O.K., I can’t help myself. The first time I ever heard of Mon-tana outside my grade school geography text book was in1973. I was in sixth grade and hanging out in the basement ofmy friend Wayne Smith’s house. His older brother was hav-ing a party and they were listening to Frank Zappa on a horri-ble old stereo. Suddenly the calls came out from across theroom, “Can I interest you in a pair of Zircon encrusted tweez-ers?”I had no idea what they were talking about. Then we all satdown, cranked the volume and listened intently to the lyrics.The opening stanza puts the great schnoz and his genius infocus:

"I might be movin' to Mon-tana soon. Just to raise meup a crop of Dental Floss"

And so it went, all of us singing along, hap-pily immersed in the glorious weirdness.Fast forward no less than 35 years. I’m in acar with my friend Torie driving fromMichigan to Bozeman, MT. From the rear-view mirror hangs an unusual talisman. If Ihadn’t already told you the historical con-text you might not understand its sig-nificance. Dangling there in front ofus, from a singular thread of dentalfloss, are two sparkly and jaunty….tweezers. Our friend Nels gave themto Torie as a going away present. She’sheading to grad school in Montana.That’s how it starts. Knowing I’m on my way to Bozeman, Idrop a message on the fixed gear forum and ask for some lo-cal support. Less than 24 hours later John Friedrich (Mr.DNA)pings me back. John welcomes me with an invitation to ridewith him when he gets back to town, but also copies severalother folks in town. Immediately I get a response from CaseySchenker. Casey’s a grad student at MSU and he invites me tocome by the little community bike shop he heads up calledthe Bozeman Bike Kitchen.http://www.bozemanbikekitchen.org/

"Raisin' it up, Waxen it down. In a little white box That I cansell uptown. By myself I wouldn’t have no boss, But I'd be raisin' my lonely Dental Floss”

Casey gives me directions like this:

“We're having a worknight tomorrow from 6 to 8 pm if you want to stop by and check itout. It's pretty humble, but we've gotten around thirty to fortybikes into the hands of lower income individuals this summer alone. This is approximately where to find us if you want to stopby, I'll be there by about six tomorrow night. It's a little hard to find, because it's basically in a shed behind a hedge, but if you can get into the parking lot of the school district building on the cor-ner of Durston and 11th and call me.”

Casey is not exaggerating about thedirections. Even with the coordi-nates in hand, I wander around fora while before looking behind theright hedge. The Kitchen is in adilapidated shed belonging to theBozeman School District. It hides behind a couple oldhouses that now serve as office space. The shed has a lowceiling about six foot tall, which makes it difficult for some-one like me to stand up in side.Here's Sam....he's about my height.Most of the work takes place onthe lawn outside. The main effortsof the Kitchen are directed towardrefurbishing old bicycles for theuse of people in the communitywho can’t otherwise afford them. In the process volunteers

L stGears

Bicycles and other freewheeling ideas

Reviews and inspiration from the bicycle kingdom

Bill Palladino

Staff Writer - Fixed Gear Gallerywww.fixedgeargallery.com Blog:www.lostgears.blogspot.com Email:lostgears@gmail.com

The Fixed Gear Scene in Bozeman

Sept

2008

Getting ThereTHE BOZEMAN BIKE KITCHEN:

also are called upon to tune up the bikes of just about anyone who manages to find the place.The evening I chose to stop by is a work bee. There’s a lot of busy work to do. About twenty yards from the shed is apile of bikes and wheels that need to be stripped down. Many of these things are destined for the metal recycler.Three or four volunteers busily bang, pound, and pull, separating the bikes into tall piles of steel, aluminum, andrubber. Here at the Kitchen everything gets recycled somehow.Two other volunteers, Sam Haraldson and Catherine Schneider, are standing in the shed. During the day they have"real jobs", Sam as Gear Shop Manager forhttp://www.backpackinglight.com/, and Catherine as a freelanceshed. Catherine works on all the bike tubes. One by one she fills them with air tocheck them out. If they hold air, or could be easily patched, she empties them again, foldsthem up and puts them in boxes with like-sized tubes for use by people wandering in. If the tiresare beyond repair they go in another box destined for a craftsman in Whitefish who uses them for prod-ucts.http://alchemygoods.com/recycling.html While I sit and chat with Casey on the lawn, a 40ish year old man in a big blue parka and NASCAR hat walks up.He’s got a piece of paper in his hands that he presents to Casey. Casey reads it, smiles, and says:

“Charlie…..what ha pened to the last one we gave you?”

Charlie is one of the people that the state sent over. The Kitchen has a deal with thestate to provide a working bike to anyone in need. The piece of paper tells Casey it’s OK to give one to him….again.“Got stolen.” Charlie says.Casey responds chiding him:

“Charlie, you gotta get a lock man. The bike is free, but you gotta get a lock.”

Charlie picks a bike from the few that are almost ready for the road. The one he wants isn’t quite ready so Casey sayshe can take it if he fixes it right here. Casey gives Charlie a 9mm wrench and sends him off.Casey’s workbench on the lawn is a sight to behold. What first appears to be a narrow table with a truing stand at-graphic designer. Their collective job today however is toorganize the parts andtools stored in the

While I’m sitting there Casey also offers to help me find a rearbrake for my fixie so I can more safely take it on the trails to-morrow. He points out two huge boxes of brake calipers andtells me to help myself. I spend some time sitting on the lawnamong the other volunteers and bike fixers chatting and tink-ering.By the time I wrap it up, there are about ten volunteers wan-dering the lawn and crouching in the shed. Another five or sixpeople looking for assistance with their bikes - or helping to fixothers - sit within shouting distance of Casey.He is undoubtedly the hub of this place. The others lie asspokes working on their own, checking back with him fre-quently to either ask advice on a fix or to proffer their next assignment.As I head off down the trail, there is a Bozeman Sunset. I pop on the headlight and flasher, grateful to have met thesehard working folks and fascinated with the work they do.

"I'm ridin' a small tiny hoss (His name is MIGHTY LITTLE.) He's a good hoss, even though he's a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or blanket on. Anyway he's a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or blanket on any-way, any way"

Bangtail is the bike shop where John works, so I head over there to buy some bits to finish off the rear brake. (Yikes,a rear brake?!) . As it turns out they're great folks. A few minutes after walking into the store they have a work standset up for me on the deck along with a full-on toolbox. Rob helps me with cabling the brake, and finds some humorin my insistence on going to Cottonwood Canyon with the fixed gear bike. I assure him that while a bit reckless, I amin fact quite sane. John says he’ll pick me up at International Coffee Roasters near the MSU campus. John welcomesme like an old friend. We each grab a cup of Joe for the road and head out in his car on 19th street towards SouthCottonwood Canyon Trail.In the parking lot of the trail, he says a few words of encouragement, throws on his shoes, brags about his sweet lit-tle Fat City hard-tail single speed and hops on. The head of the trail is a series of quick and steep switchbacks whichtached turns out to be hismountain bike with anXtraCycle rack. He keepsall his tools in the panniersand manages to make it alllook pretty natural.The Kitchen has severalsets of tools each in a sepa-rate tool box. The tools arepainted a color to matchthe toolkit. (This makes iteasier for people to gettheir tools back to the right toolbox and acts as a small deterrent to theft.) Ruben lives in Bozeman and shows up tohelp this night too. He admits to not having any experience and is here to learn so that he can someday do mainte-nance on his bike.

RIDING THE TRAILS ON MY FIXIE: