Trailer Made: How to Build The Alameda Bike Trailer

I know a thing about bike trailers - maybe two. This was apparently enough to make me an expert in trailers - or at least the sort the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition would ask to make a trailer for. 

Let me back up a second.

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, in addition to making policy recommendations, supporting bike education, leading Bay Area Bike to Work Day (which is May 9 and you need to pledge to ride to work now), fighting for every foot of safe and protected bike lanes in the Bay Area, and engaging the public through creative and interesting rides...also does valet bike parking. 

They have a tent and portable bike racks they bring from place to place so bicycle users have a safe and easy place to keep their bikes. It's really great and I've used it a few times - like at their annual Bike Summit in August and the annual Bike to the Bay event. 

The portable bike racks and tent they use for these are large and hard to move without a car, and a friend said they wanted to use bikes instead and asked if I'd build a couple of trailers.

With excessive certainty, I said I'd be happy to build two bike trailers for them. 

One of the first steps was to figure out exactly what these trailers would be carrying, and that involved going to the SVBC office in San Jose and using a borrowed tape measure. The most cumbersome thing the trailers would be carrying would be the racks and the tent - both about five feet long - so I planned to make the trailers about 5'4" long.

Next, the SVBC put out a call to members for them to donate unwanted bike trailers so I could use them to build what I wanted to build. What I had decided during this period was that I wanted to build two trailers that would be as identical as possible so they'd be easier to build and could share parts if one of them needed maintenance in the future. 

I figured I had the best chance of getting two identical trailers if I didn't solely rely on SVBC members to bring me theirs, so while I was waiting for I engaged in my own efforts to acquire trailers, and I was able to find this at Good Karma Bikes: 

This is a used Burley child carrier - and a pretty nice one at that. The price was quite low as the seatbelts looked as though they had been torn apart by an unruly family of wolverines. 

Another friend of mine had a trailer she didn't use that was pretty much brand new. When I asked her how much wanted for it she replied that she'd part with it for ramen. I told her she had a deal, and after treating her to lunch at Kumako Ramen in Japantown I ended up with this.

This is a Burley cargo trailer and the only thing it seemed to share with the one I purchased at Good Karma Bikes was the trailer hitch - which was one I hadn't seen before (ignore the thing in the middle of the photo - I'll get to that in a minute).

As most of you know I welded a universal trailer hitch onto my City Bike a couple of years ago - and this trailer took neither. It did, however, come with a coupler that can be attached to a rear axle. So I left the trailer under my desk at work, attached the hitch to my bike at home that night, and towed it all the way home the following evening (I also made, from a piece of 1" square tubing seen in the middle of the above photo, a hitch I could weld to the City Bike but I abandoned the idea since it didn't seem strong enough to support the weight).


A few days passed before I was told a few trailers were available at the SVBC. I picked them up and brought them home on a day I had my car. 

Things weren't looking promising. I had four trailers, all with different styles and built with different methods and materials. I was worried I wouldn't be able to build two identical ones like I wanted. 

But then, my friend at SVBC said there was yet another trailer available in San Mateo. When she described said trailer it sounded like it could be worthwhile. It found its way to the SVBC office, and it was a match to one of the others.

Both of these are an older style of Burley I'm quite familiar with. In fact, I built a bike mover for the Domus bike drive and used it to carry shopping carts using an old Burley trailer.

This was also the design I was hoping to find since these trailers use 20" wheels on a normal hub. Even though the spokes are usually offset, 20" wheels can be found anywhere. The last thing I wanted to do was build trailers that took special parts - like the Burley pop-on wheels. They're very cool, but I'd rather an SVBC volunteer pop in and out of Good Karma Bikes for a minute and a half to replace a 20" wheel than have a trailer out of commission for days while ordering a more expensive pop-on wheel. 

The trailer directly ahead of me and the one to my immediate right would be the main platforms for the project. I did swipe out the tires from the fancy blue Burley trailer with the ones on the red and yellow one since I wanted the SVBC trailers to have the newest tires. I added Tuffy tire liners* to both so the trailers would be less likely to get a flat to begin with.

I went to work on the cloth sides like Errol Flynn knifing his way down a ship's sail**. I noticed the frames were just about identical but the mounting points for the tongue were plastic and would get in the way for what I had in mind.

My idea was to use simple, aluminum frames bolted on top of the existing trailer frame with a 1/4" PVC floor. Based on what the SVBC had told me, the cargo the trailers were expected to carry could ride on the PVC easily without too much worry that they would break. They'd also be light and wouldn't swell and shrink when exposed to water. Wood would have been cheaper but it would absolutely have been heavier and would not last nearly as long. 

A trip to Lowe's netted most of the material I needed that wasn't lying around the shop. I also made subsequent trips to ACE Hardware on The Alameda (one of which was to discover the bike racks were being installed out front).

I did manage to get all of the materials to my shop on brand.

I toyed with the idea of trying to learn, once again, how to weld aluminum (a task I had tried and failed in spectacular fashion in the weeks after getting a Lincoln Electric spool gun as a self-given birthday gift years ago). But I ruled that out soon too. Not only was I squeamish about allowing SVBC volunteers towing the trailers to be the test subjects for my aluminum-welding skills, but I reasoned the construction of the trailers should use hardware that could be easily found and have the ability to be fixed with tools that would be readily available. 

After measuring the width of the trailer and making 45 degree angle cuts, mount the frame to heavy-duty corner braces with 1/4 bolts and lock nuts. Not pictured are the two bolts that will come in through the bottom of the brace. (view of the upper right corner of the trailer)

Measuring the inside of the Burley trailer gave me something along the lines of 22". When the large, 5'4" aluminum frames I was making would be mounted on them, I knew I'd have to extend the tongue of the trailer to account for the longer cargo bed. I intended to buy a tube long enough that was the same thickness, bend it with a pipe bender, and use the existing hardware. 

It was at this point I ran into a problem: finding an aluminum tube that thick wasn't easy. I made a lot of phone calls to some of the random industrial-looking buildings clustered around Monterey Road in San Jose but got nowhere. I even rang a place (recommended by another place) and the person who picked up the phone greeted me gruffly with the words "This is Eddie."

My heart leapt when I heard that, because I was sure that Eddie would be the one to help me. But alas, Eddie didn't come through.

Not having a long enough trailer tongue meant I'd have to modify the design. Moving the existing tongue forward 15 inches meant having a completely new mounting system since the plastic brackets - which I had mentioned earlier - couldn't be moved. 

With the rectangle of aluminum is centered over the Burley frame I removed the mounts for the wheels, clamped everything together, and drilled clear through before putting the mounts back on (using longer bolts to accommodate the frame) The steel rectangular bars with the half-moon cutouts are components of Box Bike by DIYBIKING.COM and were used only as spacers for this build. 

This took longer than I thought to figure out - and most of my thought process involved cutting and moving pieces of aluminum around while season 2 of 'Justified' played in the background. 

By the time season 2 spilled over to season 3,  I landed on the idea of cutting L-shaped pieces of aluminum brackets and using two bolts each to mount them to two pieces of 1" square tubing that would span a couple of inches wider than the inside width of the frame. To assemble two trailers, I was only short about 4' of square tubing so the other night I set off to Lowe's to buy what I needed.

Instead, I came back like this.

I miss Orchard Supply Hardware - a local hardware store chain that was founded in the early 1930s and eventually bought by Lowe's before being unceremoniously dissolved in 2018. Since then, I've resigned myself to the fact there are only two sizes of aluminum ever available: a unit that is half the size of the aluminum I need, and another that is twice the amount of aluminum that I need. Lucky for me, I always carry reusable wire ties and these marvelous things called Gear Ties.

With the square tubes of aluminum in hand, I sawed them carefully to the width of the trailer, used an angle grinder on the ends to smooth out the sharp spots, and set them on the frame about five inches apart to mimic the approximate placement of the mounting points on the existing trailer. That done, I sawed up four pieces of a 1" L-bracket, ground off the sharp bits, and set them in place. 

During this time I found that owning several pairs of vice grips is a wonderful thing. What I would do was clamp the two pieces of aluminum in place so I could make 1/4" holes with a cordless drill. Since I was using 1/4" bolts throughout I had to be careful not to drill too close to one another or to one side of the L-brackets.

In order to mimic the original mount as much as possible, I spaced them out on the underside of the frame the same distance apart as they are on the unmodified trailer. I also bought a bolt the same thickness and used clovis pins so one could easily swing the tongue out of the way for storing the trailer. For the sake of paranoia I added anther piece of aluminum as a brace between the square tube and the L-bracket frame. 

Before cutting and attaching the 1/4" foam PVC floors, I wanted to add some strength to the center of the trailer. As it happened, I had some aluminum tubing and found a lock nut could fit inside if I put in a bolt and dropped it repeatedly on the workshop floor to drive the nut deeper into the tube. I kept removing the bolt and looking inside to monitor my progress.

I'm positive there's a more elegant and sophisticated solution than this, but you build what you can with the knowledge and materials you have.  

Done on both sides, I carefully drilled through the Burley frames so I could thread a bolt through the openings and into the nuts that were now lodged in the frame. You can see the rod in the middle of the frame in this photo.

The PVC was easy - because of my failed cargo bike business (more on that another day, I promise) I had a big, yellow piece of 1/4" foam PVC standing in the corner of my shop that was 2' by 6'. A visit to Tap Plastics on The Alameda gave me some 1/4" foam white PVC at a reasonable price (they even cut it at the location so I could carry it easily). 

For the floors all I did was place the PVC on the table, set the upside-down trailer frames over them, and trace around them with a sharpie. That accomplished, I took to sawing them with a jigsaw.

I think I've told you before: those collapsible table-things that are used at tradeshows? They are fabulous workbenches whenever you need to saw anything large. The sawblade passes right through and the piece you're cutting off won't fall to the floor. Then when you're done you just collapse it and put it on a shelf. 

With the foam PVC in place, I used more 1/4" bolts and locknuts to fasten the PVC to the frames - spacing them out about every 8" or so. When I was done, I added some reflective stickers - white in the front and red on the sides and back so they'd be more visible if the SVBC volunteers would be towing them at night. 

When I did a test ride carrying a few random items I noticed the items would slide, so I found a couple of old yoga mats and cut them to shape. I also added a couple of mounting points to the corners for bungees and used an angle grinder to take off the ends of the bolts. 

Finally, it was time for the testing. I grabbed the biggest and heaviest things from my shelf, lashed them down, and set off. 

That's pretty much all testing consisted of, really. I also rolled the trailer off of curbs to make sure nothing particularly awful would happen. 

I ended up naming the design "The Alameda Bike Trailer" because everything you need to build one is available along a short stretch of The Alameda in San Jose: from Ace Hardware to Tap Plastics (even to La Dolce Velo, if you wanted to buy trailers to use as bases there). With a few parts and a few local shops anything is possible. 

And there you have it. Other than 1/4" bolts 1" in length with lock nuts, 1/4" foam PVC, 1" square tubes, 1" flat angle pieces 1/8" thick, four 2" zinc-plated corner braces, reflective tape and probably any kind of trailer and you can make The Alameda Bike Trailer. As you can see I'm not really into posting detailed instructions - this post is more like one of my grandmother's recipes, where "smidgekin" is a unit of measure but it's up to you to determine what that means. The point is, build on. And if you're in the Bay Area please remember: Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 9th so be sure to pledge to ride on the SVBC site.  

Also: there is an affordable housing-themed bike ride in San Jose on May 11th I'd like you to ride in. I've talked about the problem of traffic and housing as the same problem before and this explores bikes and affordable housing as the same solution. It'll be worthwhile and I hope you can come. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

*after the debacle in Manchester that had a embedded piece of glass give me several flats, I installed tire liners and haven't had a flat on the Bike Friday in almost two years.  

**or Sloth and Chunk sliding down One-Eyed Willy's pirate ship in 'The Goonies' - whichever you prefer. 

Moving Frankenbikes From Maker Faire to Main Street

Yesterday I went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo.  I got to go to the one in New York a couple of years ago and enjoyed the MacGyver-esque vibe walking around with really nice people dressed like Lord Humungus’ minions. 

I originally wasn’t going to go to this one since I’d only get to visit for a couple of hours, but I’ve been feeling intellectually malnourished lately and thought I'd counter that sensation by peering at the talents of others.

My plan was to bring my homemade cargo bike which, at 79 and 15/16” long, would have fit right in at Maker Faire but also drawn a lot of scrutiny by the Caltrain conductor. In the end I brought South Norwalk - which was good because it was standing room only on the train from Mountain View to Hillsdale.  

The first five minutes at Maker Faire was worth the admissions price. The list of things that create awe and provide inspiration is a long one. In the first five minutes I saw power tool drag racing, pedal and electric powered cupcakes milling about, and a guy being pulled on a chariot by a robot (which I posted yesterday). 

I was also drawn to the Frankentrikes booth.

It was there I met a talented artist named Segue, who created Frankentrikes years ago.  We chatted about MIG vs. TIG welding and related topics while I learned her backstory: Based in Oakland, she has made several electric assist trikes as custom builds but now wants to move Frankentrikes to a business model that would put more people on these things. 

I got to ride her original creation which reminded me of the rickshaws I’ve seen in India and in Singapore. She claimed it can carry 500 pounds in the cargo hold and the way it was made told me she wasn’t lying. 

The canopy gave me shade, the electric assist (powered by a twist throttle) gave me power, and the trike was surprisingly maneuverable without feeling cumbersome. It felt like she finished making it ten minutes before I walked up. 

It made me wonder about how much technology has evolved since then - but how little we have evolved.  Think about it for a minute: flip phones were common when Segue set down her welding mask when this first trike was completed but anyone seen with a flip phone now is stared at and puzzled over. 

And yet we drive on highways designed seventy or more years ago in vehicles that rely on a technology first created well over a century ago and think to ourselves: “Oh, I think we can stick with this. I need a 3,300 pound vehicle that has a 150 s.f. footprint to pick up my 85-pound child and I won’t connect any dots between my kid’s asthma inhaler and the stuff that comes out of my SUV’s tailpipe.”

Frankentrikes has an Indiegogo campaign so Segue can employ engineers and pay for other things to grow her company. The campaign ends on May 26th, which is this Thursday. Save for an unexpected asteroid or the like, that day will come and go like any other, but we have a chance to make that day bring us closer to a world where people - especially those in cities - can more easily choose ‘not car’ when it comes to everyday travel. 

So I urge you to donate to the Frankentrikes Indiegogo campaign and get your friends to do the same. If that laughing chewbacca mask lady can get 1.5 million+ hits on YouTube, this campaign can raise $49,000.

I thank Segue and the others I met at Maker Faire for doing their part to inspire makers of all ages. If there is a Maker Faire near you, I hope you can go. If you see a Frankentrikes cycle on the road, I hope you decided to be one of the backers who put it there. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Five Ways to Prepare for Bike to Work Day (Even if You're a Telecommuter)

Bay Area Bike to Work Day is May 12 (National Bike to Work Day: May 20th) and I urge you to take part. Given the pollution in the air and the congestion on the roads the Prius and Tesla-worshipping direction California has taken isn’t working. So it’s time to bike more - and since about 40% of Bay Area residents live less than five miles from their workplaces, optimal conditions to ride to work are already there. 

As a freelancer, I am a telecommuter so I easily fall in the five-mile-or-less group. I also just took the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition pledge to bike to work (I admit my distance is shorter than most, but riding any distance on Bike to Work Day is an accomplishment - especially for those who don’t ride much.)

If you drove your car to work today please look out your windshield on the way back and think about how many times you sit at a traffic light and watch the light change from red to green and back again. Think of how much money you pump into your car every week to go what is probably a pretty short distance. Think about how nice it would be to put some space between you and your next $1,000+ car repair bill. How nice it would be to interact with humans with your voice and your smile instead of with a horn. 

I could go on. 

1) Choose the right bike for the terrain.

The perfect cycling outfit includes a mountain bike for trails, a fast road bike for Strava-bragging, a cargo bike for hauling things and a folding bike for travel. There may also be a hybrid bike good for all-around use. But what about telecommuting? 

As it so happens I recently acquired a bike from a metal scrap pile that, after repairing, is just perfect for my Bike to Work Day - and the checklist works for non-telecommuters as well:  a comfortable seat, a decent gear ratio for the landscape, functioning brakes, and added comfort of full suspension for when transitioning from carpet to laminate. I have no idea who made this or why. 

If you don’t have the right bike I recommend Mike’s Bikes and Good Karma Bikes (I know there are other great shops in the Bay Area but I really don’t shop anywhere else).

2) Take ownership over your safety

Make sure your bike is safe to ride and you (and it) have the proper safety equipment. A properly fitted helmet is a great idea but I also recommend bike lights - even if you don’t tend to ride in the dark. 

Lucky for me I have the best bike light: A Blaze Laserlight, which sends an image of a bicycle out in front of my bike. It was designed to remind motorists to be on the lookout for cyclists when making a turn or opening a car door after parallel parking, but I’m using it to make sure I don’t hit anyone on foot who enters or exits  Bathroom Lane when I’m leaving Bedroom Boulevard at speed. 

3) Know your route

Before cycling a route that you are used to driving on - or even walking - it’s important to look at everything with the lens of a cyclist and ask yourself some simple questions: What are the high traffic areas? Where am I likely to encounter pedestrians? Is there construction or are there obstacles I should be aware of? Where does it make sense to ride on the shoulder vs. taking the entire lane (or, rather, hallway?)

A lot of large thoroughfares in Silicon Valley have bike lanes. My house does not so I will have to share the road (floor) with other users. I have already made a note that the first right turn has a laundry basket I have to avoid and it is followed by a sharp left into the home office. 

If you want help finding a route, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition actually has a personalized route service called Virtual Route Scouts you can use. I just used my Measure Master (cutting through the bathroom would have added an unnecessary 19” to my trip). 

4) Know your Energizer Stations

I think these went by a different name when I did Bike to Work Day in Connecticut, but peppered around Silicon Valley are Energizer Stations, which is a catchy way to describe folding tables containing or surrounded by food, drink, giveaways, and nice people. Whether you are a first time bike commuter or not they’re fun places to stop. 

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has built a handy map to show you where the 80 or so Energizer Stations are. They lack in several key locations such as the East Side of San Jose and my living room, but if there’s one near you it is worth going out of your way to visit.

I’m going to have to create a DIY energizer station in my kitchen: my plan is to buy a pound of Chromatic Coffee - which has been recommended to me by someone at Cowgirl Bike Courier - and after parking the bike I’ll have a cup of coffee. This will make my commute about 60’ - more than double the original distance but I’m pretty sure I can do it. 

5) Know where the Bike Away From Work Bash is located

I actually got to do this last year when I was still getting over internal combustion engine-lag after driving across the country from Connecticut. It’s fun, there are interesting and attractive people there, and you can buy a T-shirt/become a member of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition if you aren’t one already. SVBC has a Bike Away From Work Bash in San Jose. If you're not able to make it, create your own little gathering of fellow bicycle commuters and it may just turn into a bash. 

And that’s all I have for now - I will live-blog about my commute on Bike to Work Day - but I will not use my phone while my bike is in motion (good advice if you bike indoors or out). Please encourage your motorist friends, family and colleagues to Bike to Work. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Follow me on Twitter: @michaelknorris

On Silicon Valley Gives Day, Find Good Karma in San Jose

    Cyclists on a recent ride organized by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition riding to Willow Glen (April 2015)

Note: my cross-country drive to California continues - as I expected I sighed at the sight of every eastbound Thule bike rack possibly bound for The 2015 Five Boro Bike Tour as I drove west - and am writing this preface this using hotel wi-fi in Illinois. My mission is to ride the one bike I brought with me a minimum of five miles in every new state we travel in (except Indiana - I may come back someday when they stop being mean to people based on who they want to spend the rest of their lives biking with) and just having fun in the tried-and-true American bicycling cities like Cleveland. Will write more later, but first…

If you ever move to a new city it’s important to bike around it. I knew this when I moved to Stamford in 2004 from a small town in rural New Hampshire. I quickly realized how pointless it was to drive anywhere and found that on a bike I could explore places faster and without any blind spots. Also, in a stressful move like the one I’m doing now, exercise of any kind helps and the bike & Caltrain combo makes it easy to #choosethebike when I want to explore a neighborhood.

So one day I was riding my Bike Friday a little ways from the San Jose Diridon station, still trying desperately to bond with California and get my head around the idea of moving there permanently when I just happened to look over to my left and noticed a tan warehouse-looking building off in the distance. 

I had found Good Karma Bikes, which is located at 345 Sunol Street. If you’re like me, when you walk in you get the immediate feeling you’ve come to the right place even if you weren’t looking for it to begin with.  

I liked donating time, bikes, parts, tools or some combination of the four to organizations under Eastern Standard Time, and during my final days in Stamford I began to miss them terribly: The Trifigura Work & Learn Business Center at Domus in Stamford, The BikePort Co-Op in Bridgeport, The Ohio City Bicycle Co-Op in Cleveland, and, of course, Bike Rodeo & Tour de Red Hook - which is taking place this year at Red Hook High School on May 16th. 

Good Karma Bikes, as I quickly learned, has those values. It was founded in 2009 when the founder saw a homeless person fixing a bike and decided to help. Since then they’ve made over 30,000 repairs and boast a cool statistic: for every bike repaired with a fee, 1.6 bikes are fixed for free. 

It’s also a secondhand bike shop, which means people can get access to bikes, parts and tools they may not otherwise be able to afford. And if you’re fortunate enough not to need those services yourself, it’s easy to give them to those who do need it: You can donate anything you want but it’s just $50 to give a bike to someone, $250 to sponsor a mechanic and $1,500 to sponsor a workstation - one that will be pressed into service for around 400 repairs a year of homeless, underemployed and veteran’s bicycles (it’s also a classroom workstation and the sponsor can use it free when Good Karma Bikes is open).  

The place reminded me a lot of The Ohio City Bicycle Co-Op - especially the main room of secondhand bikes. 

Since we’re in May, which is National Bike Month - and closing in on Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day - this is a fine time to do the following: 

As you ride your bike, think about how well it is working. Think about the people who you’ve paid money to fix it or the great tools you can afford so you can fix it yourself. Think about the transportation alternatives that are available to you and then realize that there a lot of people out there who aren’t as lucky and need help getting bikes on the road (and people whose livelihood depends on it). If we can't ride our bikes we pull out a $300 smartphone and rant on Twitter. If other folks can't ride their bikes they are financially devastated. 

  

Anytime is a good time to donate to a worthy organization, but May 5 is Silicon Valley Gives Day. I know this only because I was sitting in the Red Rock coffee shop in Mountain View a couple weeks ago, wondering which laptop-wielding person sitting around me was going to create the next Facebook, when I looked up at the big dry-erase calendar on the wall (I didn't take a picture of that, but at GKB I took one of this).

So before you set off on your bike to go to work please do a little something to make sure people not as fortunate as you can do that very same thing. The link to the Good Karma Bikes donation page is here, and on May 5 I’ll be pausing somewhere between Omaha and Cheyenne to make a donation myself. Share the link and use the hashtag #svgives2015. Make a donation. Spread the word. Help somebody out. Make Silicon Valley even better.  Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

Follow me on Twitter at @michaelknorris

In Small Town USA for the Big Bike Rodeo

Nothing gets you off your high of the successful Bike to Work Day Event in Stamford quite like a long, solitary drive up to the one-stoplight town of Red Hook, New York. 

And I'm not saying 'one stoplight' in a derogatory way: the village of Red Hook really does have one stoplight. But it is the kind of town that people give directions by using local businesses as landmarks instead of street names. (You don't know (blank?) Everyone knows where that is!)

It is also the kind of town that city dwellers like myself has a tendency to mock from afar but admire and appreciate once you actually visit. 

I can rest my case on Red Hook's value with the existence of Taste Budd's Cafe, for example, but I'll move on. 

You see, I had promised my older sister - a village trustee for Red Hook Village, which has their own web site and everything - that I would volunteer for my niece and her Girl Scout Troop's Bike Rodeo. I wasn't even sure what it was I had signed up for. I knew I'd be tuning bikes up but unsure of the context, I brought a lot of serious tools with me in the back of my Element.  Even though this commitment meant I would be missing Bike Stamford's ride, I knew I'd be able to spend quality time with my brother in law, my niece and my sister - who promised me Memphis-style barbecue from Max's for dinner. 

On occasion I can be rented cheap.

I arrived at my sister's house late morning and quickly got the run-down: the Bike Rodeo was at the High School about a half mile away. My sister said she needed to take her car because she and a lot to carry.

I was having none of it.

When someone says to me - especially during National Bike Month - that 'we have to take the car' there is no other way for me to interpret it other than a dare.

My Park Tool work stand, pump and a couple of toolboxes nestled gently but firmly in the trailer (which I converted from the Bike Walk Connecticut/Bike Carrier Configuration to traditional cargo mode the evening before) and so did my sister's three folding chairs, a sign that read 'RESTROOMS' with an arrow pointing (people will want to know where the bathroom is, she explained) and two plastic containers filled with cupcakes. 

My sister is a Girl Scout Troop leader. I figured cupcakes would be involved somehow.

With the trailer working smoothly, we all pedaled into the parking lot of the Red Hook High School well before the 1:00pm start. I had plenty of time to set up and I didn't need it.

Since I wasn't sure I'd have access to a shady tree, I packed along an umbrella my wife has used to stay cool while sketching. The metal bracket I welded for her was placed on a taller tripod so I could stand up easily underneath and any bike I'd be working on wouldn't be in the way.

Others arrived to set up the obstacle course, water and lemonade table, and the helmet safety station. And then: this arrived.

It was a van from Kingston Cyclery, and the driver, Bob, was at the bike rodeo for the same reason I was: to volunteer to tune bikes. Kingston Cyclery set up right next to me and projected their authority with a recognized name in the community, proven expertise, and a bright red van.

I projected my authority with an apron (not for nothing: but if you put on an apron and stand next to a Park Tool work stand in a public place, people on bikes will come from miles around). 

Also, not to humble brag, but  my setup with the tiny bike trailer and my umbrella was better than his. All of my tools were at the ready - if you're gonna bring a van, park it the other way so your workstation is on the same side as the sliding side door! - and, even more important, I was closer to the water and lemonade table. 

Still, I was happy Bob from Kingston Cyclery was there. Not only did I have someone to talk to who was alive at the time 'The Goonies' hit theaters, but there were so many people attending he and I were working on bikes almost constantly and the kids didn't have to wait too long to get their bikes back. 

The work we were doing was simple: make sure the brakes, wheels and tires, and quick releases were in good shape before the kids could ride their bikes on the obstacle course. We tuned occasional adult bikes as well. 

Most of the work involved had to do with the fact that a lot of the bikes appeared were pulled from basement hibernation that very morning. Tires were low, spiderwebs were plentiful, and brake cables had stretched - which means when one squeezes a brake, the handle has to go almost all the way to the handlebar before anything happens.

As a bonus, I brought along some cable ends, so if a bike featured a frayed cable I'd snip it a bit shorter and fit one to the end to give the bike a tidy appearance.

Another thing we needed to do was make sure the bikes fit the rider properly. A little-known fact about kids is they grow, which means each season of riding on the same bike brings about a few turns of a spanner to raise a seat or pivot brake levers downward so their wrists wouldn't be bent while riding (something to know for adult bikes as well: keep your wrists straight for the most comfort).

A lot of the bikes, as I learned, were hand-me-downs from older siblings - some of them seemed eager to offer tips on cycling on the obstacle course.

A treat of this event was the arrival of the mayor of Red Hook - Ed Blundell. I smiled because just the day before I got to go on a bike ride with my mayor: David Martin, who had just been given a bike by the Stamford Downtown Special Services District. Stamford has a population of about 130,000. Red Hook village has a population of 1,920 - but they need a cycling mayor just as much as any town or city. And I got to possibly become the first person in the blogosphere to take a picture of a mayor in a bike helmet two days in a row. 

Like the day before, this mayor gave a nice address about the value of cycling to an enthusiastic crowd. His, Kingston Cyclery's  and Girl Scout Troop #10201's enthusiasm for cycling were definitely a big part of why the event was working so well.

After the address, I kept working on bikes. I wasn't stumped too badly by anything (save for the Bard College student who desperately needs her back wheel straightened) and deep down was thankful the Red Hook Police and the organizers were making everyone sign a waiver of some kind. 

A couple of fixes stood out, such as the woman whose rear rack rattled badly. It wasn't hard to figure out why. 

I usually give bonus points for creative fixes, but not when the bike is actually equipped with mounting points for racks (and these are clearly visible). I fixed it quickly and got rid of the rattle. 

I had to repair the rear rack of another bike, too. While the girl and her parents stood watching, I bent myself over the bike rather awkwardly which slightly smushed the passenger (I forget the passenger's name).  One of the parents suggested we move the passenger, so I quickly changed my posture so they rack wouldn't rub against the back wheel and the passenger would be comfortable. 

From time to time, I got a question I wasn't comfortable answering. For instance, a little boy of about six kept playing with my Park Tool pump (I'd usually use the work stand I brought but if the child showed interest in watching what I was doing I'd sit on my toolbox and showed them what the problems on their bike were) while I was working on his brakes and asked "Doesn't this sound like someone farting?" referring to the sound the air makes when it leaves the nozzle.

I carefully told him it sounded at first like his tire was losing air, and, since he showed an interest, I allowed him to try to pump his own tire.

It was around this time I grew an even greater appreciation for Kingston Cyclery and other local bike shops: there definitely is a customer service skill one has to have.  After several minutes of working on this kid's bike, I asked him to hop back on it so I could see how much higher to raise the seat. Then I had to ask him to get off the bike again. 

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Why?" 

I wasn't expecting that response. "Because I don't want to keep calling you, 'you.'" I said.

The six-year-old was having none of it: "I don't want to give it to you," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because if…you might work for an evil organization, and if you work for an evil organization you might be able to find me where I live."

I glanced over at the kid's mom, but she was laughing (possibly at me, possibly at something else). I wasn't sure how to respond. What evil organizations do you know? Any of them have an underground lair with bike parking? Are any of them looking for a communications director?

Instead, I politely replied: "I can only assure you that I don't work for an evil organization. Can you just get off your bike so I can fix the seat?"

By the end of the afternoon I had lost count of the number of bikes I had worked on and the number of times I had to move my umbrella so the shade could stay over me. Everyone was having fun, and every time I'd turn to my sister and use the word lemonade as a verb (present tense) she'd bring me a cup. 

Shortly after four, we packed everything up and rode back home. I changed my shirt and my sister fulfilled her promise by taking me out to Max's for dinner. I thanked her and left, returning to my home city of Stamford by about 9:00pm. 

Overall, I found my experience as a volunteer Bike Guru at the Village of Red Hook's Bike Rodeo a fun one. The adults and kids had a great time and between the helmet fittings and the bike tune ups, everyone was ready for the Tour de Red Hook (which is what it sounds like) the next day. 

If your town, no matter the size, wants to have a bike rodeo too, I urge you to follow the example of the one-stoplight town of Red Hook New York and have one. You'll be glad you did. And if you live in Red Hook and need a new bike or an old one tuned up, visit Kingston Cyclery's new location in town just across from Holy Cow Ice Cream. Everyone knows where that is. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.