thank you to @jusratowski at @westtownbikes for transplanting my cottered raleigh chainring onto a square taper crank! beautiful welding job to make a gorgeous chainring compatible with my bike. head over if you need work done on your bike and definitely check out the open shop and get your hands dirty!
Learning to weld from @jusratowski at @westtownbikes was one of the most challenging, rewarding, intense, and empowering experiences of my life. I highly recommend shelling out the very reasonable cost (all of which goes back to the nonprofit bike shop’s kids programs) and learning a valuable skill. Props to the lovely and patient @itsaugo for babysitting me through my first real welds and for helping me grind my freak bike when my elbow injuries became too painful to work with. I cannot recommend this experience enough, especially for femmes and non binary folk. I’ll forever be grateful to Justin and crew for treating me like I was perfectly capable of doing something so physically and emotionally difficult - it turns out I was!
I loooove my fun new freak bike, but I loved the experience of learning with a beautiful crew of dear friends even more.
Made this tool for one of my volunteers at the bike shop. They had been begging me for one for years at this point. Sorry it took so long. I hope it was worth the wait.
Had these bars split on me last night after a bad fall. Granted, I bent these guys back twice before the bars cracked in half.
Thank Surly, Steel is real.
Had a visit from an old student of mine. I remember the day this talented young man rolled into the shop, excited and enthusiastic about everything life had to offer. We got along right away.
He spent the next year and a half learning about bike mechanics and welding in the shop with me. We fixed a lot of bikes for donation together and made a lot of little trinkets in the welding shop.
But I was quite flattered when he wanted me to help him build a tall bike. We learned alot building this thing together.
As sad as I was that I had to leave before it was finished this past summer. I'm even more impressed he finished it, with all the tools and guidance and skills West Town Bikes and the community provided him with while I was away.
He took it out to college with him halfway across the country and uses it now as his daily rider. And boy, oh boy, dose he ride this thing like a PRO.
Proud of you, my friend. Never lose that love and enthusiasm for life.
#tallbike #afterschoolmatters #westtownbikes #ratpatrolbikeclub #freakbike #cargobikeriders
