Saturday, February 12, 2011

#bikeschool in photos, captions and inappropriate tweets

Had a great day at bike school today with Winterborne Bike Institute.  I learned alot and was not injured at any point during the day.  My friend Dana (who refuses to be linked)  was not so lucky, she ended up on the wrong end of a wrench and no torque.   

We arrived early for class and were greeted by our instructors Jay (the tall dude) and Rick (the less tall dude). Rick had more than his fair share of fun checking on us and giving us a hard time.. 








We looked around the class, there were 10 seats, 6 workbenches which were fully loaded and 12 students.  






There were bikes and bike stuff everywhere!   Probably because we were at #bikeschool! 






We were about to find out that we were going to be working on the Trek bikes up there.  But first we had to get them down.






We inspected our workstation and had to identify each tool on it. Making up names for them was a bit more fun than their actual names and we even identified all the missing tools, is that anal?

We disassembled the front end, meaning we took apart the headset, took the wheel and fork off and stood back to admire our handiwork. At this point I tweeted 'starting disassembly, haha this is the easy part'.  I couldn't have been more wrong.









 My hands got greasy, I hate greasy hands.












A wheel-less bike.  Then to put it all back together.

The following tweet may have gone out during the reassembly:

Instructor:  Did you grease and tighten the screws?  
Me: yes, they are 'girl tight'.  That sounded dirty..

Nice to meet you!!!
After putting it together we had to ensure there were no knocks so we did 'the Brazilian'.  This picture demonstrates the Brazilian, it's not the instructors on all fours getting waxed (you all have dirty minds)..  if you want to know more about 'the Brazilian', take the course.








We took a break and I went to the bathroom where I learned much special 'cycling' advice like this. I could have stayed in there all day long reading.  The walls were covered.

When I saw this, I thought of PedalmanTO, of course it was after I was finished and had washed my hands.
After lunch there was the back of the bike to take apart.  We removed the crankarms but did not screw up the threads and wreck the arms.. we DID not do that.. they may have thought we did, tried to prove it but in the end we were right.


We took out the bottom bracket, took off the chain by breaking it (woohoo, I am good at that shit), removed the back wheel and then proceeded to take the thing apart.





Dana (who still refuses to be linked) was wrangling the chainwhip and a wrench and some good balance.  Who knew that thing came off.. crazy!!






Far too much grease, grease remover, a reassembled back end (that sounds dirty too)and  we were finished for day 1.  I am happy to report I am less afraid of bikes, grease and chains. We are looking forward to tomorrow's class.

My question, if we already took apart the whole the bike, what's left?
oh shit, the derailleurs (sp?), I can't even spell it, nevermind working on it.




One final bathroom break and we were outta there.

That's all I got.

PS - they don't teach you how to change a tire here.. Found THAT out in the first 5 minutes, AFTER I paid my course fee. NICE.  Ian!!!

sorry for all the white space between pics and texts, I'm too tired to try to fix it..




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't refuse to be linked! :p Also, can we do more of the Brazilian tomorrow? That was fun! :)

...D

Julie said...

What a great class! I must admit I'm quite scared of the whole thing myself. I need, need, need to at least take a basic class. I think I'll leave the major stuff to the pro's. :)

Love the bathroom walls!

Unknown said...

wow...what a great learing opportunity. I wonder if my bike guru's offer something like this???

JohnP said...

lol - well if u need to learn to change a tire I can help you with that.

In exchange for you building Mrs. LoTC bike for her this week :) lol j/k
Her parts should be here late this week I'm hoping.

Sounds like a great course! I'd imagine derailleur adjustment and wheel truing are on the to-do list for Sunday. have fun!

Ian said...

I love it! I'm sure one of us can show you how to fix a flat, but compared to reassembling a headset it's pretty easy.
I'll have a few bikes waiting when you get back. Just so you can continue practicing. Haha.

Matty O said...

Hilarious. I almost did a spit take at the brazilian comment LOL.

SOOOOOO, all Adena wants is to change a tire... and she gets a weekend of stripping a bike and reassembling it. Awesome. Way to screw THAT ONE up LOL!