Lots o’bikes

No riding today, but I did handle a few bikes. The Wife had volunteered to participate in a service project with the team/club, the VeloGirls, this morning and when we got home last night she had an e-mail saying they needed more volunteers as some folks had cancelled. So bright and early this morning we left home with a bag of tools, a bike stand, a truing stand, and a floor pump to participate in the bike build extravaganza for TurningWheels for Kids. The objective: unpack and assemble 2000 bikes to be distributed to charitable organizations in the Bay Area who will in turn give the bikes to underprivileged and needy children.  It was a whirlwind 4 hours or so,  trying to get that many bikes into shape for kids to ride safely. There were dozens of organizations providing a few  hundred or so volunteers to help in the task.  The VeloGirl group share a corner of the tent with the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and The Wife ended up spending the first hour or so helping to orient their volunteers on the concepts of left/right pedals, quill stems, training wheels, and such. When we first learned that we would be sharing space with the BAWSI folks I asked if one of the co-founders would be re-creating her signature moment. Alas not, but she did borrow some tools and helped in some of the bike building activities.  In just a couple of hours a few truckloads of cardboard boxes were converted into a fleet of bikes; pink bikes, blue bikes, SuperMan bikes, Barbie bikes,  far more bikes per square foot of floor space than I think I’ve ever seen.

After the bike build ‘xtravaganza a group of us walked a few blocks to Gordon Biersch for lunch. I am trying to comprehend how 6 of the 8 folks that went out to lunch could go to GB and not order beer; pure sacrilege! I’ll give The Wife a bit of break on that count as she did manage to sip down a fair amount of my glass of Winterbock when she thought I was not looking.   Tomorrow I will pay for that beer with some extra efforts on a ride … I promise.