Day 141-bikes

   May 24-We have gone from zero to five bikes over the past three weeks and they are all are at least partially functional as of today.  The whole process started a few weeks ago when the housing department decided to clean out the storage room here at Sjónarhóll.  Most of the items were claimed, but a few bikes had apparently been left by previous occupants, so were available for us to use.  One was a kid's bike that fit Spencer.  Gaui oiled the chain and I patched the front tire and it has worked well for him ever since. 

  

  

     

       There were also a few adult bikes, and I selected a mountain bike to fix up.  It does not take too long for anything to rust over here, and it took the last couple of weeks to finally get it to be partially functional.  I managed to free up all of the links in the chain and the brakes work fairly well.  The rear brake doesn't release completely yet, but so long as they can stop me, I am happy.  The front wheel had been bent, but Gaui had an extra one in the shop, so I simply switched it out.  Unfortunately, the cables to both derailleurs were rusted too thoroughly and I never could get them to slide through their casings at all.  I can adjust the front derailleur by adjusting the low end screw, so that gives me access to both of the lower gears.  As for the rear derailleur, I can physically pull on the cable and situate it in two different locations, which can put me in the lowest gear or a mid-range gear.  I cannot make any of these adjustments "on the go," but a bike with these limitations is better than no bike at all!

   A women's townie bike had also been left and it was in much better condition.  All I had to do was scavenge a seat off of one of the other left-over bikes and air up the tires and it was ready to go for Sally.  The rear gears are adjusted internally and worked like a charm on this one.  All in all, it is actually a pretty nice bike.

   That left us with three bikes.  Since Alex and Joslyn could ride Sally's and Spencer's bikes with some discomfort, we figured that this set of bikes would work for us.  On a lark, though, we stopped in at the Good Samaritan second-hand store in Reykjavík last week and found a bike that was Joslyn's size for only $25.  The chain was not rusted tight, so we bought it and when we aired up the tires, they held.  We were very pleased by this find, because Joslyn's class all brought in their bikes on Monday so they can ride them during recess for the last two weeks of class.

   At this point, we figured it was time to start thinking about bike helmets, especially since

Joslyn was supposed to bring one to school with her.  We first considered having my folks bring some over with them to drop off on their way through.  However, we stopped by the home improvement store in Borgarnes over the weekend and found bike helmets for kids for cheap: $12 for the smaller heads and $20 for the bigger ones, so we snapped them up.  My folks ended up bringing us an old adult helmet they had around the house, though, so most of us can now protect our noggins while we are out riding.

   We were amazed by this run of good luck in terms of helmets and bikes and figured at this point that one of the adults could ride the mountain bike while the kids rode the other three and that would work fine.  Then, while we were visiting Maggi and Signý  this past weekend, they mentioned that they had heard that we were getting bikes around for everyone and offered to let us borrow Erla's old bike to use.  Its cables had started to rust, but a little oil mostly did the trick.  The rear brake sticks closed on this bike as well, but, again, the main point is that it can be stopped.  The bike is a little small for Alex, but I raised the seat and she can ride it with little discomfort.
   So, we now have ragtag band of bicycles to use, Battlestar Galactica-style!  Spencer has begun to learn how to ride and is actually doing a pretty decent job.  There are some nice gravel roads and dirt paths that head into the hills around Bifröst, so hopefully we get the chance to take them out for some spins during the summer!