Yesterday I went to Plan B, the New Orleans Community Bike Project to build my speedy junker. Dagger and I showed up precisely at 4:00 after a fine bbq lunch at the Ugly Dog Saloon. We were greeted by two very kind ladies who helped us throughout the day.
Basically the idea behind Plan B is that people bring old or abandoned bikes and bike parts to their space and other people come in and take them apart and use different parts to create new bikes. They have an incredible assortment of tools & parts and the all-volunteer staff are courtious and extremely knowledgeable (the ladies were at least).
I quickly found the base of my bike, a seriously junked out 60's era rollo. I had to take everything apart except for the handlebars, neck and front forks. I found two new wheels, including one with a coaster brake, which apparently are hard to come by in there. The majority of the afternoon was spent performing the tedious task of disassembling the bottom bracket, cleaning it, lubing it and then reassembling it. This was the one thing I did not want to do out of fear that it would be too difficult. With the help of one of the volunteers it turned out to fairly simple but also very time consuming.
It was great to hang out with Chris (who also helped me out alot) and Dagger. It was also really great to learn some advanced bicycle mechanics. Plan B is running a great operation that everyone should know about. I plan on making a big donation next week.
