Left to Right, Clean, Grease, Right to Left

If you can follow the title than you have successfully disassembled, cleaned, inspected for broken parts, greased, and reassembled any of the rotational systems on a bicycle. It is all to often that we will hear a kid in the shop ask where his lock nut disappeared to or where her axle went and our response to them is normally, "If it wasn't on a rag than it was recycled." Now I understand that this may seem a little harsh, but to think about it makes one realize that it is teaching them the correct, more organized, and easier way of taking something apart and then putting it back together.

We try to teach each participant to, when they are disassembling a component on their bike, place all of their parts on a rag from left to right just like reading a book. For example:


What we don't like to see is a jumbled mess or parts spread out all over the shop, for example:

Although the above picture does have all of its parts on a rag, they are not organized and for a participant who may not know which part goes first, it may get confusing when reassembling the system.

The moral of the story is to keep things organized whether it be at the shop, at home, or at school. Keeping things on a rag from left to right is just our way of teaching that!