April 2008 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Re: [TheThinkTank] New shop name ideas, anyone?
by mike eng 29 Apr '08

29 Apr '08

I'd just echo Rachel's point about not trying too hard to come up with some funky word for the name. Having a self-explanatory name makes it easy for people who know nothing about your program recognize what you do. In our case, at an outreach event, a bunch of people just saw the name and walked up and said, "Oh, I'd never heard of your organization before, but can I donate my old bike to you so it doesn't have to go in the garbage?" And we said, "Absolutely". -- Mike Eng Recycle-a-Bike, Providence, RI www.recycleabike.org

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Article from Common Dreams NewsCenter
by Tom Emm 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

A friend <refsvr(a)referralblast.com> wrote: Hello, A friend wanted to share this article with you: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/27/8558/ Thanks! ______________________________________ Common Dreams Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community www.commondreams.org ________________________________________________________ Referral service by ReferralBlast.com --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

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Liability insurance/ Children's legal issues?
by Sandy Robson 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Howdy from St. Paul, Minnesota! We've been having a pretty successful starting season at Sibley Bike Depot--maintenance classes, a women's/trans open shop night, an after school program, art bike projects...it's all going swell. Right now we have a number of children that come to our open-shop hours and earn bikes. We don't have any liability insurance whatsoever, so we've temporarily limited the number of kids allowed in the shop at one time. How do you all handle this? Do you have any advice as to what kind of insurance/ forms we need? Thanks! Sandy Robson (410)206-7826

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Mayor's Ride May 12!
by Community Bicycle Shop Omaha 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

2008 Mayor's Ride to Start at the Community Bicycle Shop! Start your day off right on *Monday, May 12 at 8:00* am and bring your bicycle down to 33rd and California! Community Bicycle Shop Omaha (CBSO) is pleased to partner with Mayor Mike Fahey, Activate Omaha, and Bikeable Communities to bring the Mayor's Ride to Gifford Park. This event kicks off National Bike to Work Week and will include the presentation of Omaha's first commuter bicycle map. The mayor will make a proclamation at 8:30 am and the group will ride to the Pedestrian Bridge downtown and back through Creighton's campus. Bicycling to work is good exercise and saves money on gas. Cycling instead of driving is also good for air quality and mitigates global warming. Most important to CBSO is the immediate benefit of your presence on the street! Our streets are safer and more enjoyable when we employ human power to get us where we're going. If you are new to bicycle commuting this is a great way to get started! All you need is a bicycle and helmet. The ride will be guided by the police so that traffic at intersections will be monitored. If you'd like to know more about the event call Stuart at 216-1235 or visit * www.activateomaha.org*.

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Cheap locks/stolen bikes
by plan_9＠riseup.net 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

We at the FM Community Bicycle Workshop have had a good,(read: busy, chaotic, overwhelming) first spring openand have run into a few unexpected situations regarding stolen bikes. We have a one bike a year limit policy and have had individuals get bikes from us, then come back the next week saying theirs was stolen and they want to get another one. Some of these were pretty decent, modern bikes (trek 4300, Giant Cyprus, Diamondback BMX) and we don't want to suspect the worst, that these bikes were pawned or sold for profit rather than ridden, but we also don't want to open ourselves up to exploitation either. We have put in place a policy that if you bring us a copy of your police report you are eligible for earning another bike, assuming that folks wouldn't file a false police report. We don't live in an area that has high bike theft rates, except for "bike hopping" where people just grab a bike that isn't being used and leave it wherever they end up. Basically, crime of opportunity rather than intent. The bigger issue here is that we are getting folks bikes who can't normally afford one, but not giving them the means to secure it. We are interested in getting locks to give out to people who get bikes from us through our referral system but are debating which is the best solution. One idea would be to buy cheap cable locks in bulk. Another idea we have had is a much more DIY approach: Get a roll of beefy hardware store chain and a padlock and call it good. Has anyone run into this? Thoughts? -Andy FMCBW

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New shop name ideas, anyone?
by Jennifer Nordhem 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

We've decided against using the name Battlesteed for multiple reasons. Does anyone have a good name the didn't get picked for their shop that they still like or came up with after it was set in stone. This is really the only thing that's holding us back right now since we can't file as a non-profit organization until we have one. This is our brief mission: We are a small group of avid cyclists who, through our love for the bike, decided to found Battlesteed Custom Bike Works. Battlesteed's mission is to create a larger, more knowledgeable and self-reliant community in Denver through teaching affordable bicycle mechanics classes in a comfortable, unpretentious learning environment. These are other intentions of the shop: -To hold monthly art shows to support the growing art community of Denver and advertise our services to new potential students. -To sublet space/benches to people (mainly people who are teaching classes and are involved with the shop) for their personal tools... we even have a friend interested in using his space for a screen printing press which he will teach classes in as well. Any ideas?! Thanks, Jen Nordhem Denver

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Following up with Bike Donors
by Rich Points 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

Collectives, At Community Cycles when someone donates a bike we have them fill out a tax deductible donation receipt. This is a carbon copy form where the donor gets one copy and we get the other. We then take that info an input into our database. We've done this for about 9 months now and have quite a few Bike_Donor contacts. So far we haven't contacted these donors but I've been thinking of doing a direct mail campaign to these people. My question is, have other collectives done this kind of direct mail? Or more broadly how are you following up with people who donate bikes and parts to you? Peace -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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Re: [TheThinkTank] illustrated instruction booklet
by dragonfly＠mac.hush.com 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello, Everyone Back in the 1980's when I was a little kid, my big sister was part of a group called Cycle Watch, which was one of the early local cyclists groups in Toronto. Cycle Watch made a beautiful little booklet for cyclists. It had a yellow cover of a light card stock and accordion folded paper inside. It was small enough to fit inside a wallet, but it was a little fat. Sort of the thickness of a package of rolling papers (I'm getting all Canadian on you now.) Instead of information about flats, it had a picture of a bike with all the parts labelled with their names, and spaces for you to write in information about your bike, such as the make, the size, the serial number, the City bike licence if you had one, etc. The next little pages were a description of what information you needed to gather if you were in an accident-- the name and details of the driver who hit you (Kate had to explain the concept of insurance to me), and space for contact info. for witnesses, plus the name and badge number of the police officers, etc.. (They used small type.) It was a little booklet of information about how to record all the things that would help you win a traffic case if you were hit (the picture ofthe bike with the names of the parts was to help you describe your bike or the damage to it), plus all the info you'd need to have if your bike was stolen. It was great. Part of what made it compelling to me was that it was kid- sized. My sister gave me a whole bunch of these booklets to hand out at school (As my mother had encouraged me to afix a "Midwives do it Better" button to my knapsack, you can imagine how cool the cool kids found me, right?); to my amazement, everyone wanted them. I've often thought of recreating them, and I've wondered if they would still be popluar-- if you are working on a little booklet, something like that might go over well. A bi-lingual version would be a good design problem-- how to include all the info while preserving readability and a small size. For me, those little yellow booklets were my introduction to cycling as something that created a community, and also an early, simple way of participating in do-it-yourself politics. Thanks for reminding me of something happy, and good luck with your project. Sasha On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:09:23 -0400 "Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE" <urbanbikeproject(a)gmail.com> wrote: >http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Spanish_Resourc >e_Materials > >The first link is a good place to start, maybe you could print it >front/back >and fold it. > >Brian > >On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 2:02 PM, Sharlyn Grace ><sharlyngrace(a)gmail.com> >wrote: > >> Hello all, >> >> We're thinking of putting together an illustrated little booklet >> (bi-lingual) that people could carry around as a resource-- >mostly right now >> we're thinking how to fix flats, tips like putting a dollar >inside a tire >> with a hole, etc. Does anyone know if something like this >exists? Or do >> you have good ideas about what would be useful information to >include? We >> want it to be really small, but also helpful. We have so many >people come >> in and fix a flat and never think about it again, so they're >helpless when >> the next one comes around, so this is an attempt to make the >info >> non-technical and available all the time. >> >> Thanks!, >> Sharlyn >> >> The Recyclery >> Evanston, IL >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Thethinktank mailing list >> Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org >> >> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- >bikecollectives.org >> >> > > >-- >Urban Bike Project of Wilmington >1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the >building) >Wilmington, DE 19801 > >Hours: >Thursday 6:30-9:00 >Saturday 1:00-4:00 > >Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 3.0 wkYEARECAAYFAkgHo/EACgkQ5O7ahKJmrRlBcwCgspKA561xLxabj6eHRCyfKkM+CbsA oIBvdZ3xIIfVsQAw0uijdsSRII/R =EeZ3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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illustrated instruction booklet
by Sharlyn Grace 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

Hello all, We're thinking of putting together an illustrated little booklet (bi-lingual) that people could carry around as a resource--mostly right now we're thinking how to fix flats, tips like putting a dollar inside a tire with a hole, etc. Does anyone know if something like this exists? Or do you have good ideas about what would be useful information to include? We want it to be really small, but also helpful. We have so many people come in and fix a flat and never think about it again, so they're helpless when the next one comes around, so this is an attempt to make the info non-technical and available all the time. Thanks!, Sharlyn The Recyclery Evanston, IL

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Being seen at night: Lighting and reflective materials
by BovineOaks＠aol.com 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

I wrote this for another bike group, I thought you might find some of the information useful. I have been a light tester for year. 25 years as a photographer with a tra ined eye to respond to changes in light and study lighting contrast. Constantly studying ever changing lighting conditions has helped me see bike lighting effectiveness in relationship to other traffic. I do not believe anything workes to make me seen by cars, I test it to prove it works all of the time, some of the time or is just Psychological protection. I have also studied how the eye reacts to different levels of light. I have carefully evaluated the eyes reaction time to change when eyes are blinded by bright car head lamps, to how long it takes to see much lower intensity LED blinky lights. I have studied how the spacing of lights creates the illusion of space or can hide the true shape and size of an object. Trying to keep things short I have found the following the be most effective. 6 and 12 volt bright helmet lamps 6 volt generator, 6 and 12 volt rechargeable battery lamps mounted to the bars or above the front wheel. Blinky's out on the ends of the bars and lower on the fork. Multiple red led strobes spread out across the rider and the rear of a bike or trailer. Reflective side walls on tires. Rear facing reflective material on bike, rider, bag, trailer, Reflective material on Left wrist for arm signals. Front facing reflective material If you want to read the reasoning continue on, if not, stop here. I have been trained to act like traffic. I do not know any electric or petroleum powered traffic that uses low watt LED blinky lights as the primary source of light to be noticed by other traffic. If low watt LED's were a sufficient light source, all car manufactures would use them to cut costs. I am traffic, I need to have similarly powerfully lights to be seen effectively by other traffic on the road. Cars do hit other cars with bright lights, having bright lights on a bike will not stop impacts, It will increase visibility of cyclist and reduce incidents. I wish it could end incidents between vehicles, that is a human behavior issue. Reflective material In your lane of traffic you should see red 10 watt light ahead of you and white 50 watt lights behind you. Reflective material works best when there is very little light behind it. Reflective material reflects less light than it receives. As a rider you are for the most part directly in front of the motor vehicles 50 watt head lamps. Your material will reflect 30% to 70% of this light, which is much more light than the 10 watt red lamps ahead of the rider. This makes rear facing reflective material greatly effective at all times. Front facing reflective materials are very effective when you are alone on the road ways. You are not positioned directly ahead of oncoming car headlamps, you are off to their side and out of the strongest part of their headlight beam. On coming traffic can easily distinguish you from the darker background. When you ride on the right side of the road you are not straight in front of oncoming head lamps where the light is focused and the brightest, you are on the far side or the edge of their lamps beam. You may only receive 10 watt of the 50 watts of light coming from their lamps and you are reflecting even less of that light. To reduce the effectiveness of reflective material even more the traffic behind you is backlighting you with 50 watt lamps this makes the few watts of light coming from the vest almost invisible. All of this is bull unless you can test it. I have tested it and you can too. Have a friend put all your reflective stuff on. Get a bright hand held spot light or a car, aiming the light down the side of the road the cyclist is not on. Have the cyclist stand still at 100 yards away 50 yards away and 25 yards away. Look at how bright the reflective material is when the cyclist has a car behind and beside them, and when there is no car around them. Have the friend switch to the same side of the road you are on with their back facing you. Look at how much more light comes off the reflective material from your hand held spot light or from your car. Watch how the reflective light changes as a car in your same lane approaches the cyclist and after they pass the cyclist and the tail lights are on the other side of them. You can also evaluate how much the reflective light changes as oncoming cars in the opposite lane pass by the cyclist. I have done this test and I was surprised and horrified by the results. I thought reflective materials worked all the time and were great. Now I know they are a part of a complete package to be seen by other traffic. I agree with Jim and others "It's always a good idea to have lots of reflectors. You can never have too many." I have reflectors or reflective tape on my trailers, bike, clothing, helmet, tires, if I could get reflective teeth I would. I love having a reflective strip, cuff, glove on my left arm for night time turn signals. I sometimes put a reflective ankle strap around my wrist for signaling. Rear lights I had a few experiences that taught me about how we perceive the size of an object by the spacing of lights. Cars with one head lamp look like a motorcycle. Trucks on dark roads out in the country appear to be farther away if the tail lights are inside the rear step instead of on the outside corners of the trailer. I was in a blinding snow storm at night looking ahead for tail lights. When I saw the lights I thought I was 150 feet away from the truck. I switched lanes only to fine I was right next to the truck instead of 150 feet away. The two tail lights were between the stair instead of on the out side corners of the trailer that threw my perception of distance off. Same thing with bike lights. A single light from a bike has to go through a windshield of a car before it reaches the driver. If you look at a red blinky that is far away you will find that the normal road dust and fine scratches on the windshield change the appearance of the lights. Red lamps farther away will look larger, and light closer will look smaller. This is the reverse of what it should be. Two blinky light separated give traffic more consistent way to judge the distance they are from you. I like a blinky on the cyclist back and one on the bike. Examples: One on the helmet or back pack or courier bag or collar of clothing. The other mounted on the seat post, rack, handlebar ends, high on a trailer. The idea is to have one light low and one high to give you shape. The more lights the easier it is to show your shape to other traffic and help other traffic judge distance and closing speed. Blinky and reflective material work great on the back of your bike. Reflective tires Something I was surprised by: Reflective sidewalls on tires. My thoughts were what help are reflective sidewalls? If the side of a bike is in front of a car it is a little late. All I can say is that I was wrong. I found that the sidewalls did reflect from the front and rear. As we keep balance we turn the tire a little to the left and right all the time. This turning back and forth allows the reflective surfaces to gather and shoot back light like a blinky. The tires strobe and catch attention in a large way. I recommend Reflective Tires whole heartily now. Up to now I have not talked about expensive lights. Blinkys, reflectors, reflective tires are not super expensive to do well. I am traffic and need to act like the rest of traffic to be seen in ALL conditions. Bright Head Lamps I am surrounded by traffic with 50 Watt head beams. I am surrounded by people whose iris closes down when they are facing bright head lamps. This smaller hole in the eye lets less light in and makes it harder to see dimmer low wattage lights. In simple language if you have a car behind you or one has just passed you, it is likely that any oncoming traffic will not be able to see a low watt blinky or flashlight because there iris takes a while to recover and become large enough to see dimmer lights. This is why it is important to have a similar amount of light coming off your bike as is coming of the rest of traffic. Some newer LED lights put out the same amount of light as a 30 watt incandescent bulb. I have seen them priced at $50 to $70. If you know your history then you know that lights this bright were triple that amount of money three years ago. I have one light system that cost $360 and a helmet light that was $180. Modern lights are much more affordable. I like a 30 watt light on the bike and one on the head. One to light the ground effectively and one to look over at traffic coming in from the side. I like to make sure I am seen, get the attention of a driver and see their face. I like a mindful driver and I make sure I am not invisible to them.When I can see their face I know they can see my light. On the road at night I am SOL the sun god, not black invisible Ninja. I act like traffic because I am traffic. Christopher Wallace **************Need a new ride? Check out the largest site for U.S. used car listings at AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/used?NCID=aolcmp00300000002851)

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