Freewheels Houston is a non-profit organization that repairs and builds bikes and gives them to refugees, veterans emerging from homelessness, and young people from low-income families. Their reliable hybrid and mountain bikes, donated by members of the community, give people a way to get to work, school and other destinations.
Volunteers were grouped into pairs, with each pair receiving a bike to wash and clean. Some volunteers also assembled bikes and put the parts together. For AYLUS members who were cleaning, they first started by taking off the bike wheels and filling the tires with a compressor to 35 PSI. Then, they washed and scrubbed down the wheels with soap water. On the main body of the bike, volunteers worked on cleaning small gears, the derailleur, handles, and other parts. Volunteers took apart the seat to put on reflectors and lights, and added grease. They also put on handle reflectors, lights, and bells. After finishing the cleaning and minor repairs, volunteers used foil to remove rust and polish the metal parts of the bike, making the bikes look as good as new. They proceeded to repeat the process and clean down more bikes. Volunteers cleaned around 8 bikes in total.
Volunteers:
9am – 12:30pm (3.5 hours): Miranda Wang, Joy Xia, Kyle Tang, Yuruo Shen, Matthew Zong, Edward Cai
9am – 12pm (3 hours): Austin Jiang, Anthony Jiang
Reported by Miranda Wang
