This is the first post after my trip to the US in May and June to visit my family. Since my return in mid-June, it's taken a while to get back into the swing of things in the shop, due to illness (I caught an intestinal parasite in late June after my trip) and also to having to address maintenance issues around the farm.
The bicycles were needing maintenance, so Felix Pinzon, the care-giving father for the younger boys at the farm, suggested that we work with the boys on their bikes. Here are a couple of illustrations of that effort...
Most of the repairs are pretty basic, like fixing flats and repairing brakes.
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| Felix Pinzon checking out the front tire with David. |
But sometimes the problems are more difficult to resolve.
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| Esteban Zambrano removing the retainer on the bottom bracket of his bicycle, while Marlon Rocha (left) removes the front tire. |
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| Grant holding the punch for Esteban. |
That afternoon, we completely rebuilt the bottom bracket for Esteban's bike, which came out great. We felt a nice sense of accomplishment. Then, on the road test, we found that his coaster hub assembly would slip under heavy pedal loading - and wouldn't brake well, either. After two attempts at fixing the coaster hub, we gave up and set the bike aside to replace the hub. Must be higher echelon maintenance!
