About bikes and bits and charity

…..998, 999, 1000 –hallelujah!! ˜ at’s 1000 bicycles patched up, ° ashed up and back in full working order. A break pad here, a new tyre there.

˜ e 1000 bikes also mean 10 years of tinkering and pottering in Lex Spencer’s ‘Cranky Old Bastard’s Shed’ in Maungatapu. Lex is a man born to be busy, he loves bikes passionately and has time on his hands. It’s also meant a tidy money-spinner for Waipuna Hospice, which ° ick on Lex’s handiwork at their charity shops. At 1000 bikes – they all add up.

Beryl’s fault!

“It’s Beryl’s fault,” says Lex. Beryl is Lex’s wife. He had some little bikes from his days with the Kids Can Ride programme. “I would slap on a new break pad or pump up a tyre, so a kid could ride safely to school.”

Beryl o˛ ered the bikes to the hospice shop. She reassured them they were good to go because her husband had seen to it personally. And he knows his bikes, his seat posts from his cranksets and spokes. ˜ at’s when Lex started ÿ xing bikes for charity – one in just under every two days for the last decade.

˜ e reason he knows is because he’s chalked up his progress on a blackboard in his shed – for example, 63 in 2014, 98 in 2016, 218 in 2022 etc. And number 1000 is coming o˛ the production line as we speak. He delightfully understates it. “Mmmm – spose it’s something to be proud of.”

And there’s no indication he’ll stop. “I could stop tomorrow if I wanted. But I don’t have to.”

˜ is is a man with one shed chocka to the rafters and beyond with bicycles and bicycle bits, another shed full of bicycles, another room with half a dozen bicycles, including a Tour de France Paris road bike – a most unusual looking machine – and a property dotted with garden art he’s made from bicycle bits.

Not obsessive!

“No, no, I wouldn’t say I was obsessive,” says the 84-year-old, fresh in from a 40km romp with his cycling mates. He appeared mildly o˛ ended at the suggestion. “I have also got my vege garden, and my daughter’s vege garden.”

Back in ‘˜ e Cranky Old Bastard’s Shed’ there are helmets, wheels, handlebars, tyres and tubes and other bike stu˛ . “I never have to go to the shop if I’m looking for a bit.” He just has to ÿ nd it, or cannibalise it. And the boxes and drawers – all carefully categorised so he knows exactly where his clamps, ball bearings, gear cables, brake parts, wheel hubs and axles and derailleurs are. *Read this story in full at: www.sunlive.co.nz

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Pacific Coast Village is known for unprecedented resort-style facilities rarely seen in New Zealand. The Pacific Coast Care Centre - Te Manaaki is a continuation of this considered design. Crafted to provide residents with a sense of luxury and security in their latter years. The Care Centre is a modern facility with 58 highly appointed care suites over two levels, offering rest home and hospital level care.