Cranky and Sons Bike Repair

[Cranky]

I'm pleased to announce that Cranky and Sons Bike Repair will be returning to the Playa in 2015.

Typically located on C near 5:00, we’re a small, family operation. Since I’m a morning person, we’ll officially be open from around 9am until 1pm. Other hours, we’ll have tools and tubes available for the semi-self sufficient. We'll have some instructional posters to help with our educational mission when we’re not in camp.

We’d be delighted if any free-lance bike mechanics, or anybody mechanically inclined and willing to learn, dropped by to help out. If you can patch a tube, you've got a job! Our bar might not be as well stocked as Elliot's Piano Lounge, but we've got good coffee and espresso (Peets - we're from Berkeley) and a decent selection of beer. Please give us a shout if you'll be able to help.

Cranky

Busy shop and flag.jpg

[Pollylop83]

Hey would live to help out. Coming over from London and a bunch of us are looking for ways to get involved. (Plus we love cycling) will happily repair a few punctures!

If you guys can offer any advice on hiring bikes that would be great. Don't want to just buy one from Wallmart. Want to use some that have already experienced a few burns....

[trilobyte]

Unfortunately, from what I've seen the majority of rental operations are rip-offs. Either the price is right but they're poorly maintained and you wind up with a severely rusted POS bike that breaks down (the playa dust is corrosive), or they're astronomically priced. There are plenty of discussions and resources on the board (and the internet as a whole) for kinds and types of bike, but if you're looking for a relatively economical and not wasteful way to sort out a bike, I recommend shopping for a Huffy Cranbrook 26 inch bike. The reason is that happens to be the make and model that BRC's Yellow Bike program has standardized on. At the end of the event, if it's a Huffy Cranbrook 26 inch, you can donate it to the yellow bike program where it will keep on burning and help improve other peoples' burns for years to come.

[Cranky]

Pollylop,

Thanks so much for the offer - we could definitely use your help! We'll have a few Brits and Aussies helping out, so you should feel right at home. Eventually this thread will include our location. Come on by after you get settled on the Playa, and we'll get acquainted and get to work.

As far as rental bikes go: I know there are burner bike operations in Gerlach. I like the idea of supporting our neighbors, but I would give some weight to anything Trilo has to say. If you do go that route and wind up with a lemon, bring it by the shop and tune it up. Resurrecting old burner bikes scrounged off of craigslist was the ideal training for being a Playa bike mechanic.

In any case:

- Bring spare inner tubes (should be part of everybody's preparation but, sadly, is not);

- Never ride with under-inflated tires - it's the leading cause of flats on the Playa (and it renders the tube unpatchable).

[End of sermon]

Cranky

[trilobyte]

Excellent advice, Cranky! We try to stress to all our campmates internally to go pick up an extra tube or two (they don't cost much compared to most burn expenses), and then if they make it through most of the week and don't end up needing it themselves they can always gift the tubes to a bike repair camp.

Under-inflated is a great point to make as well. Over the years we've found that it's a good idea to let some air out of the tire before heading to the playa (since it expands as you head thousands of feet up in elevation, and gets significantly warmer), but then once you get to the playa pump it back up before you go pedaling off. One of our campmates a couple years back forgot that last bit and had flats in no time.

[Pollylop83]

Hello folks! Thanks SO much for your advice, we found a charity and rented bikes for $50, was worth the research and they seem like really nice guys. Offer of bike repairing / serving drinks still stands so let me know your location and we will swing by!

As we are flying over from London our space is a bit limited. We are hiring an RV in Vegas and driving (I know some people don't agree with RV's but I did BM in a tent 10 years ago so unprepared I got really ill and don't want to do that again!!) Any shops you can recommend for getting flashy things/stuff for decorating/inner tubes etc on the way? Don't want to order it online then have to carry it.

I'm SO excited. Just planning the drive. Your country is seriously massive. Lxx

[Cranky]

Pollylop,

Glad to hear things are falling in place for you guys. Definitely time to get excited,

This year Cranky and Sons will be part of the EBB and Glow village (as in East Bay Burners, frm San Francisco's East Bay region). We'll likely be around 7:30 and C. I'll post the exact location when it's anounced in July.

Cranky

[BoyScoutGirl]

Polly, you guys are going to have a great time Don't feel bad about an RV - they certainly can help when you're coming from so far. However, if you're able to go to the trouble of covering up some of the advertisements (say, with painter's tape), that would be much appreciated by many.

Here are some listings for local resources you can look through:
organized by location: http://burningman.org/event/preparation/local-towns/
organized by item category: http://burningman.org/event/preparation ... ategories/

Further, I've read on this board that some hotels will accept mail for you if you have a reservation, within reason. So if you're staying a night in Vegas or Reno, you could potentially order online (cheap, faster) and have items shipped to your accommodations.

[mattandjess]

Hi Pollyop,

Me and my girlfriend are from manchester and are coming over for BM as well. we were wondering how you sorted your bike? we were hoping to pick ours up from Reno but unsure of how to go about it. EXTREMELY jealous of your RV as well!

M&J

[Canoe]

... I'm SO excited. Just planning the drive. Your country is seriously massive. Lxx

Nevada - one U.S. state - has an area of 110,622 square miles (286,367 km2).
To get 110,603 square miles (286,352 km2) you need to add the areas of:

• Netherlands,
• Belgium,
• Luxemburg,
• Denmark,
• Austria,
• Switzerland,
• add Denmark a second time,
• and throw in Malta & Guernsey.

Nevada's population is 2.7 million people. The above list yields 55 million people.

...There are some large distances between some places, and sometimes with nothing in between.
Really!
Nothing.
As in, no towns, no food, no water, no gas. And many places you can drive on a side road and end up in the middle of no where. Every year people die when their car breaks down someplace remote: freeze, starve, bake/dehydrate, medical attention, etc... There are places where you can walk 50 feet to the side of the road and you'd swear you're the first human to ever set foot there (and that might be true...). Walk too far from the road and you might be one of the people each year that they never find...

...In being aware of where you're going, check for risks. For example, if you're going in bear country, find out how they behave and what you should and shouldn't do, etc., Same for hot, cold, mountains, and special places like Death Valley (the name is a really really big hint about what can happen if you screw up)...

Driving from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. is around 4,300 km, equivalent to driving from London to Edinburgh and back more than three times.

Good news. Gas (petrol) is around $2.85 USD (2.53 Euro) per US Gallon. 3.785L per U.S. Gallon should make that 0.69 Euro per Litre.

More like this? https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic ... 31#p822862

[Cranky]

Update: This year Cranky and Sons will be located within the EBB and Glow Village, on C at 3:15 (although we will likely be on the D side of the village). We'll be open from 9am to 1pm, with DIY tools available other hours.

We could always use more help! If you know how to fix bikes (or you're mechanically inclined) and looking for an opportunity to participate, come by any morning and start wrenching.

Cranky