- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

suicide brake levers into diy tire levers...need pics and/or plans...
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 08 Mar '08

08 Mar '08

i don't remember where i heard about this idea, but someone told me about them, and i'd love to make some. basically, one removes "suicide" or flat brake levers from a (lower end) road bike/ten speed, and somehow grinds/cuts/bends them into the correct shape/etc to be used as tire levers. anyone know where there are pics of these, or directions or plans for these? thanks! josh.

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[Fwd: Looking for volunteer bike mechanics to work with kids in Nepal]
by Macho Philipovich 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

Maybe someone is interested? And thanks everyone for your replies to my question about formalizing shop use, they are appreciated. macho

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Fwd: [yben] FW: Looking for volunteer bike mechanics to work with kids in Nepal
by Jonathan Morrison 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

-----Original Message----- From: Tom Martin [mailto:tom@wrenchnepal.org] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:26 AM To: Tom Martin Subject: Looking for volunteer bike mechanics to work with kids in Nepal Hello, from Kathmandu! This email is going out to many of the bicycle programs and community contacts I've come across in the last few years. You may have heard from me when we were initially organizing this project, looking for advice. Now that we're off the ground, Wrench Nepal is looking for volunteers. Wrench Nepal (www.WrenchNepal.org) runs a small bike shop here in Kathmandu, Nepal, that is operated by bike mechanic 'interns'-- Nepali teenagers who, for any reason, are in danger of entering adulthood without marketable job skills, or are otherwise at a disadvantage. There are over 400 homes in Kathmandu alone for children who have been orphaned or abandoned by their families. At the moment, we work with kids from a drop-in shelter and a group that supports the families of those in prison, with a seemingly endless supply of possible new interns: teenagers eager to learn a useful skill, to practice their English, and to become self-sufficient. With only one person training them, however, the shop cannot work with more than 2-3 people at a time. That's where you come in. We're looking for two people at a time to act as bike mechanic instructors and program organizers. Two positions are available to be filled immediately; the second shift will be open in May, when the current instructor's visa expires. The requirements are: - Working knowledge of basic bike mechanics - Good communication and organizing skills - Willingness to live in a foreign environment and work with people from a very different culture Bike shop or co-op experience is a major advantage, as is experience in business administration or community activism. Grant writing skills will be helpful. Each position is for approximately 4 months and requires that you live in Kathmandu. As this is an all-volunteer program, there will be no pay, and any profit that the shop raises will be distributed among the Nepali interns for things that they need as future bike mechanics. Cost of living is very low, rent in a comfortable place can be as little as $50 per month. Volunteers can also pursue part-time paid work to support themselves while in Nepal. We encourage those of you who are presently enrolled in universities to consider this as a possible independent study abroad opportunity. We will work with the administration at your school to determine if this can be a for-credit internship for you. If you do not have mechanic skills, we may still be interested in your participation as an organizer. If interested, please send a brief resume of your relevant experience and a short cover letter to tom(a)wrenchnepal.org. Make sure to highlight your experience working with bicycles and working in community organizing positions. Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon. I encourage you to forward or re-post this message anywhere you feel is appropriate. Tom Martin Wrench Nepal tom(a)wrenchnepal.org _______________________________________________ YBEN mailing list Post: YBEN(a)lists.mayfirst.org List info: https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/yben To Unsubscribe Send email to: YBEN-unsubscribe(a)lists.mayfirst.org Or visit: https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/yben/info%40slcbikecolle… You are subscribed as: info(a)slcbikecollective.org

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formalizing shop use
by Macho Philipovich 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

hey folks. for our first 2.5 years, we've set up our open hours very informally. you show up, you can rip through used parts on your own, pick out a bike to fix up on your own, fix it up on your own, or ask for help fixing your bike if you like, too. this has been great, because it's offered a lot of people access to the shop without feeling overly regimented, but toward the end of each summer (peak season), the shop has gotten really chaotic, and some volunteers have started feeling pretty anxious, with all repair stands in use, more people all over the floor with their bikes turned upside down, kids running around all over the place, people asking for help every 30 seconds when you're already helping someone else, and it just being tricky to keep an eye on everything that's going on in the shop. so, we're looking to move toward a setup where people all have to sign in with a greeter and get assigned to a volunteer to work with, and if there are no free volunteers/stands, you have to wait. i'm sure most other shops are already doing this, so i thought i'd ask for your experiences/strategies/advice. some specific questions: - do you have separate sign-up sheets for quick repairs vs. say building a bike up from scratch? - do you offer a comfy area to wait for those who need to? - do you let people work on bikes without a volunteer? - if so, do you make them "prove" that they know how to use the tools properly or respect the shop? - do you have one volunteer set up at a "flat fixing" station? - how well does all of this stuff work? but feel free to discuss things that those questions don't touch on. thanks everybody, this list is such an amazing resource, macho of the bike dump

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who's got membership?
by Jessica McPherson 05 Mar '08

05 Mar '08

Hello everyone, I am wondering who out there has tried having membership requirements, and how that has worked. Has it resulted in greater volunteer committment? How has it affected the demographics of the people that use the shop? Has anyone tried a set-up kind of like a food cooperative, where you have to volunteer hours at the shop in order to be able to use it? thanks, Jessica (Free Ride, Pittsburgh) -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [TheThinkTank] formalizing shop use
by Bob Giordano 04 Mar '08

04 Mar '08

it comes in cycles... simple clean shop with 5-12 happy people working at stands with 2-3 vols helping as needed... then boom, shop is over full, 3 hands reach for one chain tool, small kids want help now! so... a year ago we formalized a 'bikewell' program. if you want to build a bike from the 'well' (our sideyard stocked with everything) we ask that you take a class and volunteer 2 hours. 5 different vols teach the classes that are offered 3 times a week. 3 vols run the vol. night. the class covers basic bike laws, basic maintenance, and a _shop orientation_. this one change in our program has brought just enough 'order.' we do have a nice sitting/conversing area too. like austin, we have about 12 stands, and some share tool boards. a solution we would like to see someday: open many more hours, like 10am-7pm daily. but we are all-volunteer like many others. i'm off at city meetings all the time advocating for a connected bicycle infrastruture. but it does work- we trust about 20 people with keys to the shop, and they get it done. sure we lose a tool now and then, and maybe someone that did not take the class gets a sweet bike. we bend 'rules' a lot, and try to stay fair to all. each person that comes thru the door is a relationship not a customer. our donation jar brings in about $600 a month- just enough to cover $500 rent and $100 utilities. tools are always being donated, or bought with extra shop funds and small neighborhood grants. other: -average 30 visitors per 4 hours open shop session -average 3-5 vols running each 4 hour shift (4 shifts per week) -inside space 2,000 sq ft., outside 1,000 -given away 4,000 bikes since '96 -50 green loaner bikes in circulation ($10 deposit, comes with lock, light, basket, fenders) (in process of getting them all sponsored by local businesses- for $100 a year business gets a small logo on basket, or they can decorate the bike) -one section of the shop is 'Pedal Technology' for trailer building, etc. -'people's projects' get tagged (name, date, phone) and can stay at shop for 2 weeks, then it can go back into the 'well'. -we have an annual 'festival of cycles' that is like one huge open shop session- we bring all stuff to a park, invite mechanics and musicians, and we all help each other build bikes that people ride away. (4/19/08) -we have 4 'log books' at the front of the shop: guest book, checkout log, bikewell log, financial log -i can send more info or e-docs of anything in this email... -bob giordano free cycles missoula

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direct-pull brake levers v. everything else
by Erik Stockmeier 04 Mar '08

04 Mar '08

sheldon brown (r.i.p.) went on at length all over his website about not mixing direct-pull ("V" brake, noodle brake) brake levers with any other type of brakes & vice versa. here is one quote, from http://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-direct.html : Direct-pull cantilevers have double the mechanical advantage compared with traditional brakes, so they require special brake levers. Direct-pull brake levers pull the cable twice as far, half as hard. The lower mechanical advantage of the lever compensates for the higher M.A. of the cantilever. It is not generally safe to mix and match levers/cables between direct pull and other types for this reason. * Conventional brake levers used with direct-pull cantilevers will usually not pull enough cable to stop in wet conditions without bottoming out against the handlebars. In dry conditions, they either won't work, or will grab too suddenly. * Direct-pull brake levers used with any other type of brakes will feel nice and solid when you squeeze them, but due to their lower mechanical advantage you'll need to squeeze twice as hard to stop as you should, so unless you are a lightweight rider with gorilla-like paws, this combination isn't safe either. ...end quote so my question is this... do i need to go through my personal collection of brake levers and somehow identify/separate DP levers from the rest? is there any simple way to do this? it seems like a problem i've seen many people run in to--the brakes seem fine on the stand, nonexistant when the bike goes out for a test ride. so this is probably something we should be on the lookout for, right? ok, thanks erik of course there is this huge and boring page as well: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-geometry.html#mechanical

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NOLA and back
by Derek Dunham 04 Mar '08

04 Mar '08

Hello All My name is Derek Dunham and I am both an activist and a cyclist. My birthday falls on August 29th, the day hurricane katrina touched down in New Orleans. Ever since then I have felt a drive to get down there and help, but I had not been able to yet. Skybus has tickets from Greensboro, NC to New Orleans, LA for only 40 dollars. I want to fly, and then either ship a bike to myself, or acquire one while I am there, possibly through a collective. There are a couple in the city. Ideal situation would be to have one waiting for me so I could have transportation while I am there, but I am seeking a touring bike, because when I leave, I want to pedal back. I don't yet know exactly how I am going to help, or what organization, if any, I will work through. I would love to get involved with Brad Pitt's project, but I don't even know if that would be possible. I also really want to look into getting my ride back sponsored somehow. I would like to be able to make money for the causes I work with as well as help them while I'm there. If anyone has any suggestions or advice as to how I might be able to pull this off, I'd really appreciate it. -- Derek Dunham

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First Aid in your shop
by Rich Points 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

Collectives, At Community Cycles we have a couple of first aid kits that we keep on the peg boards with the tools. Some people know they're there others don't. The kits get used, mostly band aids and aspirin. We don't have a formal way of replenishing things from the kit as they are used. How does your shop handle first aid and keep the supplies stocked? -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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bike racks
by Liza Mattana 02 Mar '08

02 Mar '08

Hey, is there a group on this list, or does someone know of group, that is working to put more bike racks in place? a friend of mine is working with our city for more bike facilities, and i mentioned that there are bike groups around that work to put racks out there for folks. did i imagine this, or do those groups really exist? please let me know if you do this kind of work, and if you do, what kind of racks are you building and/or using. or maybe you know of someone and send me a link. thanks, liza -- Liza Mattana www.pedals2people.org Spokane, WA

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Bike Shop Competition
by troy neiman 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

I would like to agree with Jonathan and add to his points of establishing communication with your LBS. Keep in mind that the more people on bikes is better for everyone and especially bike shop business in general. I have found that in the case of anyone that is buying/fixing a bike at our community shop will inevitably need a retail store to buy parts/labor from at some point, and might I add that many folks who come to BICAS are just getting in to the idea of riding a bike for transportation and will many times upgrade once they get to enjoy that idea. Also, a bike rider that can fix their own flat tire, lube the chain and diagnose the problems is a happy rider and far less likely to become frustrated and stop riding all together. At BICAS we do stock some necessary new parts such as cables, some tubes and tires, chains, and simple locks/lights (priced the same as LBS as not to undercut) which we order directly from QBP or J&B importers. We do not advertise the new parts but make known the availability of these items when needed. These are also the distributors we use to get our tools. I myself work part time at BICAS and part at the LBS and can say first hand that this is an essential and benificial relationship for both. We send many folks to the LBS for newer and specific parts that we may not have and they send folks down for older, used or obsolete parts that they don't have and it works great for both. I have also noticed that when I tell someone about BICAS when I am working at the LBS they are thrilled to know about the resource and usually impressed at the honesty and collaboration between the two, which equals loyal customers. Truth is some people are Community bike people and some are bike shop people and if we can work together that means more people on bikes and more business for everyone so lets get people on bikes people! Troy Neiman BICAS Tucson, AZ > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "the816bikecollective Kansascity" <the816bike(a)gmail.com> > To: "The Think Tank" <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Bike Shop Competition > Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:22:44 -0500 > > > Hey, I'm Sean with the not yet operational 816 Bicycle Collective in Kansas > City, MO. We've raised money already by holding a benefit event. We had > bands, food, and fun, and we charged a five dollar suggested donation. In > order to help us, we had some really kick ass bands. As far as spare parts > go, we've been posting all over the board asking for old parts for the last > 10 months. This actually created an excess of parts. In order to try to > avoid competition with the LBSs, we presented them (at their request) with > information about who we are and what we're doing. > > There is one LBS in our area that has helped us getting tools at cost, but > they're an owner operated company that has long wondered where the > collective was in KC. We're lucky. Basically, money and parts are free, they > just take a lot of organized effort. We have a cap of something like $80 for > all bike sales. We only sell bikes to raise funds, so basically we don't > sell bikes out of the shop. If there's a nice bike we come into and we need > money, we'll try to get it to someone via craigslist or word of mouth. > > One more thing, I personally work as a mechanic at an LBS (not the owner > operated one) and rather than an interview from my current employer, I was > basically interrogated as to how my being employed by him and being a > volunteer at the collective was not a conflict of interest. > > Again, we're not yet operational, so take this advice as you will. Also feel > free to check out our myspace page, > http://www.myspace.com/the816bicyclecollective. Look at our blog and you'll > find some specifics about our soon to be operation. Best of luck!!! > > -Sean in the 816 > > On 2/27/08, Stuart O Anderson <soa(a)ri.cmu.edu> wrote: > > > > I'm familiar with Devil Gear, and they have some unique features that > > make this difficult. Unlike most the LBS's we have in Pittsburgh, > > Devils Gear sells repaired used bikes in the 100-150 dollar range. > > That puts them in competition for both resources and market segments > > with a volunteer based community shop that's fixing up bikes for sale. > > Last time I was in New Haven they were charging about double what we > > would have priced bikes for at Free Ride, but had a somewhat higher > > median quality of bike. They also stock a fair selection of new > > bikes. > > > > I'd suggest that the New Haven collective try to avoid competition for > > now by focusing on educational program rather than bike sales. I.E. > > offering a 3 week, 6 session class in bike mechanics for adults or > > offering a build-a-bike program to local youth organizations, or > > having a sponsored tune-up-day event at one of the local universities. > > These sorts of programs take a little more effort to set up, but > > could be quite profitable. > > > > We get our parts through QBP (Quality Bike Parts) - you'll need to > > have liability insurance to get an account with them. > > > > Stuart > > > > On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 7:01 PM, Jonathan Morrison > > <jonathan(a)slcbikecollective.org> wrote: > > > Most of the problems I have seen in other cities are due to poor > > > communication and misunderstandings. This is my pitch, it works in salt > > > lake city -- feel free to use, modify, and/or ignore it. > > > > > > Community Bike Shops don't compete with Local Bike Shops (LBS), instead > > they > > > form a tight symbiotic relationship. Why? > > > > > > First, we serve different demographics. We serve the people that can't > > > afford or are scared of the LBS. Someone can buy a bike from a thrift > > store > > > for $25, a bike from Walmart for $100 or a low end bike from a LBS for > > $350. > > > We sell bikes anywhere from $50 to $150, so if anything we compete with > > > Walmart, but they don't seem to care. If someone can't afford a bike at > > > your LBS, send them to us! If someone is looking for a nicer bike and > > has > > > money to spend we will send them to you! > > > > > > Second, we create business for the LBS! While we have our own > > distributor > > > accounts, they are reserved for our most dedicated volunteers, everyone > > else > > > we redirect to the LBS. Our shop is open from 5-9pm so we tell them if > > they > > > can make it make it to the LBS before it closes (7PM), they could make > > it > > > back in time to install the part. > > > > > > Third, we are a tax writeoff! Get rid of used, new, old stock and make > > room > > > for things that can sell! Give it to us, and not only can you go to > > sleep > > > knowing it went into good hands -- you can get a much needed tax > > writeoff. > > > We will also publicize the fact you help your community by doing so. > > > > > > Fourth, we are your source for future mechanics. Not sure who to hire? > > > While our volunteers don't always deal with the high-end bikes, we can > > > recommend potential employees based on the more important things like > > their > > > ability to learn, reliability, ability to take direction, and their > > level of > > > customer service and passion for cycling. We train them to the point > > where > > > they could be molded into the perfect employee. > > > > > > -- > > > 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/ > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 4:05 PM, Cris Shirley <cgshirley(a)gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Hey! > > > > So we are starting a bike collective in New Haven, and had the support > > > > of our local bike shop Devil's Gear Bikes where the owner said that he > > > > would provide parts at cost and help us out on stuff. Well, now he is > > > > feeling treaten because he thinks we might start moving in a direction > > > > that may in competition with him (right now we need some start up > > > > money so we are going to fix up and sell some of the bikes we have.) > > > > Note that we have not given one bike away yet. So, I was wondering if > > > > anyone had any experiences of this sort and how they were managed? > > > > How do y'all get parts for bikes like cables and tubes and tires, and > > > chains? > > > > Thanks > > > > cris > > > > > > > > On 2/25/08, Edward France <edfrance(a)bicicentro.org> wrote: > > > > > Bike Peeps - Thought about taking a weekend out in Santa Barbara? > > > > > This is the perfect time, and we'll do our best to find hosting for > > > > > cooks, clerks, wrenches, and other forms of shop creatures that > > travel > > > > > out to celebrate with us. > > > > > > > > > > Save the Date- > > > > > Dia de Bici Cultura- the Grand Opening of Bici > > > > > Centro's new retail/educational/shop space in Santa Barbara. April > > 5th > > > > > will mark the event with Bike Art, Bike People and Bike Fun, BBQ, > > > > > evening reception with dinner, and a night ride. > > > > > > > > > > After a year of once monthly repair days, months of once weekly > > shop, > > > > > and infinite hours of shuffling around our stuff to serve in a > > modular > > > > > manner, Bici Centro finds its own 1,200 sq ft. space. We've got our > > > > > youth Earn-a-bike churning out bikes and biking kids, community > > > > > support, and a solid core of 15 volunteers working to get SB cycling > > > > > in style. > > > > > > > > > > A more detailed invite to be sent out this week. > > > > > > > > > > <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/xrudolfx/2285845544/' > > > > > title='Bicicentroopening by xRUDOLFx, on Flickr'><img > > > > > src=' > > http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/2285845544_744700953e_b.jpg' > > > > > width='1024' height='775' alt='Bicicentroopening' /></a> > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > Thethinktank mailing list > > > > > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > > > > > > > > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Thethinktank mailing list > > > > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > > > > > > > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Thethinktank mailing list > > > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > > > > > > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Thethinktank mailing list > > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > > > _______________________________________________ > Thethinktank mailing list > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > -- Want an e-mail address like mine? Get a free e-mail account today at www.mail.com!

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further thought on bike shop competition
by AndaLaLucha 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Hello, Another positive symbiotic aspect of the LBS/Recycled Bike Collective relationship that wasn't mentioned yet is that of the repair. Countless people buy used bikes from Free Ride in some state of disrepair and then bring them to a Local Bike Shop to be repaired. This is because we only teach people how to do repairs, and don't actually repair the bikes for them. Many people have limited time, energy etc. and it is easier for them to bring their bike in to another shop for reapir. So even if people are getting the bikes in working condition from a recycled bike shop, they may later bring the bikes in to a LBS for repairs. Also, I have seen many people get their first bike at Free Ride! and then when they get really into biking, upgrade and get a nicer bike at a Local Bike Shop. Additionally, a local bike retail shop, Gatto's, that was down the street from us, loved our proximity because they could send all the people with shitty Huffy's etc. to us for repair help, instead of them having to tell the people that the repairs would cost more than the bike itself. Bike on, Andalusia

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Bike Shop Competition
by Cris Shirley 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Hey! So we are starting a bike collective in New Haven, and had the support of our local bike shop Devil's Gear Bikes where the owner said that he would provide parts at cost and help us out on stuff. Well, now he is feeling treaten because he thinks we might start moving in a direction that may in competition with him (right now we need some start up money so we are going to fix up and sell some of the bikes we have.) Note that we have not given one bike away yet. So, I was wondering if anyone had any experiences of this sort and how they were managed? How do y'all get parts for bikes like cables and tubes and tires, and chains? Thanks cris On 2/25/08, Edward France <edfrance(a)bicicentro.org> wrote: > Bike Peeps - Thought about taking a weekend out in Santa Barbara? > This is the perfect time, and we'll do our best to find hosting for > cooks, clerks, wrenches, and other forms of shop creatures that travel > out to celebrate with us. > > Save the Date- > Dia de Bici Cultura- the Grand Opening of Bici > Centro's new retail/educational/shop space in Santa Barbara. April 5th > will mark the event with Bike Art, Bike People and Bike Fun, BBQ, > evening reception with dinner, and a night ride. > > After a year of once monthly repair days, months of once weekly shop, > and infinite hours of shuffling around our stuff to serve in a modular > manner, Bici Centro finds its own 1,200 sq ft. space. We've got our > youth Earn-a-bike churning out bikes and biking kids, community > support, and a solid core of 15 volunteers working to get SB cycling > in style. > > A more detailed invite to be sent out this week. > > <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/xrudolfx/2285845544/' > title='Bicicentroopening by xRUDOLFx, on Flickr'><img > src='http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/2285845544_744700953e_b.jpg' > width='1024' height='775' alt='Bicicentroopening' /></a> > > _______________________________________________ > Thethinktank mailing list > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > >

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Calling out Cali Especially - Grand Opening of Bici Centro in Santa Barbara -Dia de BiciCultura
by Edward France 25 Feb '08

25 Feb '08

Bike Peeps - Thought about taking a weekend out in Santa Barbara? This is the perfect time, and we'll do our best to find hosting for cooks, clerks, wrenches, and other forms of shop creatures that travel out to celebrate with us. Save the Date- Dia de Bici Cultura- the Grand Opening of Bici Centro's new retail/educational/shop space in Santa Barbara. April 5th will mark the event with Bike Art, Bike People and Bike Fun, BBQ, evening reception with dinner, and a night ride. After a year of once monthly repair days, months of once weekly shop, and infinite hours of shuffling around our stuff to serve in a modular manner, Bici Centro finds its own 1,200 sq ft. space. We've got our youth Earn-a-bike churning out bikes and biking kids, community support, and a solid core of 15 volunteers working to get SB cycling in style. A more detailed invite to be sent out this week. <a href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/xrudolfx/2285845544/' title='Bicicentroopening by xRUDOLFx, on Flickr'><img src='http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/2285845544_744700953e_b.jpg' width='1024' height='775' alt='Bicicentroopening' /></a>

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Need help with outdoor bike racks
by Jonathan Morrison 25 Feb '08

25 Feb '08

We are starting to get businesses interested in bike racks. I started a wiki page for it, but I was hoping those with greater experience could help add to it... http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Outdoor_Bicycle_Racks -- 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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501c3 application
by Liza Mattana 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

hey guys, we're starting the 501c3 process, and i was looking at the 1023 forms on the wiki. our lawyer mentioned the june 2006 revised form and wants us to be sure that when looking at examples, they are using this revised form. bicycle kitchen folks, it looks like you're using the revised form, but it's a "draft." does this mean the IRS may still ask for revisions? are there other groups that have used the new 1023 form and have a finalized one we could use? thanks in advance, liza -- Liza Mattana www.pedals2people.org Spokane, WA

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Successful Yellow Bike Programs?
by Jonathan Morrison 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Do they exist? I haven't heard of one that lasted. I am curious because I was reading about the Blue Bike Program http://www.railtrails.org/whatwedo/partnerships/corporate/DasaniBlueBikes.h… -- 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 Valet Parking
by Edward France 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Bike Peeps, So we're thinking of doing Bike Valet-ing for Earth Day, but the organizers are concerned about Liability and all that good logistical stuff. Based on those of you whose shops have done this, some questions; -Do you think this is a good way to get the word out? -do you think this is a good way to raise money for the shop (tip jars)? -what did you have to do for logistics/ liabillity and planning ahead? All the best and big thanks, Ed Santa Barbara Bici Centro -Where creativity and mobility meet BiciCentro.org

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Obtaining a Bike-Share Bike
by Lance Ayer 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

Hey All, Our organization has recently been asked to participate in a Sustainability Open House at the University of Calgary. The purpose is to bring together key players both within the university and the city in order to address topics of sustainability in all its glory. We will appropriately be representing the pedal power aspect of sustainability. Now, a large scale bike-share program of the kind found in most European cities is a completely foreign concept to Calgary and this we would like to change. My question to the group is this: does anyone know of anyway to acquire a bicycle that would be typical of bike-share programs. I am referring to one piece, fully adjustable, custom made bikes that are used in these programs. Any leads would be appreciated. Regards, Lance Ayer Campus Bike Initiative, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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old inner tubes
by Urban Bike Project of Wilmington, Inc. 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

There was a discussion on bikejournal about reusing old tubes...I know many of us have found uses but another option is sending them to Splaff, a company that makes sandals from recycled materials. I'll add the information to the wiki here<http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Splaff%2C_Inc.>linked from the shop recycling page<http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Shop_Recycling> . Brian Urban Bike Project of Wilmington "We would love to use any old tubes that you are willing to send to us. Please ensure that all old tubes sent to us meet the following criteria: - No rust on the outside of the tubes - No fluid inside the tubes - We do not accept the bike tires, only the bike tubes. Please ship all tubes to us at: US Mail: Splaff Inc. PO Box 7604 San Diego, CA 92167 UPS: Splaff Inc 4950 Del Mar Ave San Diego, CA 92107 Thank you again and please feel free to call us at (619) 221 9199 if you have any questions or concerns. Keep onn Floppin' Max Wescoe Splaff Inc 619-221-9199" -- Urban Bike Project of Wilmington 1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the building) Wilmington, DE 19801 Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Oil awareness to pre-teens Lesson Plans
by BovineOaks＠aol.com 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

This is a starter for teachers, it can be expanded into Language arts, PE, Health, Government, Ethics, Business, History, and for all age groups K-12-adult. It just requires a little thought. Ask students if the know the following: For Math The weight of a gallon of gas? How many gallons fit in the family car? How many times a week does the car get filled up? What is the cost of the fuel for a year at current prices? What will fuel for a year cost at $4 a gallon? $5? $6 or $10 How much weight in (Carbon or CO2) fuel did your family put into the air in one year? Advanced thoughts: Where does carbon based gas come from? Where does it go to? For science: The carbon cycle is simple, Carbon in the air CO2 gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed in many numbers of ways bonding with oxygen to form the gas CO2 What major three elements are all plant life made of? C, H, O, Where does a tree absorb its H2O from the ground? or the air? Where does a tree absorb its (CO2) carbon from? What does the photosynthesis processes in the leaf create with the water and the carbon dioxide? CHO+O2 Water from the root system is bonded inside the leaf with to carbon dioxide from the air. This photosynthesis process creates sugar and oxygen. (For younger kids I only use the words Sugar or Sugar compounds and Oxygen I do not get into formulas) 11H20+12CO2 = C12 H22 O11 + 6O2 The carbon cycle is simple, Carbon in the air gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed in many numbers of ways bonding with oxygen to form the gas CO2 Most of the Carbon weight of a tree comes from the air not the soil. After you cut a tree down and dry out the logs almost all the weight of the log is carbon compounds that came from the air. Carbon can be a heavy gas in the air and become a solid through photosynthesis, We can rot or burn the wood and release the carbon as a gas back into the air. All surface animals eat carbon based foods, and release Co2 as they digest or as they rot back into the air. NOW the complex part: Carbon that was trapped in the ground as coal or petroleum is not part of the balanced carbon cycle. We dig it up, bond it with oxygen (Burn it) to create CO2. and we do not trap the CO2 and put it back into the earth from where we dug it up. We are also reducing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere by bonding it with buried carbon. If a tree weighs 2 tons after it is cut down and dried out: How many trees would we have to grow each year to trap the equal weight of carbon that we dig out of the ground and put into the air? How would we put all that solid carbon or trees back into the ground where it came from? Good carbon cycle: Carbon in the air gets absorbed by a green plant, chlorophyll bonds the carbon with water from the ground and creates sugar and oxygen, the sugar is consumed by human and made into energy on a bicycle, carbon is expelled as a gas CO2. The carbon cycle is in balance. The air is cleaner you are healthier. The question here is How do you make cycling fun? How do you get to school, events, date, work, get groceries, take tools or computers to work, how do you dress professionally for work and ride a bike. How do you stay clean, dry, warm, cool on a bike? Are there bikes that have protection from rain, snow, wind? Do they have windshield wipers, turn signals, great lights, comfortable seats? (Look up Velomobile's) What is there to learn in the bicycle world that I do not know? What are the costs for a car? Insurance, fuel, maintenance (Oil, Tires), repairs, tolls, licence, Plates, city stickers, loan/lease/purchase, customization? Health benefits? How much will fuel cost change in the next ten years? 15 years? 20 years? When will you not be able to afford fuel? What are the costs for the bicycle? maintenance (Oil, Tires), repairs, purchase, customization ? Health benefits? For both you have food cost, after sitting in a car for a few years you will need to add gym membership cost to the car costs. With the money you save riding a bike can you afford to live a better life? Eat nicer foods, have money for nicer trips, or what ever you like to do with some bucks in your pocket? Or will you always be broke paying for expensive personal transportation? Have kids write down ideas on how they would spend money now, when they are in college, when they are in their twenties, or thirties? How much money would they save by the time they were 40? **************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living. (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-du… 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

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Oil awareness to pre-teens
by Geoffrey B 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

Does anyone have any good ideas to teach kids about the evils of oil. I am helping teach a workshop on oil to kids and need some help. Its part of a renewable energy tour of the city and so the kids will take part in a daycare workshop while their parents tour around town. I'm thinking games, fun stuff and the sort, they are ten to thirteen years old. -- "Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia" - H.G. Wells

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Oil awareness to pre-teens
by Jessica McPherson 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

We did a similar exercise with a kids' class this year, totally on the cheap. The message isn't specifically about oil, it's a broader demonstration of the environmental impact of different transportation modes. I got some plastic lids for large tupperwares (about 1'x2'), and laid some dry-ish dirt down. I propped up one side of the lids so they laid slightly tilted, not flat. I collected a bunch of leaves and flowers, and gave them to the kids. I told them to make a forest in their dirt with the plants. Then we made it rain, using spray bottles. The dirt and plants absorbed all the water (especially because it was dry to start), very little flowed out into the drainage channel. I had also made a stack of "roads," "houses," "apartments," and "parking lots" out of duct tape folded over on itself + sharpie drawings. So then I told the kids they had to build a village, and had to knock down part of their forest to do it. Once they had made the village we added "pollution" from cars and other sources - a sprinkling of turmeric over everything. Then we made it "rain" again - and this time the water ran right off the impervious duct tape (helped that the dirt was now saturated too), and yellow water pooled in the drainage channels. It demonstrated the impact of development on the natural environment, impact of increased impervious surface on water drainage, and how pollution on land makes it into our waterways. You could also make skinny little tape strips that were bike paths, and show the difference in the amount of pavement needed for car transport vs. other means. Could also vary the amount of pollution depending on transport means. Maybe different kids could be assigned to build bike villages and car villages, then the results could be compared. Maybe one group of kids could be assigned to build the Nigerian delta or Ecuadorian rainforest village- then when you build the car village, you have to knock down houses and farm fields in the other villages and dump oil all over everything - illustrating the costs of oil extraction. Lots of things you could do. The attached picture illustrates how it's put together. -Jessica (Free Ride, Pittsburgh) ----- Original Message ---- From: Vyki Englert <vyki.englert(a)thekickstand.org> To: The Think Tank <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 1:03:44 PM Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Oil awareness to pre-teens In Gainesville, FL, we have this great group WAV (watershed action volunteers) that sets up a small display with cars and ponds and little spray bottles, to show how oil from cars affects the watershed and destroys local watersheds. I can't seem to find pictures of the awesome interactive display they set up for little kids, but there site has some good information: http://www.alachuacounty.us/government/depts/epd/waterquality/ -vy -- Vyki Englert "sprocket" acting Director of operations Member Board of Directors Gainesville Community Bicycle Project, Inc "the Kickstand" 722 South Main Street Gainesville Fl 32601 www.thekickstand.org vyki.englert(a)thekickstand.org 850.819.8808 'everynormal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist theblack flag, and begin slitting throats.' --h.l. mencken On Feb 19, 2008 12:39 PM, <veganboyjosh(a)gmail.com> wrote: break it down into terms they can relate to. figure out the cost of a car over a year. someone has this number, altho i can't remember who/what it is right now...compare that to a bike. then see what they could buy in a year with the difference, in terms of stuff they're into. games, soda, candy, etc... maybe make up some visual aids like the total cereal commercial, where you photoshop a pile of candy bars, or playstations, or something, to show what you could buy with the money saved by riding a bike... On Feb 19, 2008 10:31 AM, Geoffrey B <vous.je(a)gmail.com> wrote: Does anyone have any good ideas to teach kids about the evils of oil. I am helping teach a workshop on oil to kids and need some help. Its part of a renewable energy tour of the city and so the kids will take part in a daycare workshop while their parents tour around town. I'm thinking games, fun stuff and the sort, they are ten to thirteen years old. -- "Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia" - H.G. Wells _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… -- Vyki Englert "sprocket" acting Director of operations Member Board of Directors Gainesville Community Bicycle Project, Inc "the Kickstand" 722 South Main Street Gainesville Fl 32601 www.thekickstand.org vyki.englert(a)thekickstand.org 850.819.8808 'every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.' --h.l. mencken -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Social effects of motorized transport - Ivan Illich
by Rich Points 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~ira/illich/facts/social_effects.html <http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/%7Eira/illich/facts/social_effects.html> Social effects of motorized transport ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ivan Illich gives a set of very interesting facts and figures when he discusses his concept of convivial transport: * *The United States puts between 25 and 45 per cent of its total energy* (depending upon how one calculates this) *into vehicles*: to make them, run them, and clear a right of way for them when they roll, when they fly, and when they park. For the sole purpose of transporting people, 250 million Americans allocate more fuel than is used by 1.3 billion Chinese and Indians for all purposes. * The model American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for gasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering his resources for it. And this figure does not take into account the time consumed by other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts, and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. * The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: *less than five miles per hour*. In countries deprived of a transportation industry, people manage to do the same, walking wherever they want to go, and they allocate only 3 to 8 per cent of their society's time budget to traffic instead of 28 per cent. What distinguishes the traffic in rich countries from the traffic in poor countries is not more mileage per hour of life-time for the majority, but more hours of compulsory consumption of high doses of energy, packaged and unequally distributed by the transportation industry. * Man, unaided by any tool, gets around quite efficiently. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer in ten minutes by expending 0.75 calories. Man on his feet is thermodynamically more efficient than any motorized vehicle and most animals. For his weight, he performs more work in locomotion than rats or oxen, less than horses or sturgeon. At this rate of efficiency man settled the world and made its history. At this rate peasant societies spend less than 5 per cent and nomads less than 8 per cent of their respective social time budgets outside the home or the encampment. * Man on a *bicycle *can go three or four times faster than the pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories. The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. *Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well.* * Bicycles are not only thermodynamically efficient, they are also cheap. With his much lower salary, the Chinese acquires his durable bicycle in a fraction of the working hours an American devotes to the purchase of his obsolescent car. The cost of public utilities needed to facilitate bicycle traffic versus the price of an infrastructure tailored to high speeds is proportionately even less than the price differential of the vehicles used in the two systems. In the bicycle system, engineered roads are necessary only at certain points of dense traffic, and people who live far from the surfaced path are not thereby automatically isolated as they would be if they depended on cars or trains. The bicycle has extended man's radius without shunting him onto roads he cannot walk. Where he cannot ride his bike, he can usually push it. * The bicycle also uses little space. Eighteen bikes can be parked in the place of one car, thirty of them can move along in the space devoured by a single automobile. It takes three lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by using automated trains, four to move them on buses, twelve to move them in their cars, and only two lanes for them to pedal across on bicycles. Of all these vehicles, only the bicycle really allows people to go from door to door without walking. The cyclist can reach new destinations of his choice without his tool creating new locations from which he is barred. * Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy, or time. They can spend fewer hours on each mile and still travel more miles in a year. They can get the benefit of technological breakthroughs without putting undue claims on the schedules, energy, or space of others. They become masters of their own movements without blocking those of their fellows. Their new tool creates only those demands which it can also satisfy. Every increase in motorized speed creates new demands on space and time. The use of the bicycle is self-limiting. It allows people to create a new relationship between their life-space and their life-time, between their territory and the pulse of their being, without destroying their inherited balance. The advantages of modern self-powered traffic are obvious, and ignored. That better traffic runs faster is asserted, but never proved. Before they ask people to pay for it, those who propose acceleration should try to display the evidence for their claim. [from: Energy and Equity <http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/%7Eira/illich/texts/energy_and_equity/>. In Ivan Illich: /Toward a History of Needs/. New York: Pantheon, 1978.] -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Mentor needed for an academic paper on Bikes and Poverity
by dragonfly＠mac.hush.com 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello, Cris and Geoffery and everyone else. My nane is Sasha, and I'm from Torotno, too. I'm from Torotno, but I've spent the past three years plus a little bit in the Detroit area. I lived in downtown Detroit until recently, when I moved back across the border to Windsor; I'm pregnant and I want my kid to be born in Canada. I don't drive, and when I moved to Detroit, I knew it was going to be a struggle to manage Motor City without a car. There are all sorts of issues. Downtown Detroit, (like many other poor neighbourhoods in the USA), is a food desert. That means that there are no grocery stores, or that the grocery stores that are here do not sell healthy food. When I first arrived, I was shocked at the number of diabetic amputatees I saw wheeling themselves around; many of them seemed to be homeless. The best vegetables come from the weekly farmer's market, and there are also good vegetables miles and miles away from my old neighbourhood, in Southwest Detroit, which is a very Hispanic neighbourhood. Transit sucks. Getting food is hard. The stores that do exist often close early, as the store owners fear the ghetto at night. They leave for their homes in suburbs like Dearborn, MI. You get out of school or work and have no where to shop; many families try to live off the terrible food you can get at gas station conveinience stores. Sometimes there are sections of scary no-go zone neighbourhoods inbetween you and the vegetables; the route can be fine or too dangerous at different times of day. This can change with the weather, too. Winter roads are unplowed; summer heat makes people antsy. If you are female, the level of sexual harrassment and threatened or actual sexual violence is profound. A bike is essential in a neighbourhood such as this. You are safer on your bike than you would be walking. The bike extends the available daylight in an amazing way, as you can run errands or meet friends at twilight and even at night, once you know your way around. My bike saved my female soul, I swear. It made me feel safe and powerful, and kept me from becoming stir crazy and too angry to function. It let me breeze past the men screaming obcenities or threatening me. Bringing groceries home from a long way away would be horrible without a bike and a knapsack. In winter, it still sometimes seemed too hard to even try. A bike can make all the difference, but it isn't enough to fix the problems. Until recently, people could not use their food stamps at farmer's markets, so even if they had had a bike, they wouldn't have been able to use it to get vegetables. The time question-- that the vegetables are only available one day a week, or during hours when the woman of the family is working at her job-- is a huge problem. Sometimes also people don't want to cross over an invisible neighbourhood boundery; there is gang activity, there are unwritten rules. A bike can help you go around a whole section of the city is would be better if you didn't try to go through, letting you access needed services or supplies. I don't know how anyone copes without a bike. If you are looking for a mentor, Chris, you might want to get in touch with some of the people who work at or run Back Alley Bikes in Detroit. Some of the best people to talk to are not actually at Back Alley these days-- after six years, some people have decidedto take a break, or to move on to try to start their own shops, or to start community shops in other neighbourhoods. I'll leave my e-mail, and you can contact me for some names. Back Alley was the most important place in Detroit for me. If your bike breaks down in a neighbourhood with no bike shops, you are screwed. I remember going on weird journeys out to suburbs I'd never been to just to get a new tire; the transit was so confusing. The psychological barrier to making that trip might be higher for a born and bred denizen of the Cass Corridor than it was for me, even though I was a disabled foreigner. I'm white, and I'm used to travelling to places I've never been, and I don't have any of the local angst about Eight Mile that xometimes seems like the only thing that city dwellers and suburbanites share. Back Alley is an amazing place. It is one of the most racially and economically integrated places in Detroit. It has the tools and supplies and helpers that you need to fix your bike. If you are thinking or writing about bike cultures in poor place, please always think about supply lines. Think about how you are going to acquire the basic things you need. It gets complicated. So much of you time is spent puzzling out how to get a tube or a patch kit or tire levers (and you need patches and new tubes at a crazy rate, due to all the broken glass all over the streets, and constantly torn up roads.) Sometimes, you are crippled without your bike for want of some simple, simple thing. You need to make friends with other people who ride bikes. You need to be a part of that informal network of reciprocal aid that allows you to survive. The way that people teach at Back Alley is gentle, and I've watched people who never had a good experience of school or of any other learning environment so amazed to discover their own capacities it made me want to cry. Learning how to care for your bike can heal some suprisingly deep wounds. I suprised myself, too. Now I can fix pretty much anything that goes wrong on my bike all by myself; I love the self sufficiency that Detroit and Back Alley inspired in me. As I rode around town, people would shout "Hey, Back Alley Bikes!" at me (now that I've moved, people still do this when I'm back in Detroit; being part of the bike culture make me local; in immigrant recieving areas, that is an important thing to know); it made me feel so much safer to know that I was known to all these people in my neighbourhood; it made me feel watched out for. It was great to start recogizing the bikes of everyone I knew when I saw them locked up around town. In a place where lots of people have no phones, you'd be amazed how easy it is to locate someone because someone else just saw their bike locked up outside someone's house or out in front of the coffee shop. I know that other people felt safer because of me, too. Many women friends or acquaintences would ask me if I'd ride with them when they were trying to claim for themselves some part of the city they'd been too scared to go on their own before they had a bike. Back Alley was the centre of bike culture in Detroit for a while; now that bike culture has more than one centre. There are problems at the shop these days. Back Alley deals with complex issues. Providing safe spaces for girls and women is a huge one. Also, women work hours that make getting to the shop difficult. (Bec brought in a Women and Trans night, like the one inovated by people at Plan B in New Orleans, but we still need more women mechanics who can volunteer, and there are other issues.) It is hard to Earn a Bike for yourself and your two sons when you are a working single mother with no transport who lives in the Cass Coridor. Some sort of better system has to be developed to meet the needs of these women. When my friend had her bike and the bikes of her sons all stolen she was totally devastated. She'd worked hard all winter to acquire them and to fix them up, and her heart was broken. Back Alley serves a large male homeless population, too. The shop is so busy on summer evenings that you have to come hours in advance and sit outside waiting to get a good spot on the waiting list so you can go in. This makes it very hard for men who also need to go and sit and wait to get a meal or a bed for the night. We need some sort of mobile shop to go to the shelters, or some daytime hours or hours especially designed for these men. It is interesting that people mentioned theft. That is a problem in Detroit. Back Alley sees a lot of stolen bikes; people try to sell them to the shop. Often, the owner of the bike will be known to the shop, and the bike will be taken from the theif and returned. Compared to Toronto, I thought people in Detroit were lax about locking up their bikes-- often, you'd see bikes left outside stores not locked up at all, which amazed me. On the other hand, last summer's rash of bike thefts at gunpoint was something new to me. The city policy of scrapping bikes for metal as opposed to taking them to some place like Back Alley provides a market for the thefts. A change in the law and local custom is needed. Bikes are stolen to get drug money, and to use to get away from the scenes of other crimes. Cyclists need to register their bikes and report the crimes to the police, who will laugh at you and not do anything, but who need to be educated about bikes and about how tracking bike crimes could help them deal with other, bigger crimes. I feel odd suggesting the police, but based on all the conversations I've had with people, it seems right to involve them. Perhaps to the bike shop would be a good idea. A map could be set up and the events plotted. Theft at gun point is a serious thing. Eventually, someone is going to be killed, and if caught, the stupid kids responsible are going to have awful experiences in prison. Sorry about the rambling early morning notes about bike culture in a poor neighbourhood. There is a lot more to share, of course. Detroit's bike cultures include fantastic art bikes, and the bike as a means of personal expression in my old neighbourhood would be a great paper for someone. (Some of us are collecting pictures for a book we may manage to create.)Detroit has a great Alley Cats race scene, and gleaner's rides, and many other bike rides. Detroit has Rock Dove Couriers (their T-shirts are coveted, and to possess one is some sort of badge of something.) Detroit has fixed gear scenesters, and old ladies with large bottoms who ride bikes decorated with plastic flowers (I see my future self in them), like any other place. If you bring your bike to the Blessing of the Low Riders in Southwest Detroit this spring, a priest will sprinkle it with holy water. We probably all know lots about the kind of community that bikes can foster, (including the relationship that seems to exist between bike people and community gardeners, which is a super important one in a place dealing with intense food security issues and problems), and I'm sure others share many of these issues and problems. Cris, please consider looking to Detroit for your mentor. On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:34:36 -0500 Geoffrey B <vous.je(a)gmail.com> wrote: >I am from Toronto, Canada, not much use for you > >I have done some research in this field. I have used Stat Can to >show >ridership in the suburbs. The social economic requirements of >riders is >evident. Its ten percent all around my city of Toronto, not >faulting or >fluctuating. The suburban populous ride their bikes not because >they want >to, but because they need to. Transit is three bucks a ride. >People are >forced to ride their bikes without bicycle infrastructure. It >becomes >evident with bike on car casualties in the suburbs and poor and >migrant >people riding their bikes in winter. > >Toronto has a huge migrant population, they know bikes better then >anyone, >they speak the universal language of bike. We work with them, they >help us >with bikes and we help them with English skills. > > One reason that boost bike theft is the level of impoverished >ridership, >the demand for used bikes on the part of the impoverished class >boost bike >theft. Our recycle bike groups try to under price stolen bikes >for sale. > >We give poor people money to volunteer in our shop, we give bikes >to >shelters and employment resource centers. We try to understand the >poor >commuter and work to meet their needs. They can teach us allot >about how the >city works. Relying on public transit us madness. > >Give me shout if i can help you more. Im with the >www.communitybicyclenetwork.org. I worked with BIKESHARE, the >yellow bike >program that lends bikes out to people in need. We scrapped the >program just >to focus on recycling used bikes and mechanical skill sharing. We >also give >out free cooked food cause people think and ride better on a full >tank. >Hehe. > >Geoffrey Bercarich >York Environmental Studies >vous.je(a)gmail.com > >On Feb 17, 2008 9:24 PM, Cris Shirley <cgshirley(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> 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 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Thethinktank mailing list >> Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org >> >> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- >bikecollectives.org >> >> > > >-- >"Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia" - H.G. Wells -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 2.5 wkYEARECAAYFAke6nIUACgkQ5O7ahKJmrRlJZwCeJ7xstESXEc+TFqXOkadLkzApgokA nRay6Xjx//PN6j/NnAZYMlhX33q6 =+4e5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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