Bowdoin Students Build Bikes from Scratch
By Erik West

The 10 Bowdoin College students gathered for a weekend-long Bicycle Riding, Maintenance and Off-Road Skills class checked out the piles of bike parts in front of them. By the end of the class, their job was to turn those five piles of parts into working bikes that they could ride.

"Now be warned," I said, "these are not pretty bikes. Several of them have lived under a tarp behind my house for at least two years. If you can fix these, you can fix anything!"

The class, now in its second year, was sponsored by MaineDOT and offered by the Bowdoin College Outing Club in conjunction with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (BCM). The main goal is to increase ridership of young adults. The class also trains college students to be Bicycle Safety Instructors, thus enlarging the pool of teachers who can give safety presentations in Maine schools.

Prior to the class, I collected donated bikes from Center Street Cycles, Bath Cycle and Ski and my basement, disassembled them and put the pieces together in piles. That way, I knew what each one would need for parts and had bought the needed supplies beforehand. But nothing had been cleaned and nothing had been fixed.

During the first class on Friday night, students learned about basic tool use, bike part terminology and cleaning techniques. When the class ended at 9 p.m., students were so absorbed in their work that they hadn't even begun to clean up.

The students returned the next morning and worked all day, with a goal of completing their bicycles by Sunday afternoon. Every bearing was overhauled, every cable inspected and replaced as needed. Chains, grips, handlebars, forks, wheels, tires, even rim strips were removed, checked and installed properly.

Students arrived early, stayed late and worked well together to accomplish their goals. They were quick to ask questions and to lend a hand to each other.

By Sunday morning, the piles were beginning to look like bikes. Music was playing and tools were in motion.

By mid afternoon, the first pair announced that they were ready to ride their bike. Or so they thought. I gave each bike the same check I would give one that had been assembled in a bike shop. And until it passed, it was back in the stand getting readjusted. I pushed sideways on seats, tried to get the bike to throw the chain, tried to rotate the brake levers, tried to spin each brake pad and checked every quick release.

On the first pass, the bikes looked like pretzels. But after I was done with the second inspection, it was very hard to find anything out of place. The bikes were solid and the mechanics knew it. They were proud. Before the day was done, every pair had built and ridden a fully functioning mountain bike from a pile of parts.

At the beginning of the class, I asked the students how they would know if the class was successful. Most said that if they could maintain their own bikes through the summer, they would consider it a success.

By the end of the class, students felt confident about their ability to do routine maintenance and they were eager to get their bikes up in the stand as soon as possible. In 2007, the first year of the class, Bowdoin purchased two repair stands and a healthy selection of bicycle tools. Now more students realized what a goldmine they had at their disposal.

As an add-on to this class, Bowdoin College hired me to teach a one-day Off-Road Riding skills course. On a gorgeous April day, six riders set off with me. Students learned about on-road skills, then rode to a spot cleared of snow to practice low-speed balance, braking, skidding, turning, climbing, body position, gear selection and how to shift.

By lunchtime, they had plowed through all the basics. When I asked them what they wanted to learn, they replied, "Wheelies! Going up curbs! Going down stairs!" So I pulled pieces of firewood from the trailer behind my bike. Students learned how to go over obstacles that were either fixed or moveable. Then came curbs and wheelies and a few even mastered going up stairs. Then, they tackled the hardest skill course: riding over a 10-foot patch of rocks, wearing ear-to-ear smiles the whole time.

They all wanted to hit the woods and practice what they just learned, so they led the way to stream crossings, single-track, roots, sand and more big rocks. I had never done stream crossings or single-track with a loaded trailer before. But somehow, I did it!

At the end of the day, the students relaxed and relived the class looking at video taken during the day. The progress made in seven hours was even more apparent on film. And the smiles in that room made it all worthwhile.

Erik West, the instructor of the Bowdoin class, is a League of American Bicyclists Certified Cycling Instructor, a certified mechanic and the owner of The Bicycle Workshop.

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