Bike Commuters, Grocery Getters, and Utility Cyclists - I Need You!

I’m going to undertake an independent video / biography project by
tapping into the wonderful resources of VCAM <http://www.vermontcam.org/> .

I’m interested in doing on road interviews of bike commuters, grocery
getters, utility cyclists, kid dropper offers, and anyone who uses their
bike on a day to day basis in and around Burlington. (and I’ll stretch
this generic geographical boundary as necessary - as far as Montpelier
if needed)

Ideally I’d like to follow a group of cyclists for a year - interviewing
you roadside, trailside and MUPside at least once a season. These will
then be edited and shared - either via VCAM’s channel, web outlets, or a
future Burlington focused bike blog that I’ve been tinkering with.

Interviews would edit out to about 5 minutes each - and I expect each
segment to take no longer than 10-15 minutes to film.I’d like to meet
somewhere along your commute or daily path - morning or evening for
commuters - any other time for kid droppers and utility cyclists. I’m
developing a ‘format’ and list of typical questions. These could be
emailed to you before hand so you’ll have an idea of some of the content
I’m looking for. The questions will direct a chat about bikes, cars,
routes, gear, weather - and what it means to you to be using your bike
as transportation. I’m interested in telling a story and painting a
picture of everyday folks using their bikes for their health, the
environment, convenience, cost - whatever drives you to ride.

The more the merrier - anyone that integrates their bike into their life
is welcome.

Reply on list or contact me off list @ mike.beganyi (at) gmail (dot)
com. Subject line iBikeBurlington so it dodges my spam software.

I hope to do some test shooting with the equipment in the next 2 weeks
(I’ll need a guinea pig) and develop the first series to cover the fall
season. This is going to be funded by my spare time and the great
resources at VCAM - so any offers of help / guidance / etc. will be
appreciated.

Thanks!
Mike Beganyi

Bike Jobs in Seattle, Boston, and VA

For mechanic enthusiasts with similar friends in these places, or who are moving there, here are some job postings that have just come to our attention:

Seattle: http://www.bikeworks.org/shop_mechanic_2007.htm

Arlington, VA:
Phoenix Bikes in Arlington, VA (www.phoenixbikes.org), a young youth development focused, community bike shop just outside DC is looking for a part-time Mechanic / YouthPrograms Director.

Contact Colin Dixon for qualifications & responsibilities. and please pass on!

Boston:
BIKES NOT BOMBS now seeks to fill THREE POSITIONS in Boston!!!:
********
- Major Gifts and Grant Officer (contact: hiring@bikesnotbombs.org)

- Girls’ Programming and Bike Safety Coordinator (contact:learn@bikesnotbombs.org)

- Bike Shop and Voc. Training Center Mechanic (contact:shop@bikesnotbombs.org)

*********
Please see attached descriptions and check out our new, improved website:
www.bikesnotbombs.org*
Bikes Not Bombs promotes bicycle technology as a concrete alternative to war and environmental destruction.* For 23 years, BNB has been a nexus ofbike recycling and community empowerment both in lower income neighborhoods of Boston and in the nations of the Gobal South. BNB’s programs involveyoung people and adults in mutually respectful leadership development and environmental stewardship, while recycling thousands of bicycles.*

*Lasting peace and social justice require equitable and sustainable use of resources. BNB provides community-based education and assists development projects with recycled bicycles, related technologies and technical assistance, as concrete alternatives to the militarism, over-consumption & inequality that breed war and environmental destruction. Our organization is part of a worldwide movement for peace and responsible stewardship of the earth.We currently receive approximately 5,000 used bicycles and tons of used parts each year. We ship about 3,500 of these bikes to economic development projects (micro-enterprise bike businesses, sustainable technology projects, and youth training programs) in South Africa, Ghana, and Guatemala every year. BNB also sends technicians and tools for start-up projects to these same countries. (In the past we have worked in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and El Salvador, and we continue to accept new requests for assistance from projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.) We use the remainder of our collected bikes at our Jamaica Plain Center; some are used in our co-ed youth Earn-A-Bike programs, and others are repaired by teenage mechanics as part of our Vocational Training programs and are for sale in our bike shop. BNB also offers girls-only programs all year round. We operate a full-service bike shop <http://bikesnotbombs.org/?q=bikeshop>, staffed by local teen graduates of BNB training programs and supervised by professional adult bike mechanics. The shop repairs customer bikes, offers hard-to-find used parts and sells new parts, locks, accessories and refurbished bikes with a warranty. Shop specialties include renovated upright-bar 12 speeds, single-speed coasting and fixed-gear bikes,reconditioned mountain and hybrid models of all brands, and higher-end touring and road bikes. We sell frames alone, including used Titanium Merlin frames.The BNB Bicycle Shop and Training Center opened the doors of its new location in February, 2007.

Wish List

Here is our wish list. Please don’t buy any of these things new for us; we prefer cash donations. But if you have any of this stuff lying around and you don’t need it, please consider donating it!

· Clipboards

· Adjustable crescent wrenches

· 3 hole punch

· Tape of all kinds

· Bike hooks

· Bolt cutters

· Engraver

· Metal files

· Magnet

· Markers, scissors, knives (x-acto, utility)

· Torque wrench

· Rust solvent

· Rubber mallet

· Fast orange or other hand cleaner, and a large pump bottle for water (soap bottle style)

· Small wide tub for tube checking

· Extension cords

· Rope

· Metric wrenches of all sizes

· Bike tools/parts

· Old bottom bracket tools

· Cotter puller

· Pegboard pegs

· Phone line/cell phone

· Shop/storage/office space

· Electrical Work (installing lights, outlets)

Special Bike/Part Collection Sep. 22 with SculptCycle

MDCA and FreeRide are collecting used bicycles and bike parts on Saturday,
Sept. 22 from 10am to 1pm. Donations can be dropped off at FreeRide which
is located at 89 Barre St. (the small white building near Hubbard St, next to Fisher Auto Parts). The entrance is in the back. FreeRide will refurbish bikes and bike parts in
good condition into usable transportation. All other donations will be
turned into public art as part of the MDCA SculptCycle project.
SculptCycles are unique sculptures utilizing recycled bicycle parts which
will be on display in downtown Montpelier during Summer/Fall 2008. To
learn more about the SculptCycle project, go to www.SculptCycle.org or
www.mdca.org.

Member Meeting Minutes 8/30

Thanks to everyone who attended this meeting, it was great!

In this email:
- announcements
- updates from teams and projects
- feedback about steering decisions since last meeting
- winter brainstorm ideas

ANNOUNCEMENTS
- VTBikePed Coalition is having their first annual outing on the 15th.
Details here
- A group in Montpelier is commissioning artists to make sculptures from
bike parts to be displayed downtown. More info here (pdf)
- Freeride has an opportunity to use video and editing equipment from a
local organization to make short films. If you are interested, email Colin
- Barre donated a ton of bikes to us. Greg has written up a thankyou
letter, and posted it on our blog
- We need a nicer triangle sign for the rusty wheelie bike, if you are
interested in making this please reply!

UPDATES
- The grant team has put in one proposal (we’ll hear back on the 10th),
and looked into nonprofit status and fiscal sponsorship.
- We are close to having a wholesale account, which means lots of
replacement spokes/brake pads/grip tape/tubes and so on for sale at
reasonable prices to members. It also means tools at wholesale prices for
the shop; reply to this email or note in the shop notebook any tools you
have noticed that the shop needs.

FROM DISCUSSION ON STEERING DECISIONS
(the decisions were to make Wednesday’s shift explicitly for Women and
Trans people, and the begin a work trade system whereby a member could do
8 hours of volunteer work in the shop, then get access to our stock of
unused frames and parts, from which they could get help building a bike)
- Work trade could be promoted more (Future posters, pamphlets, and
informational signs in the shop will reflect this)
- Male bodied, masculine identifying people should know that they will
likely be turned away from Women and Trans night.
- The concern was raised again that with so few shifts, turning anyone
away during any shift is a shame.
- General first and secondhand support for Women and Trans night was
expressed.

FROM BRAINSTORM ON WINTER
- We could set a goal of a ‘grand reopening’ on a certain date.
- It could be a good time to focus on collaboration (or at least
copromotion) with other groups, like Onion River Sports and VTBikePed,
especially how we might fit into the Bike Swap.
- We could plan/start workshops with kids, like Community Connections has
done in the past, teaming up with Community Connections.
- While winter is a good time for us to plan for the spring, we can keep
up momentum with members by offering skill-based workshops (including
mechanics 101), winter biking workshops, spring tune-up workshops, etc.
- We could promote winter biking with posters, zines, and factsheets
- Winter bike rides
- Organize bike collection dates (with sculptcycle, perhaps)
- Rent space out to other groups who could use it (painting, welding,
woodwork, etc.)
- Have other events/presentations/workshops/movie showings dealing with
bike culture, freak bikes
- To cut costs, we can ultra-weatherize the space; be sure to share ideas
you have!
- Part of winter may be a visioning process, asking members if the bike
coops is doing what they want, what else it could do and what it could do
better, etc.

Please share any thoughts you have by email, shop notebook, suggestion
box, or in person to anyone on the steering committee.

Eat those veggies!

Barre bike donation

Early in August, the City of Barre donated more than 40 bikes to our organization. Below is the thank-you note I sent to the city after we collected the bikes.

On behalf of FreeRide Montpelier, I wish to sincerely thank the City of Barre for it’s donation of more than 40 bicycles to our organization. The City’s donation will give us the opportunity to make more bikes available to members of the Central Vermont community. Furthermore, the number of small-frame and BMX bikes in your donation will give us the chance to provide free or reduced rate bicycles to children and young adults — a group of riders we were not able to reach previously because we simply did not have the appropriate inventory.

We hope to continue our relationship with you in the near future. In an effort to reach out to members of the Barre Community, we are interested in fixing up two or three kids bicycles to be donated back to the City. Once the bikes have been overhauled, FreeRide and the City could work together to get the bikes to kids in the Barre area. Our organization has been quite successful in reaching out to members of the Montpelier community. However, we have not had as much success in your city. We hope that that a joint venture between Barre City and FreeRide can help us reach more people who need bicycles or would like to get involved in cycling but do not have the knowledge or the financial resources to get started.

FreeRide Montpelier is a cooperative organization dedicated to making bikes available to individuals for a reduced rate or for free. We also make work space and tools available to individuals interested in learning how to maintain their own bicycles. We encourage community members to join our organization and to dedicate their time and skills, used bikes, or tools to help us reach our goal of making cycling available to as many Vermonters as possible.

And also, while I’m on the subject of bike donations, we have plans in the works for a bike strip-down and rebuild party in the coming month or so. We’ll be announcing a date and time of the party on this site, so stay tuned.