Lewisham C yclists are getting our Bike Week schedule rolling with a traditional Dr. Bike and information event opener. This year we are at a new venue - St Stephen's Primary School in Depfford where we'll be checking over any bikes that you bring to us and answering questions on cycling related issues in the the borough.

So please come along, support the school fair and pick up a bike week program so that you'll know what other great events you'll be able to take part in over the next week.

Report

CTUK mechanics were booked up for Bike Week over two months ago and we’d missed out, but a two hour Dr. Bike and information stall in a small back street Lewisham School would be easy work for a couple of experienced riders who know how to mend a puncture. No need to send out requests on the e-list for the troops to rally in support. Or so we thought.

St Stephen’s Church of England Primary School is a small school in a Deptford Street but no one had told the organisers and the event was busy, vibrant, well organised and enthusiastically supported. We arrived a little late, the logic of quite how getting there at 13:30 for a 13:00 event start time would give us plenty of time to set up and relax escapes me now. When I made the arrangement with Paul, my brain was obviously starved of oxygen after transporting 4 pannier loads and two rucksacks worth of maps and information from Doug’s in Catford.

From the moment the work stand came out of the bag at 13:30 to the moment it was packed into the bag again at 16:00 there wasn’t a second when I wasn’t handling a spanner, allen key or pump. The adult bikes we saw, mostly just needed a check and to be told they needed to change brake pads. Amazingly I didn’t need to adjust a gear all afternoon although I did true a couple of wheels to get them to run through the brakes cleanly. The problems with the kids bikes were mainly with the brakes – hey kids they don’t work if you undo the cables or move the brake to a spot on the bars where the lever can’t be pulled.  We also pumped up a lot of tyres; a task that was made more difficult when our track pump broke. Most of the bikes were sorted but one was definitely terminal with the crank assembly having fallen apart, it’s difficult to describe, but replacement and fixing would surely cost more than buying another cheap bike. On kids bikes the quality v cost isn’t foremost in the parents mind when they are buying a bike and they know their kids will out grow them and possibly lose interest in the activity – but one thing is certain the cheap bikes don’t last, won’t stand up to any kind of sustained use and often don’t stop!

So it was a great event, well worth attending and we’ve been invited back. We just about scraped through the afternoon with the pair of us but another time an extra pair of hands would make things go a little easier.

Ian Pendleton