May 2014 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Webhosting/domains
by Bike City 24 Mar '25

24 Mar '25

Well, I recently threw together some hand-written HTML and slapped it onto a free (and ad-less) webhost. This seemed great at first, regardless of the weird URL. But after lots of other publicity and potential traffic, I've seen it get hacked twice (by a radical Islamic group after the whole host, nothing personal), and lately it's either painfully slow to load or completely down. So, I haven't done this for about a decade and I'm out of the loop. I'm really not willing to suffer any ads, but since our budgeted is obcenely limited for such fluff, does anyone have recommendations? Are there any more reliable ad-free free hosts? (Probably not, for obvious reasons.) Otherwise, how do you guys handle web hosting? How much does it cost? What's a good balance between reliable and affordable? How much is domain registration nowadays? We don't have our 501(c)(3) status yet so we won't get a deal until later this year, by the way. Anyway, please help. It's rough to find time to FTP an update and find the site's down. Thanks, andrea Bike City Recyclery of Fayetteville, Arkansas http://bikecity.uuuq.com/ (hahaha)

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Reusable Repair Checklist Tag
by director 02 May '23

02 May '23

Hey All, We just spent some time and redid the tag we use to track repairs on a bike. I'm sure your shops are similar to ours in that many mechanics of varying skill levels will work on a single bike before it's distributed back to the world for use. This make it challenging to ensure a standard of quality on any given bike leaving the shop. As we fleshed out the tag we realized that it could function loosely as a curriculum. For most mechanics, especially students we suggest starting at the top and working down the list. I've come to realize that no two mechanics will do things in the exact same way, everyone has their own style. We've been suggesting that folks do the first two items in order and then address the rest of the repairs at their discretion. Of course we couldn't put everything on a half page so we had to make compromises. You'll notice as you get closer to the bottom of the tag the categories are a little more broad and don't get into the finer details. We're working on a final check list that will include finer details like checking bearing play, tire wear, fine tune derailleurs and brakes... The final checklist won't hang on the bike but it'll be around the shop and part of our training. Stay tuned for this. We print these double sided, cut them in half and laminate them. We hang them on the handlebars and fill them out with a Sharpie. When the bike is done and gone we clean the Sharpie off with 90% rubbing alcohol and a rag. This allows us to use one tag over and over and over. We've been using these tags for about 2 weeks now and it's been awesome. Communication between mechanics is much clearer and bikes are getting done faster. It's really helped orient Earn-A-Bike students to what needs to be done next on their bike. Anyway if you think it's a good idea feel free to adapt it to your shops needs. -- Ride On! Rich Points http://communitycycles.org Executive Director (c)303-589-0597 (w)720-565-6019 Community Cycles is Boulder's only bike shop dedicated to bike commuting. Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/CommunityCycles

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no boys allowed zine from bikebike?
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 27 Sep '18

27 Sep '18

hey all, i'm looking to get in touch with the person who wrote/published the "no boys allowed" zine which was passed out at bikebike in san francisco. it was part of one of the oppression and gender identity issues workshops. we're looking to start a women's night here at community cycles, and i'd like to scan my copy as a pdf and email it to potential volunteers, as well as make some copies to have in the shop... if you're on the list, or if you know the person who wrote it (her name escapes me), please get in touch with me off list... thanks! josh. community cycles boulder

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Instruction for Marginalized Communities: Women on Wheels and Multilingual Nights
by Lauren Warbeck 26 Feb '16

26 Feb '16

Oh HEYYYY again... It's a double email kinda day. 1) Multilingual Nights We're hosting our first ever multilingual nights YAYYYYY! We now have a posse of rad mechanics who are fluent in English, Spanish, French, Cantonese, and Mandarin and we are planning to hold a series of multilingual instruction nights. We're about to have our first sub-committee meeting about how we're going to go about the planning of these nights (ie: Do we have a strictly Spanish night, or a Spanish & French night? What is the role of Anglo mechanics in these nights? What are the underlying needs of these communities beyond language instruction?), but first I wanted to find out if any of you have feedback or resource materials about your own experiences hosting multilingual nights. What did you set out to do? Did it work? What did you learn? 2) Women on Wheels We're in the process of reconsidering the reach and name of our women's night, Women on Wheels. This name has been revisited several times by our collective, and again we're feeling the need for change. Those of you who commit energy to thinking about providing services across the gender/sexuality spectrum...I'm looking for your input. The key challenges for us, (and maybe all of us?) I think, are two-fold: First, it's about holding space for those who adhere to identity politics (tangible and named - Woman, Lesbian, Dyke, sometimes Transwoman etc) while also holding space for folks who exist all along the gender and sexuality spectrum (intangible and variably named - Queer, Tomboi, sometimes Transwoman, Genderqueer, etc ). As in, how do we hold safer space for butch grandmas and trans women and gender queer folks all at once? Is it feasible or possible to hold safer space strictly around gender variance? Or is it presumptuous as fuck to try to lump these diverse communities together? Or reductionist to assume gender experience is the key connecting factor between these individuals (and not race, or class, or ....)? Second, it's about negotiating the instances of inclusion and exclusion that emerge as a result of differing levels of awareness and knowledge around these varied philosophies and ways of identifying. This is the crux of why we've called it Women's Night for so long. While in practice our "women's night" is attended by trans-women, cis-women, femmes, masculine-identified genderqueers, tombois, etc etc, we have continued to call it women's night to make sure that people who aren't familiar with the world of post-modern gender identity know they are welcome, and cis-men know easily and clearly that it is not for them. I guess, to make it legible to mainstream communities, while still welcoming to non-mainstream communities. Meanwhile, we've also had interest from femme-identified cis-men and trans men in having services for masculine-presenting folks or folks who are presumed masculine (which again, is on a really broad spectrum). We're in convo with folks about their needs and wants, but it would also be great to have input from other shops. Where I'm really seeking is input about how your shops are drawing the lines around participation in nights for marginalized communities (including communities bonded around race, ethnicity, ability, etc) and/or how to meld diverse communities in appropriate and supportive ways. I know that Plan B has Ladies, Trans, and Sissies Night, and BICAS has Women, Trans, and Femme night. Where are folks at with their organizing process around this? What are other shops doing? You are all so great. Lauren

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members and sign up database software
by Jesse Cooper 23 Sep '15

23 Sep '15

Hey Folks! So at Our Community Bikes in Vancouver, we're thinking it's time to set up a proper sign in / sign out system, combined with a membership and volunteer database. Ideally we would like to know what software is out there that can track people coming in and using our space, a simple laptop or desktop kiosk where folks can type in info, and it would enter our database. Also to serve as a database that members can register into, and again wherein volunteers can sign up, and log their hours, and tasks accomplished. sooo.. any ideas? Jesse Cooper

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Earn-a-Bike documentation and reporting?
by Lauren Warbeck 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

Hey Folks! When not immersed in planning an Ohio-themed Bike! Bike! fundraiser dance party (!!!), I'm actually doing other for real work. Including the exploration of formats, documentation, and reporting for our youth volunteering and Earn-a-Bike programs. Here in British Columbia, high school students are required to complete something like 30 hours of work experience (ie free labour) to graduate, and we get a lot of youth completing this requirement at our shops. We also run pretty informal Earn-a-Bike programs for youth who are in unconventional education settings, accessing social services, in alternative programs, or can't access our in-school programming for any variety of reasons. Lots of these kids are really focused on getting a job, but we can rarely accommodate that. I'm in the process of creating a checklist/worksheet of mechanical and interpersonal skills acquired by youth as they volunteer in our spaces. The idea is that it would include gradients of skill, becoming increasingly more complex as time goes on. It would be used to guide their time in the shop, and also document what they've learned. It would be the youth's responsibility to fill the checklist out over time and have staff sign off on it, and when it's completed, we would write them a letter of recommendation to be used in applying for jobs, school, whateva. So....do yall have anything like this in place? Or any other relevant Earn-a-Bike or alternative youth programming materials I can creep and reap? SEND THEM TO ME! Thanks buddiez! Lauren @ OCB

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Disabling frames to be scrapped?
by Andrew Shooner 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

Our shop recently changed our procedure regarding scrap bikes: any donated bikes that we conclude we will scrap rather than rehab & redistribute are now disabled by cutting the frame of the bike. Recently, some donated bike that had been put in our scrap pile appeared on Craigslist. We had two concerns: first, that donors would be unhappy that their donations were being sold by another party, and second that we could develop a reputation as a source of scrap bikes to be picked and sold elsewhere (and usually those bikes were beyond safe repair). I'd like to hear other perspectives. Is controlling the use of donated bikes (to maintain the integrity of a donation as well as the safety of bikes coming through the shop) worth disabling a bike that might otherwise be reused downstream? Andy Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop Lexington, KY

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Mural
by Angel York 30 May '14

30 May '14

Some volunteers at Bike Farm put up this beautiful mural & I thought y'all might enjoy seeing it, too!

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City Bike Plans: Do Collectives Connect Community Voices to Planning?
by Adonia Lugo 29 May '14

29 May '14

Dear all, Some Alta Planning + Design consultants who are assisting the City of Columbus, OH on their bike plan update asked me for advice about their communication campaign, such as best practices for outreach. I brought up bike co-ops and told them about Bike! Bike! being held in Columbus this year. I'm wondering what role collectives organizers/volunteers can play or have played as connectors, getting community voices heard that wouldn't otherwise make it to the city level. Or do bike plans seem totally disconnected from co-op concerns? If there's interest in having some kind of community conversation about what role co-ops can play in connecting more people to bike planning, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the Alta folks. They're also reaching out directly to Third Hand in Columbus. Thanks! Adonia -- Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D. Bicycle Anthropologist www.urbanadonia.com

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Fund raising
by summitcyclingcenter＠yahoo.com 29 May '14

29 May '14

What happened to the drome up on Mound Rd? Sent from my HTC EVO Design™ 4G from Boost Mobile ----- Reply message ----- From: "Yvonne Rucker" <bikevon14(a)gmail.com> To: "Think Tank" <thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org> Subject: [TheThinkTank] Fund raising Date: Wed, May 28, 2014 4:41 pm Hey Everyone,I have started a unique cycling organization in Detroit Mi. A short intro about me and description of the program is: My name is Yvonne Rucker. I am a resident of Southfield, Mi. Currently, I am working in my community promoting diversity and inclusion through the sport of velodrome cycling. I am trying to build a bridge of communities by removing children from the geographically boundaries, which separates the ethnicities in the Detroit and the boundaries between the suburbanites and Detroit communities. My company, BikeVON, is promoting fitness and health for all children through the participation in the “invisible” sport of velodrome cycling. Mission Statement: BikeVON is an organization designed to promote diversity and inclusion through the sport of cycling. The program to engender self-confidence and empowerment for the underrepresented groups of women and youth of color. The program for this summer is: In the cycling world, there are several categories of racing styles. One of the lesser known styles is track racing, a team or individual event in which competitors ride fixed-gear – or non-coasting -- bicycles with no brakes on an oval track called a velodrome. A velodrome is typically made of wood and has ramped corners to accommodate a racer’s high speed in sharp turns; they may be built as outdoor or indoor tracks. According to USA Cycling there are:29 velodromes in 22 states 29 cities with velodromes19,355 cities in the USA Detroit is one of the 19,326 cities WITHOUT a velodrome.Detroit is FORTUNATE because there is one velodrome - only 25 miles outside of the city Rochester Hills, MI. Because of the invisibility of the sport, BikeVON and the International Velodrome of Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills, Michigan provided a motivator of a stipend for the children. They will receive $270 for 6 weeks of training to “ride” a bike. Training is 3 days a week for 2 hours. All equipment and coaching is free. Since this is a little known spot, Wayne State University’s Kinesiology Department will conduct yearlong study on the sport. This is the information needed to apply for funding. Please before you suggested to ask for any services, I have asked, community organizations, major non-profits for kids in the health, wellness and fitness no one is giving for these assorted reasons: *remember the track in this area is 1 out of 29 in the USA. and no it is not portable* 1. Community organizations will only grant money if the program is within their community. 2. Major grantors want the program within the city limits.3. Major grantors want the $$$ IRS and audit records. 4. What can I provide in advertising coverage?5. Church organizations did not want to donated $$$ to support the stipend or bus use because the church did not want to be liable. Online I raised $2,500 out of pocket expenses are over that. From printing materials, paying people, travel expenses, web development etc. I am leaking money. I gave a fund raiser is March and did not make ANY money. My target audience is kids 13 - 18 years old. I have been in contact with Boys and Girls clubs, community and youth organizations, schools, churches, youth build a bike programs and bike shops. In March, I went to a youth meeting an 26 kids signed up. I took just name and email address. Going in, I knew transportation was going to be any issue. School bus rental quotes were anywhere from $148 - $250 per trip and there are 18 trips in the program. For me to rent a van then there are bonding issues. When the contribution $$$ topped off, I was asking the parents to car pool and I would supply gas $$$. I started with 10 kids. By the March fund raiser there were 7 and by the first weekend in May two kids. During May we have try-outs we offered to give each child $10 to come for try-outs. If 3 kids from the same organization came they would receive $13. Parent / guardian had to come to sign liability waivers. For the first weekend on one came. Graduations and other things going on. For the second weekend 4 students signed up at one school and I was counting on another to contact me. The transportation company needs at least 10 days notice. These wonderful people were working on a 3 day turn around for me. I rented a school bus. On that Saturday no one came. The reason were busy schedules and parents could not come with the child. With the holiday weekend approaching, I did not even think about organization anything. I am emailing and knocking on doors with a start date of June 7th. Questions:1. I need a fund raiser to replenish my funds. If I have to pay for transportation, I cannot use the money for kids' stipend. My savings are dwindling. 2. How to motivate the kids.3. Advertising. I have written the local newspapers, television stations, the African American news paper. No one seems to think it is an interesting story to cover. Help!!! -- Yvonne Rucker248.225.0601President BikeVONbikevon14(a)gmail.com Educate, Advocate, and Motivate for Cycling Safety…BikeVON This electronic message and all attachments contain information from the BikeVON of Metropolitan Detroit and its related programs. The message and attachments may contain privileged, confidential information or otherwise be protected from disclosure. The information is intended to be for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended addressee(s), any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of this message is prohibited unless authorized by the BikeVON or the intended addressee.

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