September 2015 - 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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Daily Shop Report
by Tom Bilcze 19 Nov '15

19 Nov '15

All, Summit Cycling Center in Akron, Ohio is looking to capture information about our daily shop activities and visitors. One idea that is being discussed is a daily shop report. This would capture things like the number of members and visitors using the facility, what took place in terms of services, sales, volunteers working the shop, and comments. Has anyone created a simple one page document like this? If so, could you share? If not, what items would you like to see on a list like this? What would help the cooperative do a better job and understand the community and member needs? We will share our finished document when we are done. Thanks, Tom Bilcze, Secretary, Summit Cycling Center

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ADA for outdoor shop
by Mark Friis 03 Oct '15

03 Oct '15

We are about to open our 4th Co op and having a difficulty with the City of Riverside, Ca. We are dropping a container for storage of our tools and materials along with a place to store donations. It is being placed next to a community garden along a multi use path, the Santa Ana River Trail. We will conduct all business outside and share the container with the garden, storage of garden tools. Now the city wants the container to be ADA compliant which we don't have a real issue with but for some reason this is throwing in delay after delay. They want an architect to design plans for the whole area to be compliant along with garden. Has anyone run into such a problem or do I take this as a passive way of saying we don't want a Co op even though WE asked you for one. Mark Friis Inland Empire Biking Alliance PO Box 9266 Redlands, CA 92375 909-800-4322 iebafriis(a)gmail.com www.iebike.org

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bikebikeZINEZINE @ BikeBikeGDL!
by Josh Bisker 27 Sep '15

27 Sep '15

Hola compadres! We left Bike!Bike!Columbus feeling excited about a lot of new projects and collaborations, including bikebikeZINEZINE: a web-based, de-centralized, co-operative communications tool that would fill some important gaps in how we currently communicate between our shops and cities, not to mention how we communicate as a community to the world beyond our borders. bikebikeZINEZINE would function, to put it most simply, as a news feed that aggregated, edited, and rebroadcasted news from our de-centralized projects and geographies. Here are the main things that this was proposed to accomplish: - Sharing and amplifying news, ideas, and wisdom! - Lowering the barrier for finding out what's happening in other collectives! - Strengthening our community over distance & between conferences! - "Mainstreaming” our content for people outside our network! - Reinforcing how we're part of a greater movement! - Keeping ourselves motivated and exciting other people! At Bike!Bike! in GDL we have the chance to start things off for real and get this project rolling as a collective effort. I’m adding a workshop for us to master what we need to know to make the wheels of bikebikeZINEZINE begin to turn. Get psyched! Turn out! Roll deep! More to come soon. Deepest love, Josh

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Fire Safety Reminder
by Angel York 26 Sep '15

26 Sep '15

I have volunteered mostly at two bike collectives. They have both had fires. One was a spontaneous rag fire that put the entire shop out of commission for an entire summer (good thing they had just done an inventory; insurance needed that information), and the other was apparently a fire in the metal recycling. Keep a serious eye on potential flammables! Angel York

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Bike!Bike! workshops printed program deadline.
by Ollin 26 Sep '15

26 Sep '15

Hello! We're frantic and super excited in Guadalajara preparing for your arrival. Just to ask everyone who's planning to come and host a workshop to please register it before or on sunday september the 27th at 6pm central time so that it makes it to the printed program. You know the drill: www.bikebike.org If you have any questions on how to do it please contact Godwin at admin(a)bikebike.org Here's a public google calendar that we'll keep updated on events and venues anyways (Starting sunday night): https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=cTI4anNvcDBpaGlwOGswaXJuY3NxZ2FrO… Can't wait for october 1! Ollin and the Rila Libre team. [image: Inline image 1]

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Has anyone used ourimpact.net for fundraising?
by Jonathan Morrison 25 Sep '15

25 Sep '15

I was at a Drupal meetup and someone mentioned this fundraising tool? https://www.ourimpact.net Demo: https://www.ourimpact.net/deck/uwnu/6 I guess the thing I like about it was the transparent commitment that donors get, as opposed to just sending money their into a black hole, albeit a good intentioned one. -- Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison

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