Ayamye is the documentary about the Village Bike Project:

In Ghana, West Africa, a rural village eagerly awaits a shipment of recycled bicycles from the United States. Inspiring, determined, resourceful, individuals let us into their daily lives in a dramatic look at how lack of transportation can impact the education, health and livelihood of the community.

This is a great film and shows the incredible impact bicycles have on families and local economies of rural Africa. Well worth loading up and carpooling over to CdA to view.

When: Thursday Jan 17th; 7 PM

Where: NIC Meyer Health and Science Bldg, Room #106.

Sponsored by Doma; NIC; Vertical Earth; and Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute.

We’ve got a great space up on the south hill. It’s great because it’s free and secure and big enough. But it’s just so far away from the center of town that it makes it hard to get to by bike. We really want a DIY shop in a more central location. I love this building downtown:

It’s in the alley between Lincoln and Monroe and 1st and 2nd. One of those old garages would be ideal. The place looks empty. But judging by the shape the building is in, it’s likely condemned and would require a bunch of improvements… but maybe not?

The idea with a DIY shop would be to have a small shop where folks could come in and rent a space to fix their bike. Rental would be by the hour and would allow you to put your bike up in a stand and use the tools. You do the work.

A space more centrally located would also make it easier for people to get to our bike maintenance classes and provide a better place for bike donation drop offs.

A comment on comments

We had to turn the comments off because the spam was getting overwhelming. This is free software. I think with an upgrade we can get some “prove your not a robot” functionality which would all but eliminate spam comments. Or we could go to blogspot. You can contact us by hitting the contact link on the right or by emailing us at pedals2people@gmail.com.

Check it out.

to fall is inevitable if you ride a bike.

Item #1 — Just a reminder: P2P Garage is only open Weds nights (6-8 pm) until March. Our first Weds of the year will be Jan 9th.

We are still taking bike donations. Info on bike donations here.

Calendar is here.

Item #2 — We are in the midst of planning the Spring/Summer Free Bike Tune Up events. We’ll be doing 4 events + the Spokane Bike To Work bike inspections/triage.

The four neighborhoods on the short list for bike tune up events are:

– East Central (Jacob’s Well)

– Perry District (The Shop)

– Hillyard (North East Community Center)

– Logan (TBD)

These are fun events for P2P volunteers. We load up the tools and parts, get our little mobile shop set up and get bikes going. Not sure on dates yet, we’ll be figuring that out.

Some stuff

• Garage night schedule This Weds (tomorrow, Dec 19th) will be the last garage night of the year. We’ll be starting up again in Jan on Weds nights only. In March, our goal is 3 nights a week.

• The Scoop Photo Show The photos look great. All up, we got about 60 submissions; so far we’ve sold a handful. If you are kicking yourself for not submitting, then we’ll take a few more, but you must print them at 8×10 and bring them by the Scoop at 25th and Monroe.

• Free Bike Tune Ups We need to start planning our free bike tune ups for next year. The plan is one a month (March – Sept) in different parts of the city. We’re looking for under served folks, especially kids that can’t otherwise afford to get their bikes fixed up. If you have an area/organization/spot where you think we should be, email John at johnspeare@gmail.com.

• Organizational Goo We’ve been getting through the paperwork to prepare us for the 501(c)(3); we’ve talked to an attorney about liability; we’ve put in for some quotes for liability insurance; we’ve created articles of incorporation and bylaws; we’ve stared at a blank sheet of paper that should be a business plan. This is the stuff that none of us wants to do. The expense and overhead of dealing with the back office stuff is just hugely time consuming. We’re now going back to the idea of seeking out an umbrella org to work under; or in non-profit-speak, we are seeking Fiscal Sponsorship — ahem.

• Spring Dream A while back we posted the plan. As I read that now, I really like the Phase 1 stuff. It’s really what we want to be. The only change to that is that we’d like to get a space closer to downtown. Our donated garage is so sweet and so perfect a space. It’s the right size, it’s got everything we need, but it’s too far from the core of the city. We would love to find a space closer in; if we found that then the only change to our Phase 1 plan would be to add a “DIY” component to our program,where folks could come in and rent a workbench and do their own bike work.

This concept relies,obviously, on a space 1st, but it also relies on building up a strong core of volunteers that can staff a shop. We’re getting there. We’ve got some really good folks showing up regularly and who are skilled in different ways — some are bike wrenchy types, some are people people, some are just hard, autonomous workers. I think we’ll have enough folks to do at least 3 nights a week in the Spring and who knows, maybe a part of a weekend day too.

• Village Bike Project We finally sucked up and bought a trailer for P2P. This will allow us to stack bikes and do small runs out to Mountain Gear HQ without relying on guys with big trucks. We’ll likely do another push for bikes in Feb or so; at that point it would be great to be able to pick up bikes for some of the folks that call, so if you are a guy or a gal with a little truck and could do one run a month for us, we’d take it. Right now we have about 50 bikes at Mountain Gear and our goal is 500 by the end of the next summer. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.

• Bike To Work Week Our big outreach event this year is going to be the Bike to Work Week event. Last year we did the KHQ Kid’s Bike deal. The Bike to Work event is right up our alley: it’s all about getting folks that might otherwise not ride a bike past the hump, and on a bike getting to work. We’ll be doing some kind of pre-week events where we help triage bikes and fix minor issues. We also plan to be out in the field on one or two days during the week to fix issues, hand out scones, etc to commuters.

what a great shot!

this is nick thresher’s work. nick sent us 20 amazing pictures for the P2P/Scoop Photography show, and i still have to decide which 2 to enter. because of space limitations, we’ve only accepted 2 entries per person. so, i keep looking at the photos he sent today, trying to decide which to include. they’re all so clean, perfectly framed, and potent. he captures not just the moment, but the apex of the moment with his camera. dang!

the show will run from december 9th thru january 31st, and the scoop is hosting an opening this sunday from 12-2. come join us if you can.

Our Scoop Photo event is closing in on us. Go here for more info and the rules.

So far we’ve got about 25 photos. They’re all great. You can view the digital ones here. I need to scan some others.

The last day to submit is Dec 3rd.

As for the calendar: we’ve not yet had a desk top publisher type fall out of the sky yet, but we are hopeful.

It’s an official P2P program now. Jason was the first. Now we have another guy on deck.

The purpose of the Build a Beater program is to provide a relatively cheap bicycle to people that are willing to build up their own bike out of surplus bits from the P2P boneyard and stash piles. The idea is to build a bike that is “good enough” for basic transport: single speeds, fixed gears, city bikes, etc.

You should have some basic mechanical/bikey skills. As a beater builder, you’re expected to be pretty autonomous in your work. That said, you should ask questions and get some guidance if you’re unsure of stuff. The end goal here is to get you riding your bike.

Here are the ground rules:

• Before you do anything, you must sign a standard liability waiver
• You must pay $50 before starting to build. This fee can be reduced if you’re broke. If you decide not to finish, we’ll refund your money.
• You can use pretty much any components that are not attached to other bikes in the shop. There are a few components/bits that are fancy and shouldn’t go on beaters. If you are not sure, ask a P2P volunteer. If we don’t have a component (single freewheels, fixed cogs, etc) that you want in the garage, then you must supply it.
• Typically,the only new bits on the bike are brake/derailleur cables and housing. Everything else is used.
• You are welcome to use any tools in the shop to finish your build.
• Please try to finish your build w/in a month. We only have one beater builder in the shop at a time,so try to finish up so the next person can begin building.
• You can only build/work on the bike during normal shop hours: M/W nights 6-8 pm.

this is the entrance at city yoga on the hill. katie gehn keeps the studio simple and peaceful. she maintains a quiet space for yoga students. she gently guides students through her classes, offers alternatives for those of us who need to take it easy, and then she leaves some quiet time for your mind to wander and for your body to sink into the poses. less experienced teachers tend to fill the silent spaces with chatter, telling you what you should be feeling, counting out every breath, explaining how your fingers should be spread out, etc, etc. katie, like all great teachers, gives you the necessary information and then steps back to let the learning happen. she trusts her students and allows them the freedom to explore and learn for themselves.

many thanks to katie for inviting us to share our stories and for offering to share her peaceful space. pedals2people collected 10 donated bikes, and we met some interested future volunteers!