Hello Bike Bikers!

We're only a month away, can you believe it? We just got through a huge 10-day bike festival here in Pittsburgh, so now it's crunch time for the Bike Bike Conference of Community Bike Projects. A lot has happened since our last communique, and we think we are going to put on one fine conference. There's already a local buzz around your arrival and everyone is real excited to meet yinz!! Aside from the workshops and discussions during the day (more info below), the local cycling community is helping plan some events to show you how to have fun, Rustbelt Style! The party people are planning dance party, the alleycat people, an alleycat, as well as some chiller themed rides to show you around. Check out this recent article for a little intro into Pittsburgh bike culture, a bit of hype for Bike Bike, and some photos of fellow Free Riders, Rich, Morgan, Jessica, and Erok. www.popcitymedia.com/features/0627summerbike.aspx

First, the nitty gritty. Make sure to check out the website, www.bikebike.org. It's been updated with lots of goodies like a list of workshops, both confirmed and proposed, as well as some info on coming into town. Be sure to check out (and use) the forums that were set up to help us all communicate cross-continent, answer questions, etc. You need to log in to use this now, to combat the spam, but post, post away!

Second, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send us your registration forms. It will help us out immensely in finding you a place to stay. The folks who send in the forms will receive priority in housing locations, so we can't stress the importance of this. The Registration Form is downloadable from the website, and we are requesting one per person. You can either mail, fax, or email the form back to us. All info is on the site.

Also, if your shop didn't receive our invitation packet, please email us at freeride@bike-pgh.org, and we'll be sure to get one in the mail. We tried really hard to get as many shops as we knew about, but so many have sprouted up in the past few years, that it was really difficult to find everyone, reaffirming the importance of this conference!!

Bring a bike if you can. We know it won't be easy for everyone, especially for those flying in, to bring a bike, but it will be really helpful. We're going to try to get a bunch reasonably ready for folks. If you have any interest in coming early to help out (hint hint), we're definitely going to need folks to build up some bikes. If you do want to come early, contact us!

That's all for now. Stay tuned as we'll be sending out more and more info in the coming month.

...AND SEND IN THOSE REGISTRATION FORMS!!!

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