February 2008 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Bike Bike Meeting East Bay 2/24 (Woo hoo!)
by Ivan Denker 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

hiya folks ivan, emilyn and quentin here. At the last bike bike meeting (bike church, santa cruz, 1/18) we decided to have the next meeting at our house in the east bay. We live at 3090 King St<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3090+King+St,+Berkeley,+CA+94703,+USA&sa=X&oi…>. at Prince St. in south Berkeley. That's two blocks south of Ashby and three blocks west of MLK. We are about three minute's walk from the Ashby BART. Discussed meeting time was noon on sunday, february 24th. If you have a really, really big issue with that time, please email the group so we can see if we need to figure something else out, otherwise, I think that's the plan. Ok? Ok. any emergencies, please call Emilyn at (831) 421 1942 (i.e., if you're lost, if you get part of your bike stuck in the BART door and need us to send a rescue squad, if you're dying for want of an odwalla bar just a few blocks away, we'll be there.) Loving Bicycles from your Invasive, Non-Native Bike Church Transplants in the East Bay

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Mentor needed for an academic paper on Bikes and Poverity
by Cris Shirley 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hey! So I'm taking a class at Yale on Inequality and American Democracy, and the writing component of the class requires that I find well established community member to work with in developing an academic paper (about 20 pages long) about how bikes help combat poverty in America. If you would be interested in working on this with me please email me back. Your role would be an adviser that would push me to create a paper that would be beneficial to both bike collective community as a whole and to the New Haven Bike Collective by meeting with me on the phone making suggestions and recommending any research that you are familiar with. (Need a response soon!) Thanks! Cris

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Earn-A-Biker wants BMX
by Rich Points 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Collectives, We work with the Boulder County Jail's work release program where inmates begin the program at our shop and Earn-A-Bike. This past weekend we did a bunch of work in our storage where we keep kids bikes. Three of the work release guys, in their late twenties and early thirties, found BMX bikes they wanted to keep as their Earn-A-Bike. Our response was to discourage this as we generally try to set people up with commuter style bikes. I especially tried to discourage the six foot two guy from choosing a BMX. We're aware that /some /people are more than happy to commute by BMX but believe that won't work for most people. So the question is should we allow the work release guys to choose any bike they want regardless of the practicality? Are we being elitist bike snobs to make this decision for them? Should we just be happy we got them back on a bike? Feedback is appreciated. -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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Lance Armstrong unveils his new commuting bike shop
by Rich Points 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Maybe there is hope. http://www.austin360.com/recreation/content/recreation/stories/2008/02/0214… -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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Keeping track of bike/part sales...
by Jonathan Morrison 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

For those of you that do it, how do you do it? What information do you or don't you record? -- Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/

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BCN: International Map of Shops now working
by Jonathan Morrison 15 Feb '08

15 Feb '08

http://www.bikecollectives.org/component/option,com_sobi2/sobi2Task,search/… In a nut shell you have to enter your lattitude and longitude into your directory entry. If you don't know it, just enter and save your address and visit this link to automatically calculate and set it: http://www.bikecollectives.org/component/option,com_sobi2test/ Note: If you entered a "poorly formated" address, it may have trouble calculating it. Try looking your address up in google maps first, and using the way they format it. -- Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/

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Bike music festival
by Taylor 14 Feb '08

14 Feb '08

Yea gabe! I met him in san fran after a crit mass ride! Keep the list updated if its happening again!

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Bicycle Music Festival?
by Jonathan Morrison 13 Feb '08

13 Feb '08

http://www.bicyclemusicfestival.com/ -- Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Volunteering time
by Andrew Bushaw 13 Feb '08

13 Feb '08

Kyle, I will stand in solidarity with everything you just said. It's refreshing to hear someone frame the idea of white and class privilege in such an elegant but accessible way. Mainly I just wanted to voice my support because this is a tough discussion to have but an important one. To Bruce's comment about women and bike shops, I'd have to say that you are using a symptom of patriarchy (few women not in bike shops) to justify that outcome. For an analogy: if there was no bike rack or pole or anything to lock your bike up to outside of a new Thai restaurant, should the owner of the shop assume that you not eating there because it "you as a cyclist innately don't like Thai food" or because there is barrier to entry, not having a place to put your ride? If he assumes it's because cyclists don't like Thai food, he'll never put a bike rack out front and you'll never eat there. Maybe that's a goofy analogy but maybe it's still relevant. We actually had this discussion with a couple of women that frequently patronize the shop when we asked them if they would be interested in a womens only night. Their response was pretty interesting. They said that it would be nice so that new women patrons could become comfortable in a new setting with other women but then once they felt confident in the basics they wouldn't have any problem going to regular shop hours because the wouldn't feel like they were relying on men volunteers for everything. I think that makes a lot of sense. As to the folks that get uncomfortable about this and feel they are being accused of "being a racist" this examination of privilege isn't about personal prejudice but rather about institutional racism, the systems that have permeated American society from it's inception. Wage and wealth inequities based on race, access to services based on race, gentrification, unfair employment practices, structures of the economy, allocation of democratic rights, these are all part of institutional racism that is at the core of white privilege. Really it's about admitting that it exists, owning it and trying to find ways to use it to a mutual benefit of everyone involved (organizing a community bike shop and empowering those communities without white male privilege) and that is light years more progressive and effective than than going on about how your not a racist and your oppressed too (not saying anyone here has done that but it's a common response from liberal folks). I think paying wage is a great way to enable marginalize peoples to participate in Com. Bike shops and I'm sure there are many more, we need to find those too! Keep the ideas coming! Andrew FM Community Bicycle Workshop

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Re: [TheThinkTank] bio cleaner, and bike blue book....
by BovineOaks＠aol.com 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

Beth you are Crazy! and I hope you stay that way sane people are so boring. Blue book bicycle pricing is the same as pricing a house. A bike in one market will bring a different price in a different market. A three bedroom Victorian house in the middle of a corn field will bring a different price in down town Chicago, Boston, San Francisco. Some markets have fads they go though. The west coast has a mini fad of old TT super bikes from the 1980's ( does anyone remember the 24" front 700c or 28" rear wheeled bikes? I have two of them. Fast and painful to the neck. New and used cars are kept at superficial price by nation wide dealer networks, New bikes are under the same control from the manufactures, Used bikes are not sold buy most shops so they are priced at what the local market will bare. A car is also priced by mileage, All car have odometers All bikes do not. Hard to tell how many miles are on the bike. Hard to swap out drive train in a car, easy to replace derailleurs, chain, cogs, chain rings, wheels. Cars that are modified are discounted at the dealers and sell better on the open market. Bikes that are upgraded are no big deal because all used bike are sold on the open market. I say go for it, There were blue books in the past for bicycles and you can do anything you put your mind to. It is also a big project with no end and constant updating. The BIO cleaner is a ball of wax, it is good to use Bio solvents (citrus oils or Detergents like Simple Green, Dawn) then filter the water and put a oil filters in a enzyme bath that will eat up the oil. I have not seen enzymes that work fast enough to clean a chain in 10 minutes. I do know enzymes will chew up oil over time in a barrel out back. **************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. Go to AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565)

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