DIY Member Spotlight: Christian Clear
Friends, meet Christian. He’s become a regular in the DIY Workspace these past few months as he’s rotated through a handful of different projects. Frustrated with the limited space and lack of tools in his dusty garage, he signed up for a Premium membership in February and hasn’t looked back!
For Christian, each bike is a new learning experience. As he’s gotten more comfortable with fixing his own bikes, he’s taken it upon himself to fix bikes belonging to friends and coworkers as well. He said now that he really understands what it takes to properly maintain a bike, he can’t bear to see a bike get neglected. It works out for Christian too because he always likes to have a project on hand! The Trek bike pictured here is actually getting prepped to be given to a friend who recently found a crack in the frame of their old bike.
“Some people go to bars to hang out, but me, I come here” he said while gesturing to the open air of the DIY Workspace. For him, it’s as much about the process as it is about the end goal.
Working on bikes can be fun! It can even be relaxing under the right circumstances. But like most, Christian’s experience fixing bikes hasn’t only been smooth-sailing. Luckily, that’s where our instructor mechanics come in! As he points to the Trek road bike hanging in the repair stand in front of him, he said “I don’t know how I would have ever finished this one without help from Bob and Beth.” They guided him through bleeding the brakes as well as troubleshooting a slew of other little problems while assembling the bike. 
Christian’s most grateful for the opportunity to glean so much knowledge from two veteran bike mechanics. There’s a lot to learn from them! “I usually get some sort of history lesson too,” he said in reference to Beth and Bob’s encyclopedic knowledge of bikes.
While the bike in this stand is ready to go, we know Christian will be back soon with another project to put his skills to the test.
If you’re interested in learning more about our DIY Workspace, visit
https://communitycyclingcenter.org/bike-shop/diy-workspace/