October 2007 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

while we're at it...
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

anything happening in vegas? i'll be there in a week, and would love to check out another operation... thanks!

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collectives in Fl?
by Ariel raymon 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

hi there, Wondering if there's a bike collective in Miami, or Ft Lauderdale Fl... i know its hot and muggy, but I'll be there next month... thanks,

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Indianapolis, Indiana - Bike Collectives?
by Austin Amos 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

I will be visiting Indianapolis, Indiana next month. I would like to know if there are any bike collectives. Please reply. Austin Amos General Manager www.conveyweigh.com Office: 304-201-2354 Mobile: 304-545-6505 Fax: 304-755-3883

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foundation site visit .. protocol and communication?
by rachael spiewak 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

hi, friends. things at sopo have been on the massive up and up since bikebike!, so thanks to y'all for making us take off our training wheels (haha?). anyhow, we've made it to the site visit round in the grant application process for the fund for southern communities <http://www.fundforsouth.org/>. i pitched sopo this way: we're a group of young people, students, and low income folks harmed by an environmental/transportation injustice, and we're organizing to create institutional change by building a community and constituency of people who are making alt. transportation accessible to ourselves and beyond by operating a community bicycle repair shop... which leads into changing material culture and affecting landuse policy. got all that? so the idea is to have a really high turn out during the visit (which is happening during regularly scheduled shop hours), including all of our young folks, and hopefully one of our politician friends. what i'd like to know is.. is there anything special we should do to prepare? am i allowed to post on our email list or on myspace that this is happening? is this the kind of thing you write a press release about? how do i handle communication about it? how do we get the word out in a professional kind of way? thanks! rachael

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Re: [TheThinkTank] selling bikes
by BovineOaks＠aol.com 18 Oct '07

18 Oct '07

Pricing bikes is like pricing anything, If you had a worn out, rusty, hand made Italian bike, or a shiny paint Huffy. As you price you have to know your history of the quality of the frames and the parts, you have to evaluate parts wear, and sadly shiny paint sells for more money than dull or rust. Most consumers are not cycling gurus, they want something that looks good. Give the bike a fair price and stick with that price if you have to repair the bike. Your time is worth is fi you are working on a bike or writing a grant, your time is worth money ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

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Bike Bike 2008 Meeting
by wind＠riseup.net 18 Oct '07

18 Oct '07

Hey folks, thanks for responding to the initial email about Bike Bike 2008 organizing! So we are just a year away which gives us enough time to plan an amazing conference/ skillshare/ festival! Thank you to all of you who responded with the best times to meet. We will be meeting on: Sunday October 21 Potluck lunch at 1:00 pm Meeting at 2:00 - 6:00 pm Location TBA I am considering a number of meeting locations in San Francisco right now, the SFBC said we might be able to use their conference room (15th floor!). Station 40 has also tentatively offered a space. There is a show at the Bike Kitchen that night you are all welcome to stay for. Anyone travelling from out of town is welcome to stay at my house the night before and after (Bus Stop House 2332 Fulton St. at Stanyan). Meeting agenda (so far...) What is Bike Bike? Check-ins from this year's conference Where to hold Bike Bike 2008 , town and venue Conference dates Scope of next years conference Who should we recruit to get involved? Other interested community groups Workshops Skillshares What different organizations can bring to this conference Anything else you want to add... I'll email you all when I know the meeting location, call me with any questions or if you have any ideas where to meet. 415 850 1584 or 415 752 0647 Thanx, Justin Valone

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Clear Channel Bike "Share"
by Bikes Not Bombs 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

Hello folks, here's just a heads up that Clear Channel, mega- advertising giant, may soon have Boston city contracts and be running a large scale "bike-sharing" fleet with stations, including of course, advertising on all surfaces. These Clear Channel negotiations are very new and are underway in hundreds of cities, maybe yours. (check out http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/) Mayor Bloomberg of NYC went to Paris and checked out their new city- wide bike-rental systems and wants the same in NYC. Hooray to more people using bikes! Hooray to greater interest in addressing the ills of automobile choked cities and environmental foolishness and overconsumption! Boo to "permanent sidewalk or vehicle defacement by ads touting the same corporate culture of over- consumption that got us in this mess" in the first place! (ie: Clear Channel advertising. The quote is taken from Steve Stollman, full text below.) Have you heard about this? Also bike activist Steve Stollman is selling a building in NYC, and wants to reinvest this money in real estate to buy buildings for community bike orgs, maybe yours! (ideally outside of the high- priced cities of NYC and Boston). He would then work to sell these buildings to the bike orgs over an extended period of time so that they eventually own their spaces. I've pasted some text about that in further below. If you're interested you should check in with Steve at SteveStollman(a)LightWHEELS.com -Arik Bikes Not Bombs **************************************************** From www.lightspeed.com, Steve Stollman, NYC **************************************************** Bike-sharing Handlebars and pedals make bikes into three-dimensional objects. If these protrusions can be flattened to the body of the bike when not in use, the vehicle is about 6” wide and much easier to both store and transport in the close company of other people. Current technology permits this modification to be performed safely and conveniently. There would need to be a large number of somewhat-identical bikes using variations of this simple design, with adjustable seat heights, to keep initial costs low while providing for the fastest and widest proliferation. At most times, these sturdy bikes will be fine. Buying a shipload will reduce their cost to such a low figure that a few months of advertisements, removable after all costs are covered, could finance the entire exercise. Ads for one month a year or less could finance ongoing top-level maintenance. If properly designed they can be free to use and possibly not need to be locked at special locations as current systems usually demand. http://bike- sharing.blogspot.com Permanent sidewalk or vehicle defacement by ads touting the same corporate culture of over-consumption that got us in this mess is not necessary. We can not afford to allow the bottom-line calculus of Clear Channel and the other billboard-industry giants, to decide for us how we share our bikes. Across this country, before this massive invasion of profit-driven, probably sub-standard systems take hold, Community-based bike collectives and other people-friendly individuals and organizations, including some local bike businesses, must begin to assume these responsibilities. This will not destroy the existing bike business, because shops can help create, maintain and upgrade the fleet continuously. Many people will want their own machine regardless, and far more people will be riding all the time. When seas rise so do boats. Paris today is a good example. A second system needs to be established, designed and built, which is comprised of unconventional vehicles, multi-passenger, weather- protected, electric-motor assisted, art-inspired and plain fun. Access to this fleet would need to be restricted and require credit- card id, GPS location devices, special maintenance and a fee-system to help pay for it. Some support should come from the government since it will provide many benefits to the public as a whole, the way other publicly-accessible transit systems ordinarily do. Self-support is ideal and achievable. This could enable a much more creative and adventurous effort than one sponsored by a corporation or government. It is also being suggested that all this be done in tandem with a local-neighborhood based, ambitious and creative system, for sharing rides and vehicles of all kinds. This facility can also accept tax- deductible contributions, some as valuable as cars etc., and generate income from the small fees earned for expediting these much needed various transportation-related companion efforts to reduce traffic. Anchored by a robust and growing community bike effort, a strong framework for positive change can be constructed. If a substantial decrease in the number of cars on the road is achieved this will also help in the improvement of roadway safety for cyclists and others. The soonest path to the safest and most appropriate and convenient system with the least expensive continuous operating costs, that also rocks, is the goal. The proliferation of these new forms of transport will also require the taming of our highways back into the streets that they were intended to be. We must demand civility and respect from large and dangerous Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)-Age vehicles, and the complete eradication of their people-unfriendly behavior. The reward for this change will be an historic flowering of enjoyable, human-scale, responsible and healthful transportation in our cities and towns. SteveStollman(a)LightWHEELS.com | 212 431 0600 | 49 East Houston Street NYC 10012 ********* Bikes and Property I want to invest my profit from selling a property in Manhattan to help enable 10 bike shops to establish themselves in their own spaces. Each will each be given an option to buy the space they are renting after a few years, to enable them to grow more rapidly and to own and benefit directly from the improvements they make to their properties and businesses. In some cases this would involve buying existing locations, in others it would mean finding a great local building for sale at a good price in a good location. (As each group is able to purchase its building, the money paid is made available to another group in another state so that they may be able to purchase a building etc... If this property investment methodology helps in bringing forth better means for bike store owners to control their own futures and expand their businesses, others may decide to invest this way as well. As mortgage credit tightens, the strength of this industry, in the face of $3+ gas and frightening obesity and diabetes rates, could entitle it to an alternate form of investment capital. There are many people today on every stratum of society who are starting to come to terms with the damage being done to a seemingly robust, but actually dangerously fragile, ecosystem. The central role of inappropriate transportation is conspicuous in that picture. They want their kids to be healthy, have a future and love them and they want to have a cleaner conscience. At the same time they want their investments to be sound financially. A program such as this could satisfy all of their needs, while giving bike stores some valuable additional leverage against overly-aggressive landlords, and a better shot at economic justice and self-determination. It is also my intention to use this opportunity to help gain more visibility through these stores for hybrid human-powered/electric- assisted vehicles, including safe, road-worthy and weather-protected wheelchairs. In an aging population, many stores may find this to be one of the most high-growth elements of their businesses and one of the most gratifying. Meanwhile re-defining cycling as basic transportation, not just a pleasurable, recreational activity, will help drive the infrastructure improvements that we so badly need. These upgrades, a flood of new and more utilitarian machines, and the dramatic increases in bicycle and other lightweight vehicle use that they will trigger, will finally begin to bring this vital activity its due respect.

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remove/unsubscribe
by Tom Emm 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

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meeting ettiquite
by Ariel raymon 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

Hey all, wondering if anyone has had to deal with drinking casually at collective meetings, and has a good policy for how to set limits without ostrasizing people and looking like a tightass. Let us know, thanks, Ariel @ bikefarm

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needed: Movies about your shop.
by Andalusia Knoll 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

Hello bike lovers, So this is a little last minute but Times-Up in NYC is having an event/movie night about bike bike! and the bike collective network. It would be great to show all the little news blips, mini documentaries, arty bike shop movies that have been made about your shop. Kinda like what we did the friday night at bike bike under that wonderful bridge. The only problem is that this whole event is really last minute and is taking place on Thursday. Perhaps people have these videos on youtube or some other online viewable format and can send me the links and then we can show them. Thanks, Andalusia

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