Mark's a long-time volunteer with Bicycle Exchange, since being our liaison with partner organization City Team Ministries in the 2010's, to being one of our best homework heros. He now repairs bikes for us and our recipients from his home workshop in Auburn, CA. Read on to learn Mark's story.
Tell us a little about yourself:
My family moved to California from Ohio in 1969. I’m a country boy at heart.
Back then Silicon Valley was still in its relative infancy, with cherry, apricot, and other fruit orchards being plentiful across the local landscape. I remember P3 Naval planes flying in and out of Moffett Park on a daily basis. On the weekends we would ride our bikes up to Stevens Creek Reservoir and go swimming.
I attended Fremont High School and Santa Clara University. I started my own company in 1995 and successfully sold it in 2010. From that point on I spent much of my time and focus with community- and service-oriented organizations—SVBE being one of them.
How did you get involved with SVBE?
One of my good friends was the Director of City Team Ministries in San Jose. City Team helps men deal with drug and alcohol addiction through a 1-year residency program. I learned they had a room full of 50 donated bicycles, but none was in working order. They desperately needed repair parts—and that is when I found SVBE’s booth at the bike swap meet sponsored by Cupertino Bike Shop. That was also the day I first met Dave Fork and Jack Miller, who have become my very good friends.
With the parts, knowledge, and support I received from SVBE, I was able to set up a Bicycle Maintenance Program and a weekly Bike Riding Program at City Team Ministries. The men loved it and it gave them something to look forward to each Saturday morning. None of this would have been possible without the generosity and assistance from SVBE.
I could not attend the Saturday workdays at SVBE since I was leading up to 20 men on our local bike rides on Saturdays. To show my appreciation I started taking a few volunteer bike projects home with me to work on for them. This started to snowball and after 5 years I had rebuilt/refurbished around 400 bicycles, including bikes for both donation and sale purposes.
What keeps you coming back?
There are several reasons for my continued participation. What first drew me in was my love for cycling coupled with a desire to contribute to people and to our community. I love riding bicycles, but to tell the truth I’m probably better at rebuilding and restoring them. It’s something I really love and have a passion for, plus someone gets a really nice bike to ride and enjoy when I complete a restoration project.
Another really big reason is, ”You won’t find a better group of people with bigger hearts than the staff and the volunteers at SVBE!” I am grateful and proud to call them my friends.
Most memorable bike?
I believe that bicycles are truly functional, rolling works of art. There have been so many and I have a great feeling of satisfaction after I have completed each one. One bike I was particularly attracted to was a 58cm Bianchi Giro road bike. It had carbon-fiber fork and seat-stays, black aero wheelset, Ultegra components, an aluminum frame with that Bianchi aqua-green and blue paint as well as matching bar tape. I liken it to a small child looking at a delicious piece of candy!
Favorite tool?
Metric 8-in-1 hex tool (Harbor Freight $2.99) kind of like a Swiss army knife—unfolds from two sides accessing multiple standard size hex head extensions all in one. I also frequently use a set of individual metric T-handle hex tools also from Harbor Freight.
Plastic syringe filled with grease: one of the best tools I have adopted—is using a 5” plastic syringe used for holding brake fluid for hydraulic brakes. I fill the 5” long x 1” diameter plastic syringe with my favorite grease and re-insert the plunger. It allows me to apply grease very handily, neatly and cleanly to a variety of parts throughout a build.
Other favorites: Awesome Degreaser & Cleaner (Dollar Store $1.25), Turtlewax Chrome Cleaner (Auto store $7).
Multi-Purpose Grease: #2 Mystik JT6 14 oz. tube (Clear and Waterproof) Kragen’s Auto $9.
What is my background in cycling? Wrenching on bikes?
My first bicycle was a brand new orange Schwinn Varsity 10-speed when I was in Jr High—it must have weighed at least 25+ lbs or more. I rode it from Sunnyvale to Santa Cruz and back via Hwy 9. I also rode it from Sunnyvale to San Francisco and back via El Camino Real.
My first really nice bike I bought new was a steel Specialized Allez Pro—it was beautiful! My home course was a 32-mile route starting on Foothill Expressway up to Alpine Road thru Woodside and back. If I added Canada Road out past the Pulgas Water Temple it was 54-miles.
For a 5 year period I rode with a close group of four friends (The Cool Group) almost every weekend 32 to 50 miles. We would usually sign up and ride several organized centuries throughout the summer months as well.
I was usually the designated mechanic on most rides. I really started to wrench on bicycles on a regular basis when I started fixing and repairing bikes at City Team Ministries, and working on the homework bike projects for SVBE.
What can you share about your bike collection?
When I first was introduced to SVBE I had an inventory of about 24 bikes. I even had a room in my home that was nothing but bicycles—I called the Bike Room. I’m down to about six (6) bikes in my collection currently.
What have you learned since volunteering with SVBE?
Every bicycle project is an opportunity to learn something new. Most bicycles we work on at SVBE are donated and there is often a reason for that—it needs some type of maintenance to be road-worthy again. I find acting a little like Sherlock Holmes when starting a new project is often helpful to diagnose its current working condition.
This may sound funny, but a bike will tell you what it likes and doesn’t like when you are working on it. Especially when possibly using a variety of different parts mixed together. I try to be neutral, observant, looking and listening to what it is showing me rather than pretending I already know everything about it.
That said, what I like about bicycles is that they are still relatively straightforward and finite. Finite meaning they are contained within a certain set of parameters, often with different variations of the same or similar parts.
Like in life, the more practice and experience you get, the more knowledge, understanding and expertise you will develop to use in the future.
Most interesting problem I’ve dealt with?
This would probably be developing a system or process for fully restoring a homework bicycle project (usually for sale) that produces the most bicycles being completed. Time and labor are two of the most valuable commodities for volunteers at SVBE with so many bikes to be worked on.
The process I have come up with is the following:
- Disassemble (teardown) the project bike down to the frame and fork (on a bike stand)
- Dispose of all old, damaged, and unusable parts (bad cables, housing, bar tape, tires, chains, seats, etc.)
- Clean all the reusable original parts, wheels, frame, and fork (warm soapy water, chrome cleaner, etc.)
- Grease and lubricate all bearings and rotating assemblies (headset, hubs, BB (bottom bracket), seat post, etc.)
- Reassemble using cleaned original, updated, and new parts (original parts, inventory, new)
- Final adjustments (new cables/housing, new chain, final adjustments to brakes and shifters, etc.)
One of my main goals from the very beginning was to support SVBE financially so they can continue to donate fully functioning bicycles and equipment to those that need them, and to provide services to our community.
The vast majority of the homework bike projects I work on are full and complete rebuild/restoration projects specifically for sale purposes.
What can we do better?
Nothing comes to mind at present. I am just getting reacquainted working on homework projects again with SVBE, since moving to Northern California a few years ago.
What is your favorite bike ride?
TOSRD – Tour of Sacramento River Delta. This is a two (2) day 120+ mile supported ride usually in October sponsored by The Bicycle Spokesman riding club. The ride starts at Brannan Island Park and ends in Old Town Sacramento (61-miles) at the LaQuinta Inn, and then back again the next morning to Brannan Island Park for a big BBQ. It’s for 200 people+/-.
La Quinta Inn has nice rooms, swimming pool, hot tub, ice cream, and you can have dinner in Old Sacramento—it's fun! Route is along the Sacramento River on open country roads. It’s fully supported—good people! I have ridden this four (4) times and enjoyed it each time!