Group Helps You Fix Your Bike For Free

Group Helps You Fix Your Bike For Free

Posted: 8:48 PM Mar 11, 2009 Last Updated: 11:13 PM Mar 11, 2009 Reporter: Mary Rinzel with Photographer Duane Wolter Email Address: mary.rinzel@weau.com Recycled Rides

A | A | A It might now be the best day to break out your bike, but if you have a broken bike we have the answer. Whether you want to fix it for free or just get it out of your garage, a community project is riding to the rescue. It's a project designed to encourage biking, give bikes to people who can't afford them, and keep busted bikes out of landfills. Don't be fooled by the one little bike propped by the door because inside the building behind it, deep in a dimly lit basement, is a mountain of tires, chains, handlebars and pedals. Amidst the parts are the guys working to put them all back together again. "People don't expect this huge pile of bikes," says Kyle Zander. "People who are cleaning out their garages where bikes are collecting rust and dust (can give them to us) and we're fixing them up and giving them to people who need bikes." "Anything is accepted and appreciated," says Zac Barnes. "The best part is testing out the bike once you've really worked on a bike!" Barnes and Zander are a part of E.C. Bikes, the informal group behind the Banbury Bike Project. It all started last fall when UW-Eau Claire donated a bunch of rusty bikes abandoned at the dorms. Six months later, the group has given out dozens to people who can't afford to buy their own. "It's amazing to see what the community can do when we get together and work toward the same cause," Zander says. The project has since turned into a community work shop of sorts; a place to fix a donated bike or use plenty of extra parts to get your own bike ready to ride. "Come on down,” Zander says. “Bring tools if you got them. Bring a bike if you have one and we'll crank out some bikes together!” The guys have a workshop this Saturday (3/14) from noon to 5 p.m. at Banbury Place in building 17 off of Galloway St. Everyone is welcome. They say they can always use extra tools--as a donation or just to use for the day. For more information on some other upcoming events and how you can donate a bike CLICK HERE, e-mail EauClaireBikes@gmail.com or call Dan Green at (715) 497-7359.

Workshop pot luck and kubb 3/14 from Noon-5

The Banbury Bike Project will be hosting another workshop this Saturday March 14th from 12 - 5pm at The Banbury Place in Building 17. We'll have food, bike games and kubb! Bring your bike, something to share, some tools and a friend!

We will be fixing up bikes for the Eau Claire Community Earth Day Celebration on April 25th at Owen Park. At the Earth Day Celebration we will be holding a bike auction/ adoption, bike valet with free minor tune ups, and recruit donations of bikes, parts, and tools. Let me know if you would like to volunteer with us on April 25th - we are going to need plenty of help!

Tour de Farm

here's an amazing fun activity we can work towards this summer... partnerships with the foodlums to have an great event for those volunteers that help us out, for those folks with new bikes, for community gathering and dining in general!

A series of dinners from June to October sure would be beautiful!

We Are All Mechanics

About Us
We Are All Mechanics (WAAM) began in 2003 as the joint vision of Ali Dwyer and India Viola. We set out to share our love of bicycles and technical knowledge with other women in our community.
Our series consists of four 90-minute class sessions and covers basic routine maintenance. Topics range from how to fix a flat tire, to brake and derailleur adjustments, chain cleaning, and bearing adjustments. The classes take place within the repair area of a bicycle shop, and provide an insiders look at the mechanics’ work area. Our classes are kept small, with a low student-to-teacher ratio and emphasize a hands-on approach to learning. Students get a chance to ask questions about their bicycles in a relaxed and fun learning environment.
After completing our classes, students report feeling greater independence when riding their bicycles as well as a sense of empowerment when approaching bicycle repairs at home or in the shop.
Through our ongoing class series, clinics, and rides, WAAM promotes continued learning among cyclists in the Madison community.

We Are All Mechanics
Madison, WI
info@WeAreAllMechanics.com
www.WeAreAllMechanics.com

Freewheel Community Bicycle Workshop

http://free.mildmedia.net/

Madison, WI

FreeWheel is a community bicycle workshop run by volunteers with a range of bicycle skills. During our open shop hours anyone can come and participate. You can bring your bike and repair it or tune it up using tools and parts from the shop. You can build a whole bike from scratch and get help from the volunteers. You can be a volunteer and help someone less-knowledgeable with their bike, or teach someone the skills you just learned, or just help organize. FreeWheel accepts bikes, bike parts, tools, supplies (lubricants, patch kits, etc.), and monetary donations. Our general rule of thumb, besides maintaining respectfulness, is:Give what you feel you owe.If you can't afford a donation (and we know not everyone can), then put in some time helping out, cleaning up, or even just baking some cookies is nice. Happy biking!

Minneapolis Bike Share

Minneapolis's bike-sharing program just needs federal funds
Bike program could benefit collective health and economy

By Bradley Campbell for the Twin Cities' City Pages

Published on February 16, 2009 at 4:38pm

As a college student jerks at the handlebars of a bike, a metal clank echoes in the back parking lot of Coffman Memorial Union, followed by a pleasant chirp, letting the student know he's free to pull the bike from its docking stand. The student smiles, places his backpack on a front rack, and pedals around the vacant strip of road. A built-in light illuminates his path. He clicks through three gears and picks up speed. A small group watches him, waiting for their turn to do the same.

Minneapolis plans to use BIXI, which is billed as the most innovative and sturdy bike-share system in the world

All are here to test the proposed Minneapolis bike-sharing program, an ambitious plan that could be a benefit to our collective health and economy—but only if it receives federal funding.
Among those watching is Bill Dossett, a volunteer with Nice Ride Minnesota, the nonprofit that would run the bike-sharing program. He smiles as the student pedals around. Transit for Livable Communities, the local nonprofit tasked with allocating the federal funds, meets on March 3 to determine the fate of bike sharing in Minneapolis. If everything goes well, Dossett will be smiling for years to come.

Under the program, 1,000 bikes would be placed at 75 kiosks throughout the city. Folks could purchase a season pass (for about $50 annually) and check out a bike anytime they want and return it at any kiosk they choose. The first 30 minutes are free; more time costs cash. For visitors, day passes are available. It'd be open from April through November, with the goal of turning skyway prowlers into pedal pushers and getting them into the streets, where strained businesses would welcome the traffic.

"It absolutely increases the vitality of downtown, helps out mom-and-pop shops, and benefits the health of the employees," says Andrew Rankin, a Projects and Programs Specialist for Downtown TMO. "It will be something that changes mobility for a lot of people."

The city's proposed bike-share program grew from the yellow-bike systems of the '80s and '90s and, more recently, the Paris Velib program in France. But designers of the local program only took what worked and left out what didn't. For example, while Paris installed the kiosks directly into their streets, the Minneapolis kiosks are movable and can be repositioned as needed. That keeps costs down and operations running when the inevitable construction project comes along.
Detractors of the program cite theft and vandalism as their top concerns, and for good reason: This is what destroyed the yellow bikes. In Paris, the Velib program, after a miraculous start, has seen almost half its bike fleet damaged or stolen.

But here is where numbers, business models, and direct comparisons break down. Minneapolis is no Paris. "A better comparison is the French city of Lyon," says Dossett. "This city only saw 153 bikes stolen in their first year, 5 percent of their fleet. We're prepared for a 10 percent theft rate. When you compare crime rates, we're more like Lyon than Paris."

Minneapolis also plans to use a beefed-up bike that is more resistant to abuse. Time magazine listed the bikes and kiosks as the 19th best invention of 2008, just behind the New Mars Rover.
And they look fly when pedaled in dress pants. Which is the point. These bikes are for folks who don't normally ride. They're built with business suits in mind, and the hope is to change the bicycling culture of the city.

"We want bicycling to be a mainstream activity," says Nick Mason, the point man for Dero Bike Rack Company. "It's a question of how you take it to the next level. You can spend hundreds of millions on infrastructure, which is important, but nothing has the potential to shift mode share as quickly as a successful bike sharing program."

Think of it as Field of Dreams in reverse: If they come, you'll have the support to build it.
The perfect example of this is Councilwoman Betsy Hodges. She represents the West Calhoun/Linden Hills area and describes herself as a timid rider. Last year, she took the opportunity to ride a bicycle downtown, and whatever she experienced, be it the freedom of movement or the way a downtown opens up from behind a set of handlebars, she enjoyed it.
"Yes, I am an ardent advocate," says Hodges. "I think it is an innovative program. It extends and deepens our capacity to increase bicycle use while decreasing car use. If it would happen, it would be great."

While European cities have two types of mayors—those who have a bike-sharing program and those who want one—mayors here are still racing to launch the first large-scale program in the United States.

Paul DeMaio runs the Bike Sharing Blog out of Washington, D.C. He believes the genius of the Minneapolis bike-share program is that a nonprofit will run it. This is critical, because if there is one unifying theme among Americans, it's our undying love of lawsuits. "By having a nonprofit run the program, it doesn't place the liability on the local government," says DeMaio. " Europe did it their way. But Minneapolis is doing it to fit within the fabric of our culture."

But the fabric cannot change without federal support. The bike-share program is currently fighting for $1.75 million of transportation-program funding. If they don't get it, the program is DOA.

"The 1,000-bike program is approximately the minimum size needed for success," says Dossett. "You can't achieve it with a smaller system."

Saturday 1pm

Satuday (2-7-09) we'll be down at the Banbury tinkering with bikes. Come on down. Bring your tools, air pumps, and a friend!

See ya Saturday