The Busycle Gets Some Love

Last Sunday's Busycle tune up went off better than any of us could have hoped for. It was not only productive but it was fun too. And THX to Faye Saunders and her helper Chloe Linn, we were nourished by their BBQ foods. Jill Cohen (Eric's mom) even stopped by for a bit with brownies!! To that Mimi Wolfe added cornbread. David Adams showed up with a loaf of his delicious home made bread right when we ran out of hamburger buns. And Barry Burr of Barry's Beams showed up with Not Dogs to round out our offerings from the grille. - See the Full Report-

Jeff Kistler's slide show (200+ pix!)

GRATITUDE: if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you
it will be enough -- meister eckhart

BBQ heats up

Jeff Kistler's tool and bike part doantion

Faye Saunders, our fearless cook, Mimi Wolfe in background

Barry Burr: Power Head and Tail Lamp Magician

Tom Kabat of Woodenbikes Grinds away

The seat after Tom welded it. He got it all remounted on Thursday.

Chloe Linn, the cook's helper in red

Eric Cohen holds court with Scott. Pam and Julie

Paul Vacuums as Rich looks on

View from the BBQ

Matthew Blain of Unwheeldy fame in forefront at left

Job Checklist

Dan Kottke was employee Number One at Apple Computer. Once Steve Jobs best friend, the two of them had traveled to India together. And even more coincidentally, when he was working on the 1980 Macintosh team, Dan lived two doors away from where all of us were standing on this day.

The Volunteers:
Rich Willits | Matthew Blain | Mimi Wolfe | Eric Cohen | Jill Cohen
Schuyler Linn | Chloe Linn | Faye Saunders | David Adams | Silvie Pierce
Dan Kotke & Brenda | Michael Abrams & Ian | Rob Neff | Paul Gregg
Julie | Mark Kreutzer | Barry & Allison | Tom Kabot | Jeff Kistler

As well, there were plenty of cold drinks to go around. We finished off a case each of sparkling juice and water while the only on ice beverage left at the end of the day was about half a dozen gourmet beers.

What we created: http://www.bikeroute.com/BusycleWestCoast/3-16-08TuneUpImages/BusycleDayAfter.jpg

Teenage Eric was there the whole day from 10 doors away. And indeed he was non stop. If he wasn't painting or sanding something, he was between us and his house bringing Armor All for our tires or a belt sander for the steps or the orange colored spray paint his mother did not want him to have. He even brought his dog on one one of his trips.

Michael Abrams showed up with the powerhouse high school kid he is mentoring, Ian, and they sanded and sanded until Michael took me aside and told me that the grease and oil that had been ground into the steps was not coming out no matter how deep they sanded. We talked about the fact that the varnish we had planned for this part of the bus would only make the dirty steps look worse. He suggested that we paint them the same green that we have in our banner that flies above all this. We widened the discussion to include more of the Busycle elders and probably eight of us agreed that the Bus would never look clean unless we painted the steps. With that Michael and Ian took off and went to local hardware store. They came back an hour later with two brushes and a gallon of color, all of which Michael donated to the cause!

Rob Neff, who did so many things I couldn't keep track, told us as the day ended and everyone was away from the vehicle, that he got thru college as a professional painter. No sooner could he get the words out his mouth than he began painting the steps. Soon Eric joined in. I even added my efforts when I wasn't called away for other matters.

Silvie Pierce very carefully sanded and prepared the jackshaft area for the silver paint she so excellently applied (all the spray paint we used had been previously used and found in dumpsters or at garage sales). She even got help from Dan Kottke and Brenda. Dan, of note, was employee Number One at Apple Computer. Once Steve Jobs best friend, the two of them had traveled to India together. And even more coincidentally, when he was working on the 1980 Macintosh team, Dan lived two doors away from where all of us were standing on this day.

Moving aside from the discussion of paint, and wait until you see how great it all looks, the first person there, even before the amazing Eric, was Busycle Key Operator, Rich Willits. The day before, he had ridden with me and Paul Gregg and a few others from Palo Alto on the Memorial Ride we had done to honor Matt Perersn and Kristy Gough, the two cyclists who had been killed 12 miles away by a police man's car. Well Rich brought his electric air pump and got all the tires up to 50 psi. He also brought his grease gun and got every joint lubed and ready for the spring and summer ahead. And like Eric, Rich was everywhere, consulting on jobs little and big.

It was neat to look over and see Mimi Wolfe doing a job I hadn't even thought to do. She was busy duct taping all the holes that were beginning to crop up on our tarp. WoW!!

Which brings me to a point. Is there any one out there with a green tarp we could use when the Busycle is not in use?

Another person who rode the Memorial with us was Busycle escort Paul Gregg. I was excited to see him as the day before represented the farthest away from Palo Alto he had even gone on his heavy, heavy bike, hills and all. His bike is complete with motor cycle battery, gauges and arooga horn, etc. And when he got to the party he soon became the under seats guy. He vacuumed the truck floorboards (at one point we had a belt sander, tire pump and noisy shop vac going), under the plexiglas, a job that probably has never been done before, He also vacuumed above the plexiglas. Ditto on the job history for that part of the bus too. And then in cleaning them, he pulled all twelve or so of them out and wiped them down one by one. This is noteworthy because I keep forgetting that they slide out and when I assigned the job, I first had him climbing over everybody..

Another rider from the day before joined in to help out. Julie helped Faye with getting food served and did some masking tape jobs for the painters.

The seats were a big deal and took a lot more man power and time than I had anticipated. So much so that some of of our best mechanics were busy wrestling with them. If I didn't see 2006 coast to coast Mayors' Ride scout Scott Campbell sanding away (with Pam Slocum his Denver to SF travel mate who was also there and also helping Faye with the food), he was consulting on or wrenching on the various seats that were becoming unusable. Scott also took measurements and will report back with a little sign to reads, "BUSYCLE - bikeroute.com" for the driver seat base that Eric painted blue for us.

Mark Kreutzer, Lisa Maloney's (she couldn't be there) dad, spent the whole day on one seat. Located at the back of the bus, we even had to take off the big piece of plywood that holds the Busycle/National Bicycle Greenway sign in place to get to it. Because the grommets that held the seat together had broken, he had to make several bike trips to his house several blocks away where he could use his drill press.

Barry Burr got taken over by a seat too. Every time I looked, the situation appeared to worsen. What he had tackled looked less and and less like a seat and more and more like a disjointed pile of random parts. But he got it all back together and and it looks better that it ever did. And if Barry wasn't busy with seats, he and Allsion Chalken were pouring themselves into whatever sanding jobs there were that needed to be done. In addition, tho he didn't ride with us from Palo Alto, Barry was one of the Memorial Ride leaders from the day before..

Woodebikes.com Tom Kabot was there. He brought the gallon of dumpster verathene that he had promised on our Evite. And besides all the various gear train fixes he did, he got so roped into the seats that he took one home with him. He told me that he needed to bring it back to Boyland where he could weld it . He said he will have the job done by what is now today (Tuesday) or Wednesday and that he will also put it back on!!

Here, btw, are a couple of previous trips we made to Boyland:
http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/News/Archives/000166.html
http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/News/Archives/000067.html

Matthew Blain was everywhere too. The other half of Unwheeldy (Dave Hersberger his partner is rehabing from some surgery work), the 9-foot tall dicycle at http://unwheeldy.com , it was also an honor to have his presence. There were so many things he was tweaking and adjusting on the drive train and seats that I could not keep track.

Even Schuyler Linn, who in the throes of puberty, has little attention for anything outside of girls, skateboards and video games, found himself caught up in the fun at hand. Faye's son, he told me he wanted a job to do. Soon Schuyler was busy sanding, taping and painting rust spots on the Busycle chassis.

And last but certainly not least. Jeff Kistler, our Busycle mechanical ace was there. So that the pedaling stations stop failing on us, we decided to make the Busycle a one speed machine for the pedalers. Toward that end, we made all the gear changers inaccessible and Jeff then went around and determined which gearing combination provided the best alignment. And as he did, he used an indelible marker to note that on each of the bottom brackets.

Jeff arrived at our party with a bag and a box. Nor was any of it edible. It was the kind of food we needed the most on this day. Jeff donated a box full of pedals and chains and other used bike parts we would need. And if that was not enough, he donated full bag of tools he had outgrown. Here they are all spread out:

<http://www.bikeroute.com/BusycleWestCoast/3-16-08TuneUpImages/JeffTools.jpg>

And then Jeff came over yesterday, Monday, and rebuilt the bottom brackets on three pedaling stations . And while he did and I got the chance to visit with a true master at this craft, I ground and painted over a few ugly welds and then got the entire front "glovebox" varnished .

Talk about a huge Busycle force, Jeff even documented the day with several hundred pictures as per the link at the top.

What you see above is all I have time to write about. There is so much more that everyone did. So I apologize if I didn't address certain tasks that were performed. Do know however, that I am extremely grateful and that I feel blessed that all of you came out and felt the need to help us put the best possible Busycle foot forward!!

We still have some work to do:
- Anchor top banner
- Tighten seat backs B5 & B6
- Paint barber pole stripe on drive shift (c/o Jeff idea: get people to turn pedals as move spray nozzle from rear to front!)
- Run lettering to side of seat platform (Scott creating "BUSYCLE - Bikeroute.com"!)
- Sand/varnish wood strip under seats
- Paint gear train infrastructure black

Almost there. Soon we're going to have a vehicle we can all be proud that we are a part of!!