You may recall a post a week or so ago about a newbie's purchase of an older yellow Cannondale ST. Well, her name is Rachel and she needs some help to get the bike together.

Rachel and I have been corresponding over the past week, defining the problems & missing parts on the bike and discussing how she will get the tools and knowledge to get it back together correctly.

I'm putting together a care package with most of the parts she needs, and she has some money to buy the few items I don't have to send. We just need someone knowledgeable in Western Massachusetts (she is in Hadley) who can bring their tools & donate an afternoon of time to get it all assembled. I'd do it myself, but I'm in Virginia with a full schedule for the next six weeks.

Anybody out there willing to be a Good Neighbor C&V'er?

If Rachel can come to me, I'd be glad to help her out. Basically I'm a 2+ hour drive north. ftwelder is about an hour closer. Does she have transportation?

I'm 2+ hours due east .. we should have someone out there I'd think.

Scott

Road trip for Scott and Neal!!

I'd be up for that ..

Scott

I am about 8+ hours but always willing to help anyone closer

A new recruit for the next C&V New England ride!

just mail her your tools and have a webex or skype. i'll bring the popcorn.

lol that would be pretty interesting to watch.

Maybe Scott and I will be like that old commercial for auto repair: "I 'ain't never worked on no eye-talian car before."

"We 'ain't never worked on no tonic-can frame before."

Neal

I think you guys should do the videocast ala Click and Clack from NPR's Car Talk.

What you mean? Scott and Neal ARE Click n Clack!

Train don't run out of Wichita... unlessin' you're a hog or a cattle.
People train runs out of Stubbville.

Gee, I'd do it. If only I could. I love that area, too. I hope someone ends up helping her.

I have an ex girlfriend out there *raises fist*

The Boston crew could give her a helping hand I'm sure, if she wants to come visit.

Don't we have a C&V-er in Kingston, NY? If she's in Western MA, New York's closer.

I am 15 hours away by car, so I hope someone else can make it.

I may be heading south today to do some bike trading. Perhaps she can give me a call in VT at 376 6639 if she wants to shoot for today or a PM will work for a later date.

Frank

It's all a matter of geography+culture. For instance, when you live in NYC, Rockland County, all of 20-30 miles north of ground zero, is referred to as "Upstate NY," even though 95% of NY is still north of there.

MA is sort of the same way. The center of their universe is Boston. Even though I'm only a measly 100 miles north of Logan airport, this part of NH is considered frontier wilderness. Even Worchester (pronounced "Wuss-tur" ) is considered western MA, even though it is only 43 miles from Boston. This is because anything west of Boston outside of I-95 is "western MA!"

Rachel is north of Springfield, MA, which most of us would call "central MA." She's about 100 miles from Neal, and 125 from Scott. And from Kingston, she is about 130 miles.

So at 70 miles to ftwelder, and 120 miles to me, you begin to see how geography+culture affects our perceptions of distances.

I'm Clack, Neal is Click.

I'm surprised Rachel hasn't chimed in yet, her ears must be burning ..

Scott

I'll touch base with her today and ask her to chime in on opportunities for her to bring her stuff to someone relatively close. Nice thing about her coming to one of us is that there would be a better chance of having that oddball piece of hardware needed to complete the build in our work space than remembering to bring it off site.

Although- and maybe this is just a side issue because I'm the only guy in a houseful O' Wimmen- there would likely have to be some "I ain't no serial killer who preys on helpless females" reassurance before she rolls off into unknown parts to meet up with a stranger.

If you catch my drift. And I'm sure you do.

I was wondering where she is as well? Get in here girl! There are lots of greasy C&V old men who want to help you out!

So Neal is a nicely running freewheel? And you are a BB in need of service?

And Rachel, if you haven't figured it out Neal and Scott are really generous guys. It can be hard to pick up in the funny comments above, but
they both really are as generous as it sounds above.

Actually, I'm Bounce and Scott is Roll, given the number of cycling mishaps the two of us have had lately.

Rachel, if you're out there I'd be glad to help and have been working on bikes for decades. Just don't ask me to adjust brifters, Richard! That technology is too new for me.

Neal

Neal, let's turn her bike into a Fujileigh .... or is that a Raleiji?

Scott