Shanna Davies came away from Sunday’s Sustainability Fair with a better understanding of bike maintenance and her very own TREK Mountaintrack 220.

Davies and Kira Homola spent the afternoon learning how to properly seat a bike tire on a rim, attach a wheel to a bike frame and adjust break pads.

Undeterred by a little grease, the pair dove into the impromptu lesson while John Meyer offered his own tips and tricks.

Meyer, an Island County employee at Coupeville transfer station hazardous waste facility, said his boss, Jerry Mingo, and several coworkers noticed the occasional bike in the metal scrap bin, so they decided to save the cycles from the metal compactor.

“We’re avid cyclists, so we don’t like to see these bikes get thrown away,” Meyer said.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to stop by and look for free parts, he said. In the past five years, Meyer estimates about two dozen of the abandoned bikes are back on the road.

With a little TLC and part swapping, almost anyone can turn a beater bike into a solid ride, he said.

Although the parts aren’t advertised, their availability travels through word of mouth.

“We try to encourage people to work on the bikes themselves,” he said.

The sustainability fair served as another way to let the community know about the collection of spare parts.

“This is too fun,” he said of guiding Davies and Homola through the bike repair process.

Salvage efforts not only keep bikes on the road and out of the dump, they also reduce carbon emissions when used for transportation.

By the day’s end, about six bikes found new homes and several attendees walked away with salvaged parts, he said.

Sustainable living expands beyond transportation, as an Oak Harbor children’s librarian demonstrated in the kids’ craft room.

Aside from take-home projects such as lavender sachets and newspaper seed pots, the Brown family learned about garden herbs from Oak Harbor’s children librarian Carol Rice.

Rice showed off a basket full of herbs, including rosemary, thyme and multiple mint varieties for children Jonathan, Alex and Gwen to examine.

“They smelled really good,” Alex said, “especially the chocolate mint.”

Library manager Mary Campbell said there’s plenty of gardening books for both kids and adults available for check out.

Down the hall, Keiko Farr a native of Japan, shared her culture at the Asian Pacific Club’s booth.

“In Japan we use cloth bags. There are no plastic bags at the grocery store,” she said.

Farr demonstrated the basic cloth bag as well as decorative ways to cover and carry gifts.

“You can wash it and you can reuse it,” she said of cloth wrappings.

Sustainability fun continued on Monday morning at Albertson’s, where bikers made a quick stop for croissants, donuts and coffee to fuel their commute.

Maribeth Crandell, Oak Harbor’s environmental educator, encourages walkers, bikers, skaters, bus riders and carpoolers to log their “sustainable transportation” miles through the month of May for a chance to win one of several prizes including an entry into the 2009 Tour de Whidbey, one of three $60 service certificates from Dean’s Sport Shop, a bike tune-up from Bicycles Northwest or a bike pack. Send your log via email to mcrandell@oakharbor.org by June 2 for a chance to win.