Hello,
After working on bikes during a busy, and mild, winter season we are finally back!! It’s been a good winter: from being featured on the bike show, we received a donation of an awning that now keeps us and our outside tools dry from the rain! We also got some new lights for working outside, and had a workshop weekend of skill sharing our knowledge of internal hubs, disc brakes, etc over lots of tea and yummy meals together.
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This interview of independent bike mechanics features Johnnie Olivan of Rejuiced Bikes in Portland, OR! WOAH! In a nutshell, Johnnie recycles old bikes and bike parts and welds them together (hear about welding and Schwinn’s at 13:50) to create a bicycle with a (more) utilitarian function and keep the aesthetics at the same time; such as rain collecting, recycling, or aiding the handicapped. So rad! And so DIY!
“And there’s people since that are making old bike railers out of old bike parts. I mean, it’s happening, you know. And I’m not the first I think, but I just definitely know that people around me are doing exactly what I’m doing. And maybe they’re not doing the exact same thing but it’s so freakin’ cool to build something and ride it around town and have it serve a function.”
“When we were travelling [in Spain and Holland] it was all about, you know, tuning our bikes up and…I don’t really know. I just always went to the bike because when you go somewhere, when you move somewhere, it’s always like ‘I gotta get a license in this state,’ ya know, ‘I gotta get this in this state,’ and what’s easier than just getting on your bike?
The 2nd interview is me following Johnnie around as he shows me the different bikes.
Pics below include bikes that collect water (H2O flow), school bike, bike rescue bike (now a farmer’s market bike with a foldable umbrella), media quadricycle, waste bike (Trashy Trike)
[slideshow]