TheThinkTank August 2008

thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

30 participants
19 discussions

non-program traffic during specific programs?
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 22 Aug '08

22 Aug '08

Howdy all. I'm wondering how some of you handle people regular, off the street/new volunteers traffic in your shops while there's a program going on. For example, our youth EAB class is going on, and someone rides by the shop, sees bikes on stands, and walks up with questions about our organization, what we are/do, etc. Or someone comes up with a broken brake cable/flat tire/etc. Do you turn them away and focus on the program going on? Do you allow the instructor/facilitators to become distracted and possibly involved in some convoluted thing that's gonna take a lot more work than was first thought? I feel bad when I'm in the middle of a class of kids, and someone comes up who's super excited about our mission and shop, and wants to chat and get into it with me about stuff completely unrelated to the ongoing youth class, and I can't give them the attention they deserve. Any thoughts? Policies about such? thanks! josh. Community Cycles.

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bike!bike! mailings
by Ann Altstatt 19 Aug '08

19 Aug '08

dear all, exciting news! information and registration packets for this falls' bike!bike! in san francisco will be in the mail shortly. to this end, if you wish to receive a packet and your projects address is not in the wiki directory or the boop (or is out of date, etc.. . .), please send me your address information. looking forward to seeing folks in september! thanks and thanks, ann altstatt (of bike church, santa cruz)

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call for bike curriculums in school districts?
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Hey ThinkTankers, Raise your hand if you're excited about bikebike!... *raises hand* I'm working with a few other volunteers and a Boulder Valley School District staff member on getting together some kind of bike related curriculum into PE classes for Spring 09. We have some interested PE teachers, and they basically have some freedom to use whatever curriculum they feel best achieves/measures certain benchmarks for the students' progress. (Things like "can exercise at a moderate pace for 20 minutes or longer", "can balance appropriately", etc.) We are in touch with several Safe Routes to Schools people from across the country, as they seem to be very involved in most of the in-school curricula that we've come across. I'm interested in any of your experience(s) with this, either as a volunteer involved in a in-school program, or as a member of a bike collective doing work in schools. Who funds your programs? What is involved? What is the staff/volunteer/instructor load like? Do you have multiple schools that participate? We have some very lofty (albeit awesome) goals, and I'd like to temper these with some experience and realistic expectations. Right now, we're aiming the class at 6th grade students. If anyone is interested in hosting a similar program in their own location, please get in touch offlist, and I'll put together something to share. Thanks for any input. josh brown. community cycles, boulder, co

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Bicycle Commuter Collective
by Joe A 10 Aug '08

10 Aug '08

I have an idea for an intentional community/housing collective that I figured would be appropriate to first convey here and elicit what other cyclists think of the idea. It is my impression that there are a great many potential bicycle commuters within our population who do not pursue such a livelihood because they are not adequately supported in the beginning. Therefore, I would like to propose a community that would be known as the Cyclist Nursery or the Bird's Nest that would function as something of a halfway house that would be open to new residents who would like to pursue the goal of becoming a bicycle commuter and encourage them to later make space for new cyclist seedlings after a number of months or as soon as they feel comfortable. There are two main areas that I feel new cyclists need notable support: safety and sustenance. As for safety, there is not much that we can do to change the presence of dangers on the road, but it would be prudent to offer a living example of how to mitigate and minimize them through safe riding practices. This would relate to the service provided by the founders, their proteges and other experienced cyclists to accompany new commuters on their regular route to work or school to familiarize them with the most calm and flat paths, point out things/actions to avoid, and a general feeling of being supported in their endeavor. The other means of support would be the important pursuit of creating sustenance composed only of whole, nutritious foods for every meal. This is not very difficult, but vitally important for the levels of energy and awareness required by regular bicycle commuters. The creation of such meals would be a staple of creative pass-time and mutual support that would help to provide a sense of solidarity among the residents. It would not be a requirement that everyone be equally involved in such shared duties due to varied obligations, but monetary support would be expected in lieu collaborative labor for food expenses and time. So, I would like to hear what the greater bike community thinks of this proposal, any questions that have arisen and also where I might seek additional feedback, guidance, fellow investors.

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Austin Yellow Bike's most recent human-powered Move
by yellow bike 08 Aug '08

08 Aug '08

Hi, all. I'm forwarding links to a new documentary of Austin Yellow Bike Project's most recent (June 21st, 2008) human-powered move. This time we moved our big 4500 sq.ft. headquarters into storage trailers on the site of what will be our new, improved headquarters<http://www.austinyellowbike.org/webberville_shop.htm>, which we hope to have completed by Spring 2009. If you'd like to help make this happen, please come by our small satellite shop at 1720 East 12th St during open hours <http://www.austinyellowbike.org/schedule.htm>, or if you'd like to donate some cash to the cause, you can do so on our website<http://www.austinyellowbike.org/webberville_shop.htm>. Feel free to forward this message freely to other folks who may be interested. BIG thanks to Shane Greb, from our local PBS affiliate (KLRU) for initiating and producing this piece. OK so the link to the docubloggers site is: http://www.klru.org/docubloggers/?p=367 and just plain old youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GgXSH1jHwI Also, if you haven't seen the video of the first human-powered move, which our friend Megan Rucker made, here it is: http://www.vimeo.com/137808?pg=embed&sec=137808 Thanks for watching! Jennifer Schaffer <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GgXSH1jHwI>

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stuck seat post tip
by Bob Giordano 06 Aug '08

06 Aug '08

a vise is good for stuck seat posts. flip over the bike, insert seat post into vise, tighten -but not too much to crush post-, move bike frame back and forth gently and smoothly while pulling up. be very careful to use smooth motions and 2 or 3 people as to not tweak frame. any other 'stuck seat post' tips? -Bob Giordano, Free Cycles Missoula

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removing self from list
by Food Guy 03 Aug '08

03 Aug '08

Hello, As helpful as this group has been, can you please tell me how I might remove myself from this list? MMoore

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Community Bike Sharing at Bike Bike
by Joe A 03 Aug '08

03 Aug '08

We should start a thread on the possibility of holding a community bike sharing forum at Bike Bike this year. I searched the history of messages and did not find any substantial discussion on the subject. I am part of a new group at City College of San Francisco known as the Green Corps working to integrate the bicycle more completely with the campus. As part of this work, we are holding a class starting this fall known as Alternative Transportation: Bicycles that will give the students an overview of bicycle mechanics, safety and policy and provide them with hands-on experience working in the campus shop known as the Bikery. Given such a well-staffed shop of people, this kind of program seems to have much potential to carefully put together a good number of bikes from donated parts and frames. As such we need to think about how these bikes can be put to use, and it seems natural to loan them out to students who would like to try commuting to school via bike. Hence an accelerated birth rate of bicycle commuters is in order. Thinking along these lines, I attended the recent bike sharing conference here in San Francisco. We heard from many people there about the preexisting options San Francisco has for the implementation of a bike sharing network. We also touched on concern for having diversity within the system as San Francisco actually realistically only has one primarily-city-funded option with the obligation to give the owner of the City's transit shelters, Clear Channel, the first right to refusal of a contract. It was specifically noted that most of these suggested preexisting systems, specifically exemplified by some major cities in Europe, are fleets composed of a monoculture of cruiser-type bikes. This would limit their use to the flat lands such as the Mission and Market corridors. Their limitations would also necessitate the wide-spread use of automobiles for the regular replenishment of bikes taken on one-way trips down from higher ground. In addition, a limited term-of-service duration and the impossibility of long-term loaning would not reach the widest possible population. It would be a shame to not consider alternatives now and end up feeling stuck with a dominant system of monocultured bicycles. The time is ripe to move with a purpose of preempting market dominance and that is where consideration of a long-overdue community bike sharing network comes into play. There are undoubtedly a lot of obstacles to overcome, especially the disabling reality of theft and liability and also consideration of location. Liability is perhaps the tallest hurdle to leap, especially in this notoriously litigious state of California. On this matter we have consulted Bill Burton of Arcata Library Bikes, the largest bike sharing network in the country, who has been at the forefront of setting a precedent for the viability of insuring bicycle sharing. And there is word of a possibility of support from his organization for the development of such a system. Visit his website here (http://arcata.com/greenbikes/) and of particular interest is his book Anybody's Library Bike, which is a guide for setting up such a community bike sharing system. There is also the question of where such bike sharing stations can be maintained and the Green Corps hopes to have City College help lead the way. The Green Corps has ensured space for the Bike Bike conference at CCSF's downtown campus and as such would like to seek and provide enthusiastic support for the development of such important community-supported infrastructure. Let us get inspired to meet and discuss where we've been, what we've learned as well as the possibilities and challenges ahead. Joe Abrams a proud member of the CCSF Green Corps

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Tools for starters
by Ariel raymon 02 Aug '08

02 Aug '08

Hey everyone, Ariel from bikefarm here. We're starting to make our space into a shop, and are looking at the tools we need to purchase. Suggestions on bare minimum tools for a funcitoning shop would be really helpful, as we'll be making a large order from the UBI distributors in a month or so. Also, Are there grants for things like this? Thanks, Ariel

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TheThinkTank August 2008