Get your bike ready for Bike Month with DEQ

Last Monday, the Greenway Gear Collective co-hosted an event with the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) at the State Government Complex on Halifax Mall. GGC was represented by five volunteers that performed free bike assessments and repairs for state employees to get their bikes ready for Bike Month (May) and Bike to Work Day (Friday, May 15). 

This was the first time DEQ had attempted such an event and there was no way to anticipate if GGC volunteers would be twiddling their thumbs or overwhelmed with bikes needing extensive repairs. Reality ended up falling comfortably in between, with a steady stream of state employees keeping all of our volunteers fully engaged starting before the event officially began and extending almost an hour beyond the scheduled end of the event.

A myriad of bike maladies were diagnosed and remedied. Bikes with drivetrains that had not seen service since the late 90s were cleaned (and cleaned…and cleaned), brakes adjusted, wheels trued, shifting adjusted, and on and on, to get all of the bikes returned to their owners and ready for Bike Month.

Thank you to all of the volunteers for giving their time and expertise to make the event such a success: Dianne and Brian Thomas, Rob Reece, and Debra and Jeff Rezeli. With such a great turnout and outcome, we hope this is the start of an annual tradition with state government employees.