast cycling community built 2,000 brand-new bikes - then promptly gave them away to underprivileged children.

Pedro Correa's eyes sparkled as the 9-year-old San Jose boy gazed upon row after row of brand new bikes. He could choose whichever one he wanted; a volunteer made sure it was the right size. Finally, he threw his leg over a Diamondback BMX bike.

"I learned how to ride when I was 4," said Pedro, who eagerly pedaled around the vast convention center as a grin slid into an enormous smile. "You can ride a bike to all kinds of places."

Bike Build 2007 is the signature project of TurningWheels for Kids, a program of the Valley Medical Center Foundation. It started with one person with a big idea.

Sue Runsvold, a nurse at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, recalls riding her bike as a child as among her happiest childhood memories. A few years ago, she decided to give away some bikes at Christmastime. In 2003, she scraped together enough money to buy 12 sets of shiny wheels. The next year, with the help of
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a few friends, she got 40. Soon she assembled a board of directors, launched a Web site, made connections with local cycling clubs and organizations that work with youths.

Last holiday season, TurningWheels provided more than 1,000 bicycles, and that goal was doubled this year. Runsvold intends to organize bike safety and maintenance clinics and community rides.

"When I was a kid, I loved my bike because I powered it. I controlled it," said Runsvold, 57, who hopes to ride in her first Century, or 100-mile ride, this year. "It gave me freedom; I could go visit a friend."

There's something magical about a bicycle and a young child.

Biking teaches balance and coordination. It encourages independence. For families without cars, it may be the only way to get to school or a relative's house. It gets kids, many of whom live in cramped apartments, outside and in the fresh air - and away from video games and television. Social workers often note that bikes are the No. 1 gift that is requested from low-income children.

"For many of our families, the priority is getting food on the table," said Vernon Hills, director of development for CityTeam Ministries, one of many organizations that helped distribute bicycles to children Saturday. "Some of our families don't have any way to mark the holiday. This is huge for a number of reasons. It's not just a toy. It's a bike. This is a lifetime memory for young people."

TurningWheels for Kids had tricycles with training wheels for 2- and 3-year-olds and full-size bikes for 18-year-olds. Each was built, inspected for quality and then matched with a child.

Soccer star Brandi Chastain was one of several hundred volunteers busy building bikes, inflating tires and showing kids how to fasten on their helmets.

"A bike is a rite of passage to a child," said Jeff Burnham of TurningWheels for Kids. When Burnham delivered 37 bikes to families last Christmas, he was stunned by the reaction that he got. "Most of the families could never afford to buy a bike on their own. This is what Christmas is about."

Benny Padron, 7, and his sister Yamilcka, 13, also got wheels Saturday. Benny had a bike before, but it broke when he tried to do a wheelie, and there was no way to fix it.

He chose a red Rallye bicycle, and paid close attention as a volunteer showed him his new helmet, lock and water bottle.

"My cousin taught me how to ride," said an elated Benny, as he set off across the convention center floor, briefly riding with no hands. "I want to ride my bike to school."

[jrm]

great cause and awesome people..

[Dan'ger]

Awesome work TWW, ROMP and MTBR!

[jeffh]

Seeing the smiles on the kids faces has they picked up there new bikes made my whole holiday season !

And it takes a few minutes longer to tune in a Huffy drive train then SRAM XO but it's well worth it.

CHUM thanks for organizing the mtbr team, you can count me in next year

[rensho]

Hey D(Bustamove), I have a couple of your tools.

[ibikergal]

What a great charity event, we show up, we worked on bikes, we see smiling kids, we have fun doing good for our community!!! It is nice to think that our work will help brighten so many and hopefully get a few hooked at an early age on Bikes.

Thank you Chum for putting it all together, you can count on me for next year!!

[CHUM]

i didn't build one single bike.....nada.....zip...zilch.....i did however discover that my black-truck-o-doom is an awesome cardboard transpo-delivery mechanism .....the amount of recyclables that come from 2000 packaged bikes is pretty amazing!....and the piles get big and outta control really quick like....

everyone showed up on time and ready to wrench!.....and thanks to Francois for sporting us the sexy...yet fashionable....MTBR Log-On shirts, and the MTBR ez-up...

much of my time was also spent in the quality control side of things....and towards the end of the day pretty much all of us were there fine tuning rigs and tightening down bolts....hilite of my day....i got to wrench on a little girls bike while she watched....even brought the brake levers in (at her request ).....

it's a definate for next year as well....thanks all y'all

[dan51]

Super fun event.
I'm in for sure next year.

Meeting Benny was a highlight. He probably got the best tuned most reliable bike out of everyone, since Rensho was super tuning it. Nice work.

Most notable bike was the Superman bike. I need one of those front plates. Any pics of them? The green one with yellow rims, white walls, and fenders was a close second.

Whose got pics of that spider?

Items needed for next year:
8,9,10,13,14,15 mm wrenches
4,5,6 mm allen wrenches
flat head screw driver
Bigger hammer.

[ibikergal]

Meet mister Spider, does anyone know what kind he is??? He was about 3/4" long. He was set free, no spiders were killed.

I think he may be a Zoropsis Spinimana, check out this web site: http://spiders.ucr.edu/images/zorspi.jpg and http://www.physorg.com/news10271.html and http://digilander.libero.it/naturaef...ArArZoZoSp.htm

Apparently it is a new spider to California from the Mediterranean and northern Africa coastal countries. They want to track it so I will send an e-mail and let them know where he was. I will send a picture and see if they verify that he is one.

[CHUM]

Originally Posted by ibikergal

Meet mister Spider, does anyone know what kind he is??? He was about 3/4" long. He was set free, no spiders were killed.

wolf spider.....there pretty groovy and harmless...here's a link:
http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/b...Schizocosa.htm

[MattP.]

Way cool guys, mad props! Count me in for next year!

[pimpbot]

I think this is great. The gift isn't the bike itself, but the adventure the bikes can bring... not to mention the outdoor activities and such. Muuuch better than a Wii or X-Box.

I saw this on the Channel 2 news last night. It think I saw CHUM up there.

Gonna search the ch2 site to see if there is a link to the vid.

[Berkeley Mike]

You guys are huge!

[grrrah]

That was such an awsome time! Thanks Chum for taking the lead on this, and Francois for the extra uncessessary donation of the t-shirts and backup!

I built 3 bikes (needed extra time getting those derailleurs dialed, yeah, that's it) before heading to the QC area that was getting backed up. Like most have said, the best part was seeing the kids receive their new bikes.

The schwinns were definately closer to ready out of the boxes than the huffys were.

[ibikergal]

OT, mister spider was a Zoropsis, I got this e-mail from the people that are tracking them in California.

Many thanks for the info and very nice photo. That is indeed Zoropsis, which puts you among the elite who can correctly identify the spider. More than half of all the submitted Zoropsis photos are wrong.


Cheers,



====================

Darrell Ubick

Department of Entomology

California Academy of Sciences

875 Howard St.

San Francisco CA 94103-3009 USA

415-321-8308

[CHUM]

Originally Posted by ibikergal

OT, mister spider was a Zoropsis, I got this e-mail from the people that are tracking them in California.....

well son-of-a-gun....verrrry cool.....i didn't even consider trying to look outside of a cali native species....besides, my specialty are theraphosoidea anyway...

FC....you got alot of those buggers in your backyard....there were at least 3 that stowed away...

[dan51]

That spider is lucky you and Derek stepped in.
I know it wouldn't have matched the mood and tone of the day, but I would have stomped it's guts out. I hate spiders. I woke up this morning having nightmares about those damn things.

The funny part is, we released it in the middle of an asphalt parking lot with lots of people going through. It probably got trampled anyway.

[Fast Eddy]

Originally Posted by francois

Lesley - she was in charge of ensuring all reflectors were installed properly. Apparently, mtbers had a lot of experience taking reflectors off but not putting them on.

That shirt ain't lyin'. Whoa.

Great job all. You had more fun that I, piloting the BSA "Santa Ship" parade float around for the day. At least I was in the xmas volunteer spirit with you all.

[rensho]

Got great news from my company today. JustJeff turned me onto our matching program. There was a team already planning to be at the event and they submitted Turning wheels for kids as a matching charity fund. It was accepted today, which means that $10/hr will be donated for all of the employees that volunteered. Small beans, but certainly will help.

[mtbhead]

Enother well organized TWFK build - the food situation was much better this year too :-) Though pretty much all of the bikes were of the "low-end" stature, it was still surprising to see how reaaaaallly poor quality the Huffy's were vs. any of the other brands. The Diamond Back BMXers were actually pretty cool though Very cool that they had some of the kids come in to recieve bikes on the build day this year - I don't remember them doing that last year.