News from Augusta Park Primary School, Port Augusta - re bikes the Workshop donated in April

Yesterday got a nice phone call, from teacher Ben Kitchen, at Augusta Park Primary School, Port Augusta. Readers may remember, the Workshop earlier got together a “class set” of bikes for the School, and donated them shortly after Easter.

Ben was    delighted with the  30+  of BMX & childrens  bikes. Ben says the bikes from the Workshop look great, and sends his thanks to volunteers . He is keen to get the kids riding them, on the BMX track, next door to the School, and thinks they should get a lot of use. When the kids are riding, he'll send us some photos.

So, a large 'thank you' to anyone who donated a child's  bike with 20 inch wheels recently!

And "thank you " also, to volunteers and visitors, who helped fix those bikes up!

Other news.

Saturday 9^th at the Workshop – busy day,   20+ bikes donated. Eight  from the OPAL scheme, for  the Workshop, the rest for Bikes for Refugees, and the Shipping Container is now full again.  

Work done: ‘Bikes for Refugees” got  4 bikes safety-checked.  One   toddlers bike with stabilizers  has already gone to  a Sudanese family in Murray Bridge, and the other 3 will likely be handed on very soon.

The Labels on bikes at the workshop:  what the numbers, and  "TMRSW" mean...

Visitors soon see that all  “Bikes for Refugees” bikes have a tag on the handlebars, with a  number,   letters, sometimes ticks and dates. Saturday, we had a couple of inquiries about what this was about…

. The  organistions who get bikes, usually want to know that the bikes are checked and OK to ride. This means, we needed to set up a system to  follow each bike individually; and to record work carried out

All bikes get a unique reference number, and have their details logged in a notebook. That’s the number on the tag, and yes, the number shows how many bikes we’ve handled to date (over 2,200). The letters, are a simple system, to record maintenance checks, repairs and  work done. If all the tests have been  ticked -  the bike should be safe and road-worthy. For the last year, "Bikes for Refugees" have carried out most of this work at the Community Bicycle Workshop....  

 T : Tyres – A tick & date , shows someone pumped them up. So any time after that, we know the tyres ought to have air in them, and if they are flat, something is wrong.  The system is useful for documenting the check, and also for picking up slow punctures.   

 M :  Mechanical Check & repairs done – a tick here, means the bike had a thorough safety check on the stand, and  repairs have been done.  It should then be OK to test- ride.

 R : Road test or test-ride done. All bikes need test-riding, and a tick here, means the test was done and the bike was OK.  This checks for     problems that don’t show on the stand (e.g. weak brakes), and   double-checks  other adjustments under load (e.g. gears).  

 W :   wash; a tick means the bike is   clean enough, to hand on.  We don’t usually worry about dust – but if a  bike is very dirty, or oily -  we wash it down

 S  : Puncture Sealant was added to the inner tubes. This keeps the bike on the road, and we usually do this, as otherwise recipients have to find patch kits, tyre levers, spanners – difficult if you are new to Australia. …

The system is useful, as   different volunteers may do different tasks. It shows what's been done, and what's still to do.  When we deliver bikes - the tags confirm, the bike is roadworthy, and ready to hand on.  The tag gets put on the bike when we recieve it; and stays with the bike until we hand it over. At that ponit, we remove it, and keep it for our records.