When I was in Germany some years ago, I ran into this fella that was riding around a "fahrrad ambulanz" (bicycle ambulance) -for bicycles, not people. I thought it was a great idea and nearly got up the gusto to try it out, but got involved with other things. He has a website: www.fahrradambulanz-berlin.de. Unless you speak some deutsch it will be somewhat useless to you, as it doesn't have any good photos really. The fellow seemed to be doing a good business 5 years ago and is still at it! I think the idea would transfer beautifully to mobile repair day type of events. We have done this in NC by just throwing a couple of tool boxes, some stands and a pile of bikes on a 6 ft cart and hauling them around, but it would be cool and an eye catcher to have something people would recognize.
By the way, I never introduced myself - I'm Travis and I suspect I know a few folks on here, but I'm not sure. I've been active in the past with The ReCyclery in Carrboro, NC, (recyclery.info) and a bit here and there as I've visited a bunch of shops around the country. Currently I still help folks in the Carrboro a bit, though mostly from afar, and occasionally the Mt. Ranier Bike Coop, and Bikes for the World, both outside of DC.
Travis
On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 3:44 PM, dragonfly@mac.hush.com wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hi, Vyki and Everyone Else.
What a good idea! It would be a great thing to have at charity bike races, too.
A bike based mobile shop has all sorts of potential.
It might be a good model for African, Asian, Latin American and South Asian endeavours, too. The Grameen bank might be interested in the idea, for someone's not already doing it; it might make a good micro credit business. I know someone who is involved with them-- may I forward the idea to them?
One of the ideas floated in Detroit was to use the existing infrastructure of Detroit's quite active inner city churches to broaden the reach of the bike community shop; remeber, we were also talking about going to the homeless shelters? A bike shop van that would make the rounds was the thought.
A bike trailer is an interesting alternative, though.
We have a great guy here who runs a summer time organic catering company; he does all his deliveries by bike. It is cool to see him.
People on this list are so interesting and creative. I lovegetting Think Tank mail!
SashaOn Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:06:29 -0400 Vyki Englert vyki.englert@thekickstand.org wrote:
The Kickstand sets up a repair stand at our local farmers market and any events we get involved in. This is currently what most of our outreach program consists of. We carry a portable stand, a 4x2 folding table, an Ez-up, a tool set, and consumables. We've been doing this for a very short while, but the idea is that we have a "market box", a tool box that is set aside, always ready to go with a good set of tools (we're still working on exactly what a good set of tools is), that is not used during regular shop hours. We just started bringing consumables, patches, cables... and are still hammering out exactly what to bring. And of course we always have some literature on hand, and usually bring some of the bright orange safety vest the county bicycle/pedestrian advisory board gave us to pass out.
Our only issue currently is that we toss of of this in the back of
a pickup truck! We are hopefully soon going to have the resources to build
a trailer (a member is purchasing welding equipment), but don;t as of yet have any plans.
Anyone have plans for a good (verylarge) bike trailer?
vyki
www.thekickstand.org
On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Durham Bike Co-op durhambikecoop@gmail.com wrote:
United Bicycle Parts has a pretty nice looking "mix and match"
tool set
with items from a variety of different tool makers = around
$200, if I
remember right, and maybe around 50 pieces with the most
critical stuff
(spline tools, chainbreaker, lockring wrench etc.) being shop
quality stuff.
Might be a good place to start.
best, Colin - Durham Bike Co-op
On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 10:57 AM, dragonfly@mac.hush.com
wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hi, Everyone. I love reading everyone's posts. Thanks to the people who have written to me about creatinga
good bike plan for the Detroit-Windsor region.
This past weekend, I was talking with some people. Peoplewe
know were attending the UN Indigenous People's climate change meeting in New York, and we were talking about some things.
My friends and I were talking about climate change, thistime
in the context of the aboriginal communities that these
friends of
mine come from. It was a long and interesting conversation.
For a little part of it, I talked about bikes, and abouthow
important my bike was to me in Detroit and about how my bike
shapes
my world view and my thoughts about community planning, etc.
They all drive trucks, these friends of mine, even theones
from the city, and they think I'm a little nuts for riding my
bike
everywhere, but they could also see an increased potential for bikes in some of their communities.
In some of their communities, bikes are not sopractical. In
others, they could be made into a more functional option for
day-to-
day practical use, if there was an infrastructure to support
them-
a place to get bikes, a place to go to repair them, etc.
We wondered about a "Bike Shop in a Box"-- could you geta
big rubbermaid tub and put a whole bike shop into it? (Maybe
two
tubs plus a stand?) Could you make such a thing that would be
easy
to ship North or into the B.C. interior, by train or plane
etc.?
Do the people from "Bikes Not Bombs" know how to dothis--
have some of you done this before? Is there a good way of
doing
this already known?
What should go into the box, and how could we make thiseconomical-- is there an economy of scale-- how many Boxed
Shops
would you need to create to get a good deal on the tools, do
you
think? Would suppliers be interested in creating a 'Shop in
Box' as
a product to offer through their catalogue, even?
We're just thinking about the feasibility of thisright
now. For lots of reasons, it might be a dumb or unworkable
idea,
but one worth checking out. If any of you have done this, or
if you
know what the best things to put into the box are, please e-
me.
SashaOn Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:56:20 -0400 "Urban Bike Project
Wilmington,
DE" urbanbikeproject@gmail.com wrote:
"we still have the Bike Against! stencil and about ten
different
colors of spray paint..."
Rafael, is that why you changed your name? I can only
imagine the
positive message this has spread in Fort Collins...
Jennifer,
I think you want a name that instantly gives people a
snapshot of
what you do. Mike's comment rings pretty true. Often people will
call
or email about donating bikes and then ask what it is exactly
that we
do. If you do bikes and art call it something with bikes and art
and
you'll be set. The Bike Gallery or something innocent.
BICAS'
name is pretty cool and explanatory.
Once you pick it, stick with it. Like Rafael said, your
shops
actions/quality are more important than the name.
Brian
On 4/28/08, bike against bikeagainst@gmail.com wrote:
Hey Jennifer and all, Rafael from Fort Collins,CO here...
I agree with Rachel, keep it simple...
I believe the name does not make the project, the PROJECT
makes
the name,
just like band names, as long as the music is good people
will
dig the
name...
In our case, for the first four years our project was known
as
the Bike
Against ! collective or Co-op and due to our current
situation
we are now
just called The Fort Collins Bike Co-op... yeah,is not
radical
but it
doesn't have to be. We still have the same ideals and
philosophy
that gave
birth to the organization and again, the quality of your
work is
ALL that
matters in the end.
By changing our name we were able to have access to a lot
more
resources
and therefore help a lot more people.
As for the militant riders out there,who believe that
riding a
bicycle as
main or ONLY means of transportation is also an act of
political
expression
and resistance,we still have the Bike Against! stencil and
about
ten
different colors of spray paint...
Also there's less risk that the name will be already taken.
-- Rafael Cletero Project Coordinator Fort Collins Bicycle Co-op ph (970) 484 38 04 www.fcbikecoop.org _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-
bikecollectives.org
-- Urban Bike Project of Wilmington 1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind
the
building) Wilmington, DE 19801
Hours: Thursday 6:30-9:00 Saturday 1:00-4:00
Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at
https://www.hushtools.com/verify
Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 3.0
wkYEARECAAYFAkgXN2wACgkQ5O7ahKJmrRkYFgCgqeGADGv4XT1x3eg9Bn49IPiPHqU
A
ninVivrE08nsJH1DEYWah7e0d/Q1 =zIuK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
bikecollectives.org
-- Durham Bike Co-op 723 N. Mangum St. Durham, NC 27701 www.durhambikecoop.org _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
bikecollectives.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 3.0
wkYEARECAAYFAkgYzCgACgkQ5O7ahKJmrRkjnACfb17NjhdTunysuEquTr60oPqf/PYA nifEyhmLaQ3jKdIdkgTq88TlLPAr =Zvv7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...