The P2P mobile bike shop was at AM Cannon on Saturday for the West Central Neighbor Days doing Free Bike Tune-Ups. I wasn’t there, but it sounded like a success. We fixed up about 40 bikes and even got a few donations.

The volunteers: Stuart, Mike, Ben, Beth, Noah, Hank, Jeff, and Charlie.

Mr FBC blogged about here. And Mr Gigowiz blogged on it here.

Hank took a bunch of pics. I put a few here.

This is the first free bike tune-up that I was not at. We were also missing Ken and Liza.

As we build this organization, it’s stuff like this that is really satisfying — to pull off a good event like this while a core chunk of our volunteers are away — and still have it be a success.

Next up. BTW week in mid-May. We need to schedule out our June and July Free Bike Tune-Ups too.

You can see our other up-coming events at our projects page.

(Photos: Michael Conely)

This was banner weekend for P2P.

On Saturday, our superhero volunteer Ken masterminded a garage sale. I doubted him. I shall never doubt again. We started with about 20 bikes: all of them single speeds or 3-speeds. Over the last couple weeks our volunteers have been learning how to clean and repack bearings on these bikes. Therefore, most of the adult bikes had fresh bottom brackets, hubs, and headsets. Our garage sale opened at 10 am. By 10:30, all but 3 or 4 of the bikes were gone. Crazy.

(photos: Superhero)

Sunday, we had the Paris-Roubaix celebration. It was crazy wonderful. We absolutely packed Benniditos to the gills. There were many bikes and many bike people. It was really great. I also got to have my first beer since New Year’s Eve. That was really great too.

Klay took some nice pics and posted them here. She also posted some of Micheal Conely’s pics here.

(crappy phone photos: John)

I don’t know what we ended up raising for the Paris-Roubaix thing yet, but between the two, I think we’ll come out with a good chunk of change.

This will go straight to our 501(c)(3) fund. In fact, Liza officially registered P2P’s articles of incorporation with the State of WA today. Next step: hand over our huge pile of 1023 paperwork to our lawyers. If all goes well we should have it off to the IRS by mid-May.

We’re having a quick garage sale this Saturday.

When: Sat, April 19th
Time: from 10 am to 2 PM
Where: at our donated garage space on the south hill. The detached garage is located in the alley behind the house at 4218 S Garfield.

PLEASE – Don’t go knocking on the door of the house. Go through the alley between Scott and Garfield: this is a donated space. We don’t want to disturb the owners of the house.

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We have a bunch of vintage single speed, 3-speed, and kid bikes (think ape-hangers and banana seats) that we need to clear out. None of these are super sweet collectors, but they’re great for tooling around the neighborhood and cruising the Centennial Trail.

On many of the adult bikes, and a few of the kid bikes, we’ve cleaned and repacked the bottom brackets, headsets, and hubs.

All bikes sold as-is.

Our goal is to get you riding, so we’re selling these cheap: $5-$40. And half-price on most at 1pm. All offers considered. Cash only.

Rain or shine we’ll be there at 10 AM.

Please don’t show up early. There is no ebay fodder here.

pedals2people will do a short presentation at REI this sunday at 12: your basic slide show in power point format. don’t worry. i’ll keep it short and sweet. i’ll give some dates for our upcoming events, like the P2P annual yard sale where we’ll be selling some surplus parts and bikes. i’ll also have patches for sale. they’re pretty cool.

REI will host a ride at 11am through Riverfront and down the trail, and there are lots of other presentations scheduled for this sunday’s Cycle Fest.

if you’re on your bike cruising around in the predicted 65 degree weather (wow!), stop by for a free bike check-up.

*art credit to andy singer*

(Go here to open pdf/printable version of this picture in a new window. Print a flyer and hang one in your neighborhood!)

This is an idea we’ve been thinking about for a while: how do we get a bunch of cyclists to go and hang out on a Sunday afternoon.

The idea struck when Taylor posted a YouTube video of Paris-Roubaix 1986 finish at the EPM blog.

While we’re not big race fans, the idea of Paris-Roubaix has always had a draw: it’s a one-day race along the cobblestone back roads of France. It’s a brutal race. Something like 135 cyclists started the race last year and around 40 ended up finishing. It’s often muddy, lots of flat tires, and the finish is always exciting.

Chris, up at Benniditos, has agreed to show this race for us on his fancy new big TVs on April 20th, when the race airs.

The idea is to get as many people on bikes to Benniditos as we can. The pizza, beer, and race is a generic draw to get cyclist there. But really, we’re looking forward to hanging out with the wide variety of bike folks that we run into. Think of it as a Bike Summit.

There’s no cover charge or any fee. Just order lots of beer and pizza and if Chris does well, he’ll donate a chunk to P2P.

You are encouraged to gather your friends and take a ride along some cobble stone (from downtown, take Jefferson,then Adams up the south hill to meet this requirement) and be at Benniditos by 1PM.

When that’s done,go home and take a nap, or save some energy for the monthly FBC ride, which is also happening on April 20th.

A great bike day through and through.

This bike is a Bruce Gordon. On the quality bike scale, Bruce Gordon bikes are way up there. This bike was donated to to P2P about a week ago.

If you know bikes and you know how special Bruce Gordon bikes are, you’d probably assume that the guy who donated this to us was an eccentric millionaire that just got tired of his bike. The fact is, this bike was donated to us by a bike mechanic from REI. He’s one of those monk-type dudes that just live super simply. This was his main ride for the last couple years. He recently picked up a Marin. He moved all the parts that were on this bike onto the Marin, and put all the Marin parts onto the Bruce Gordon.

We’ll likely strip the bike down and sell the frame set + front Bruce Gordon rack (likely the best production front low rider rack around) as a set. The components don’t really match the frame quality-wise, so a person that would buy the frame would likely ditch the components anyway. We can use the new components on other bikes in our shop.

To the guy the donated this bike: thanks.

Hopefully this bike will help pay for a good chunk of our 501(c)(3) application process, which may not sound so sexy, but it is the most important short term step to P2P’s long-term financial security.

This is a public apology to a guy we angered. His anger is not without merit.

Through no ill-will or bad intent, he became the target of jokes at P2P — simply because he got a good deal on a used bike part at the P2P garage. That’s the extent of his action here. Through shop talk and working on bikes and fussing and bs’ing, the deal he got became blown into a unkind and unfair attack on him, a guy we barely know.

I (John) am ultimately to blame for this.

Tonight, the episode culminated into a confrontation that I perpetuated.

That sucks. And I’m sorry.

But I also am indebted to this guy for calling me and P2P out on this. He called me an elitist.

As is often the case when your called out, and called out honestly, you are defensive. It took me the ride home to realize that his charge certainly has an element of truth. Actually it took me a couple blocks to see that, and the rest of the ride to think about what to do.

I’m not 100% sure what to do with this information yet. But I do know, after listening to him tonight that he loves bikes. And if our goal is to get as many folks on bikes as we can, then alienating the people that already love bikes will not get us very far with our goal.

We can not have an attitude or perception of exclusion. We must fix this.

Contact: Liza Mattana, Pedals 2 People board president; pedals2people@gmail.com; (509-456-4681)

Event Date: Sat March 22^nd; 10am-3pm

Place: Ron’s Drive In, 12502 E. Sprague, Spokane Valley

Pedals 2 People (P2P) will be accepting adult bike donations at Ron’s Drive In in the Spokane Valley on Saturday March 22^nd, from 10am-3pm.

Pedals 2 People is accepting adult bikes in repairable condition for our spring and summer programs.

Important: At this time, we are not accepting children’s bike donations.

Donated bikes will go to one of the following programs:

• Village Bike Project: P2P has partnered with the Village Bike Project to ship over 400 surplus bikes from the Spokane region to Ghana, Africa. Our goal is to ship in September.
• Commuter bikes: some bikes are refurbished by P2P volunteers and sold at reduced/subsidized rates to folks that cannot otherwise afford high-quality commuter bikes.
• Fundraising: some bikes are sold to fund other P2P projects, such as free neighborhood tune-ups and other out-reach events.

Bike Donations are also accepted at the P2P garage every Monday/Wednesday night from 6-8 pm. For directions to the P2P garage contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com, or you can call us at 509-842-6597.

Next Drop-off Event: West Central Community Center, April 26^th.

About Village Bike Project: Village Bicycle Project came about in response to a critical lack of basic reliable, affordable transport for millions of Africans. When the only other choice is walking, bicycles are a tool of development,improving access to farms,market, jobs, schools, and health care.

The project started in Ghana in 1999, when David Peckham (Director)) went there to study ways to make bicycles more accessible. He found several ways to make a real difference and the Village Bicycle Project was born.

More information about Village Bike Project can be found at http://www.pcei.org/vbp/

About Pedals to People: Our mission is to use the bicycle as a tool to empower people and build healthier communities. We believe that the bicycle is an approachable, healthy and sustainable option for transportation, and most importantly, it provides a purely enjoyable activity that can strengthen bonds between people. Pedals 2 People also works to connect with other organizations in order to further extend its ability to recycle, reuse and rehabilitate bicycles back into local communities as well as communities abroad.

Contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com for more information. Or you can call us at 509-842-6597.

Further information about Pedals 2 People can be found at http://www.pedals2people.org

A quick run down of what’s cooking:

• We’re doing a bike donation drop off for the valley at Ron’s Drive in on Sprague. If you have an adult bike to donate and you live in the valley and you don’t want to make the long haul up to the south hill, then stop by Ron’s Drive In (12502 E. Sprague) on Sat, March 22nd from 10-3. Please bring adult bikes that are repairable. We can’t take kid’s bikes at the moment.

• Our first Free Bike Tune Up is going to be April 26th at the West Central Community Center. The tune up event is part of a broader bike rodeo being run by Bob Lutz (the BAB one, not the GM knucklehead), which in turn, is part of a broader event that apparenlty happens once a year at AM Cannon Park. More info on that is forthcoming.

• Garage is open Mon/Weds nights for bike donation drop offs, some limited DIY fixing, and building of beaters. Contact us at pedals2people@gmail.com for info on where the garage is and how to get involved.

• We have a phone! And a phone a number: 509-842-6597. Call and leave a message.

• We’ve got a reworked website on the way. Cool.

We’ve got some stuff in the works; we’re looking at bike tune up events in Hillyard and East Central this summer — we want to tie them to other events that are happening in those neighborhoods. More on that soon. Bike to Work week is coming; we’ll be doing bike triage/minor repairs for that. We’re working on a food fundraiser with Apple Charlotte Cooking Co for June 22nd. Stay tuned for more on that. Our calendar is up to date.