A derelict Shogun road bike gets new life as a Single Speed at the Bike Oven

Bike Oven mechanical wunderkind, Harv, has posted a spot on summary of what it feels like in the Bike Oven these days. We are BUSY! His article is posted on the C.I.C.L.E. blog and is entitled “It’s Happening As Fast As It Can“.

As oil prices have shot up, the bike industry cannot provide what people need to use to get around town, and the result is a mad-cap version of a gold rush at the Bike Oven.

Here is what Harv has to say about the whole deal:

Here at the Bike Oven, we can barely keep up. The demand for bikes and repairs is overwhelming. People are digging up those ten-speeds and bringing them in for refurbishing (sometimes a daunting task) or conversion. But more often they want ready to ride bikes (we call them RTRs at the Oven). As fast as we can twirl the wrenches, we take the Sow’s Ear donated bikes and turn them into Silk Purses. The most popular and sought after bikes are the single speed road bike and urban commuter conversions. As a training exercise and during slow moments (rare!) we take suspensionless mountain bikes and convert them using parts that have been stripped from the hopeless cases that have been donated.

He ends with this juicy quote:

We can advocate all we want and we will continue to do it. We can lean on our various Departments of Transportation, our Metro Authorities, our City Council, our Planning Committees, and our Traffic Commissions. It would be nice to get some positive response from these groups, but we are getting there anyway with and without their help. When confronted with a compelling problem, people will react with what seems to be the best solution for them. There are miles of paved streets in Los Angeles, many off of the main arteries that serve the crush of car traffic. It doesn’t take long to figure it all out. As word spreads about what kind of bike to ride, where to get it and where to ride it, our urban commuter numbers will increase and we will be accepted by the motoring public. It’s already happening, and this is just the beginning.

If you’re interested in helping out at the Bike Oven, come on down on a Monday or Wednesday evening. We use those evenings to train one another and work on bikes that the shop later sells or gives away. We also drink a beer or two, eat some food, and generally just hang out. If you’d like to know more about volunteering at the Bike Oven, check out our volunteer page or shoot us an email at info@bike.oven.com