09/01/2026
Charles is a local Topeka resident who we first met at the Topeka Community Cycling Project a couple of years ago when he was in high school. He has a passion for fixing up bicycles and is already quite a collector. He has worked for us part time over the past two years, primarily doing disassembly and media blasting. Some time back he salvaged an REI Novara Arriba mountain bike frame from the scrap pile at TCCP that he wanted to fix up for himself. The aluminum seat post was hopelessly seized into the steel frame. After trying all of the conventional methods of removal we switched to the radical methods. In our collection of obsolete and abandoned tools we had a vintage quill remover made from a old bumper jack (if you are younger than 50 you probably have never heard of such a thing). A 1/2” hole was drilled through the seat post and a steel rod was inserted. The tool was braced against the bottom bracket shell and tensioned against the rod. While the jack was being ratcheted up, heat was applied to the seat tube. So much force was applied to the contraption that the steel rod bent into a “V” shape. Eventually, the post began to budge, and ultimately was removed from the frame.
Charles’ favorite color is yellow, which probably attracted him to the frame in the first place. We had agreed to let him powder coat the frame himself, something that he had not done previously. We had several single stage yellows in stock, easy first-timer application sort of stuff. Nope… He chose the most difficult of all, Candy Yellow Transparent, with an Alien Silver base coat and glitter clear top coat. It was a definite learning experience for the young man but he got what he wanted. We hope to see finished build photos in the near future.
