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Salvaging Bikes for Parts: General Workshop Techniques & Guidelines

If in doubt about anything, ask a 'regular' volunteer, often lurking among you, incognito

We have a 'day manager' who will greet you on arrival, sign you in, and can find someone to help you with your problem. If you can't find that person in time of need, ask anyone wearing an orange hat.

Before disassembling anything, first study our parts storage layout

Get a feeling for where all the parts you will be removing will have to be stored before someone else uses them to re-build another bike out of the ones you have salvaged. We have replaced the handles on the storage drawers with samples of complete assemblies as they should be stored. Look at intact bikes and see if you can identify the assemblies in place on them. Please realize that our storage system is a work in progress and can always be made better - critical thinking is encouraged!

Grab a rag

from under the vise workbench to wipe your hands, tools and parts with during the shift.

Where are the tools?

Most common tools are kept in toolboxes, color-coded green, red and yellow, that are moved out into the work area at the start of each shift. They should contain screwdrivers, allen and combination wrenches, a pedal tool, a chain tool, cable cutter and a crank puller. Tools that belong in these boxes are color-coded with the same color electrical tape.

Large red toolbox just inside the door contains pliars, hammers, measuring tape, vicegrips.

Wall mounted cabinet contains specialty, large and additional tools; freewheel removers, lock ring wrenches, adjustable wrenches, spoke wrenches.

You will find lubricants (including Windex for removing handlebar grips), tube patch kits and a jar containing tire levers (which may be put out on the welcome table in the work area) in the upright shelving unit.

Use the right tool for the job

Sure, a vice-grip will take a wheel off a bike, but as a last resort, as it will also irreperably mar the axle nut. So can adjustable wrenches used improperly. Here is the wrench order to use; if the top one won't work, drop down to the next one:

1. Box end of a combination wrench
2. Open end of a combination wrench
3. Adjustable wrench
4. Channellock or slip-joint pliar
5. Vise-grips

If tasked with taking apart a rear wheel

remove the freewheel (cluster of sprockets) first, otherwise the spokes are impossible to remove!

Similarly, do not remove the axle (spindle, cones, and bearings) until last, otherwise the cluster is impossible to remove!

If something seems difficult or impossible

we probably have a special tool that makes it easy or at least tolerable. Ask!

We are all about assemblies, not just parts

Removing every little nut and bolt from a bicycle and scattering them to the four winds makes it extremely difficult to put a bike back together from them. Some standardization exists among bikes, but if a particular screw or bracket is removed from an assembly, that may render it scrap metal.

Study our assembly storage drawer "handles" to determine what constitues a complete assembly.

Whenever possible, re-attach the mounting screw and nut back onto the brake, shifter, derailer, reflector or whatever you are removing, and in the correct order. In this illustration, all these parts really belong stored mounted on the brake arm, but if the arm is missing, the allen nut should be screwed onto the brake pad, with all the washers, in their correct order, in between. Sometimes you may have to wire the parts together before they are stored, particularly vee-brakes, cantilever brakes and the newer freewheel clusters that mount on a splined hub.

If a part of an assembly is damaged, sometimes we want to discard the damaged part, but keep the rest of the assembly. Eventually we will have complete assemblies stored separately from ones missing parts. ASK if you are in doubt.

When you remove an assembly, what do you do with it?

If you know exactly where we store things, and in what condition, go ahead and put the completed removed assembly into its proper storage drawer. Otherwise, just drop:

good parts into a green bucket in the work area. These are later stored by volunteers.

Non-repairable or overstocked metal parts into a large blue rectangular tub in the work area. These are available to anyone with an artistic or non-bike related mech project; the remainder is sent to a metal recycler.

Non-repairable tubes and tires into the green dumpster marked accordingly

Non-repairable aluminum parts are saved to sell to help fund the program. Put these in the aluminum stash. (Ask)

Trash (broken plastic parts, paper, candy wrappers or rags) into a brown bucket in the work area.

Food waste into the composting bin toward the back near the chicken coop.

Park a tool back in its home as soon as you are done using it

There are many people using tools at the same time. While developing this tool use habit may seem to add needless overhead to your efforts, it actually saves time evenwhen working alone, since it keeps you from searching for mis-placed tools and parts.

When washing your hands afterwards,

1. Wet the rag you have been using to wipe your greasy hands on during the session, and wring it out.
2. Set it aside, and soap up your hands. No need for fancy stuff like Gojo; any old soap will do.
3. Use this rag to scrub off the grease and soap from your hands, re-wetting and wringing out the rag as necessary. We are in a drought condition in Raleigh: don't leave the water running.
4. You can also use the rag to wipe the mess out of the sink.
5. Wring out the rag, dry your hands with it, and hang it up to dry when you are done.

Since 2004   ◊   Raleigh, NC USA   ◊