Sibley Bike

End Times for the Grease Pit neighborhood bike shop alleycat party

2006-11-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

d00ds I guess 2:30 at the bench is all you need to know if you do these things on a habitual basis. Bike down and show your support for a community resource for West Bank cyclers. I'll be the one on the single speed Batavus Monte Carlo going really slow and looking lost because I'm a St. Paul boy and I am not hip to the 612. Don't miss it...

Weird Bikes and Collectables

2006-09-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of months We've been shuffling bikes around and found some real gems stashed in the corners of our dead-storage area. In the past stuff has gone in and hasn't seen daylight in years! But most of it's old bikes and frames that just need too much work to turn around quickly and frankly, we haven't had the time or people to do it. These really are project bikes that require someone dedicated to bike restoration; someone who would take their time and scrub every bit of rust off and put in new bearings or at least clean and regrease them. But there is not very many of those people around either. There are some, because I've met a few of them in the British 3-speed crowd. Those are cool old bikes.
Yesterday we just got a pair of 1970's Kalkhoff ten speeds made in "West Germany." The paint is still in pretty good condition but they need some rust removal and new tires and cables. Someone deserves to be riding around on these german bikes. They are oddballs but uniqueness is worth something right? We get a lot of stuff like that in. That's because the Sibley Bike Depot is a bicycle recycler. We recycle bikes and try to get the one's running that we can, and the other one's we scrap and strip off useable parts to be re-used on other bikes. All the bikes are donated to us so we try to make the most out of them and save as many as we can from the dump. So in a way we kind of feel obligated to hold on to the oddballs and collectables because they deserve to be restored. And people need authentic parts for their collectables. Since we see a lot of bikes come through, we are a main front in saving a part of history. On the Lake Pepin 3-speed Tour last Spring there were about 50 British 3-speed nuts riding around Lake Pepin on totally restored bikes. It was very cool and fun. My bike is an 1964 Armstrong. After rebuilding it, it's like a brand new bike and it's almost as old as me! I'm having a lot of fun with it. I've never been into things like this and don't really have a desire to start a bike collection but I am having fun working on some of these old things and restoring them to almost-new condition. I just wish I had more time to do it. haha.

Bicycle Film Festival 24-hour feature film challenge

2006-06-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'll have more to say about the BFF, if I remember, later. The important thing for now is get yourself down to the Bell Museum at 7pm tonight to participate in the 24-hour feature film challenge! Each team films five minutes of a movie, the punchline is, you only know what happens in your five minutes of the plot. Submissions are due at 7pm tomorrow and the Frankenstein's monster of a film will be screened a week later. No word about what size groups they're looking for or whatever, but you have a whole day to wrangle up a crew. Do it.

Scallywags Bike Club

2006-06-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hey, the Scallywags updated their site. They have a bike shop (open now?), what a scrappy bunch. Good new stuff, read about the collapsible tallbike and a trip to the slums of Sao Paulo.

Another Safety Rodeo

2006-06-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Bike Depot volunteers are helping kids at another Bike Safety Rodeo this morning at the Hancock Recreation Center (1610 hubbard ave, st paul). Looks like this one costs a few bucks to attend, but they have a lot of activities planned and I think it's being run by local police officers.

the ghost ride is tonight!

2006-05-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

I'm aware that this is short notice, but tonight (5/17/06), there is a "ghost ride" taking place in Minneapolis. The purpose of the ride is to honor fellow cyclists who have been injured or killed in accidents while raising general awareness to the public.

This ride is taking place in cities across the nation, and the Minneapolis ride begins at 7PM, departing from the small parking lot at the west end of the Stone Arch Bridge. Riders are asked to wear a black armband, and helmets are required. The ride will be done in silence and is approximately 10-12 miles long. I encourage you to head up to downtown Minneapolis this evening to participate in this rolling memorial if at all possible.

A small ride is leaving from the Hiawatha Cyclery (located at 54th St and 42nd Ave in South Mpls) to ride up to the starting point in a group. This pre-ride is departing at 6:15pm.

Bike Safety Rodeo

2006-05-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow at 10:00 AM, volunteers from the Sibley Bike Depot will be helping to set up and run a Bike Safety Rodeo together with The West Side Safe Neighborhood Council. We'll be at St. Matthews at 497 Humboldt Ave. If you live on the West Side, show up with your wee ones and be prepared for cycling FUN. It sounds like there will be cone-dodging, slow-speed races and prices to be handed out, including maybe free bikes? There will also be some bikes and supplies available for sale.

Wednesday night is volunteer night

2006-05-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Come on down and turn a wrench on some donated cycles tonight from 6-8:30 PM. Looks like we might be in for a spot of rain this evening, so pack a poncho in your saddlebag before you head out.

Oh snap!

2006-04-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

Messengers take notice: British 3-Speeds are the next fixed-gear bikes.

"In conclusion I can truthfully say that any cyclist specifying the 3-Speed Gear on his new mount, will wonder, after a short use of it, how he ever managed to derive any pleasure from his old single gear."
Trispede, in "Cycling," 20-4-04.

p.s. the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour is less than a month away. Get your knickers ready.

MN Rollergirls

2006-04-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Uh, also this is kinda wheel-culture oriented. Local derby sweethearts the Minnesota Rollergirls are wrapping up their season with a championship bout Saturday. I'm going to be there tomorrow and you should too. Come out & show your support for alternative sports. Rollerblades good, wiper blades bad.

TCBC Swap Meet tomorrow

2006-04-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot about this place for a little while, if anyone still reads this, you should come to the TCBC Swap tomorrow morning. Here's the poop you need to know:

3rd Annual TCBC Swap Meet

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM on Saturday, April 15, 2006.

We'll be using the downstairs Knight’s Room at the Bloomington Knights of Columbus, located at 1114 American Blvd W, just 2 blocks southwest of REI.

This event is open to the general public.

Spring Break Chaos! Or...Learning Opportunities

2006-04-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today was the start of our Spring Break School classes. I peeked my head in to see how things were going, and it seemed to be going great, only one problem student but they will work it out. Very crazy place right now! haha I'm glad Dave, Bill, Terry and Aaron are teaching it! They are doing a great job! The student's looked like they were learning a lot!

Along with that, the shop is closed to the general public and volunteers during this time. (due to the projects being left out) See our notice on the main site. We'll resume full operations on Monday, April 10th.

Bikes for Sale!

2006-03-30T00:19:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night we actually fullfilled one of our goals! We fixed and delivered about 25 bikes to Macalaster College for a bike sale on Friday! This is a great thing! It provides a lot of benefits to the community; It pulls usable bikes from the waste stream, provides low-cost bikes for those that need low-cost bikes, and provides more funding for our programs.
Tonight we had about 14 volunteers in the shop! It was awesome to see this kind of support and use of the facilities. We are truly becoming a community bicycle resource center! Thanks everyone!

New members work on bikes

2006-03-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy to have our newest members in the shop working on bikes and learning! Tonight Ming-Te learned how to re-cable and adjust his breaks. Seva worked on a couple of bikes and trued up a wheel. Dave was working on a bike he's rebuilding and also took time to regrease a headset. We had fun tonight.

And, finally we had a good planning session on setting our Spring hours. The way it looks now, the Sibley Bike Depot will be open seven days a week starting the week of April 10th! This is very new for us, but it will be very cool. I'll be posting the new hours on the website within the next week.

We still need help getting bikes ready for the Spring Sale, so come on in and help on Wednesday night! Thanks in advance! We can really use the help.

The real danger of running green lights...

2006-03-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

Last night as I was riding home from the board meeting a van with 3 or 4 young guys in it came blasting through a red light and nearly hit me. I had a solid green light which was near the end of it's cycle and they had a solid red light, not in the process of changing from yellow to red or anything. They didn't stop, and when they were about two feet from me, two of them leaned out the window and said, "Faggot!" then they all started laughing hysterically and they sped off. My guess is they were drunk, or just young and foolish, but I preferr to think normal human beings wouldn't act in such an ugly way unless they were under the influence of a mind-altering substance. Just a half a block later there was a cop car facing the other direction, pulled over with it's lights flashing, writing a ticket for another driver.
Being all flustered from my near-death experience, I rode up to the policeman and apologized for interrupting him and I reported the incident. He said he would radio it to his accociates. About five minutes later as I was nearing the top of the hill, the policeman I talked to came zooming past me and turned right at the top of the hill. I can only hope that they found and stopped the young guys that ran the red light. Now I see one of the real dangers of running red lights is who will get hurt by it. Cars are bigger. Even though I have a green light, I can't trust car drivers to keep me safe. Most car drivers are perfectly easy to get along with, but it seems there is always one with a bad attitude. I'm glad I'm alive today.

Wednesday Volunteer Night

2006-03-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, tonight was a great night! We hit a high for the year with 17 people using the shop today!! We've been hovering around 15 as the high for a few weeks, so this is a sign of Spring I think, haha, even though it was starting to snow again!

Also, Ming-te brought a really cool folding Raleigh 20" 3-Speed that he had purchased recently. He was working on that and made some great progress. Very nice old bike!

Also, WELCOME Jon! our Newest member! Thanks for helping tonight and joining!

Star Trib article

2006-03-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Our intrepid President John Carlson was in the paper this weekend. He's too modest to post the link, but I'll do it. It's anybody's guess as to how long that will stay up at their site, so go read it now. Nice headline.

inundated

2006-03-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

We still don't have a good process to deal with what happened today. We got 22 bikes donated to us this morning by various people. Spring is in the air and Spring Cleaning is on people's minds. In fact, this morning I thought, "Hey, it'll be a quiet day at the shop so I should haul those four extra bikes I have in my garage down there." I thought I might get some wrench time in, but it was so busy this morning. I'm just thankful the other volunteers were there to help out. The big Spring Sale is coming soon, so time is of the essence. Anyone want to fix a bike for us? Come on in on Saturday morning next week and we'll have refreshments! Maybe I'll order a pizza for lunch after we work for a couple of hours. Sound fun? We need serious help, haha.

I posted some new links on our Advocacy section in the middle of our main page at: http://www.bikeped.org
The ride looks very cool and they are giving away a trip. Please visit their site and sign up. It would be very cool for me but I'm using all my vacation time for the bikeshop haha.

Also, We are sponsoring Terry Sainio for the Red Ribbon ride, so we'd appreciate your help for him to raise money. The link for that is also listed on our main page. Check it out and come into the Bike Depot and talk to Terry sometime's. He's been a great volunteer here, fixing our bikes and helping people. He still needs sponsors to reach is fundraising goal, so thanks for helping out!

Bike Race Results

2006-03-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Kids win. This morning Mike and I went to a middle school where Jerry teaches. That was fun! We had 6 teams doing a relay race in the schoolyard. Then 45 minutes later it was over and the kids disappeared back into the school. We brought the bikes back to the shop and had breakfast together, very nice!

Another Successful and fun bike event for the Depot! Thanks Mike for your awesome help and thanks Jerry for setting up the whole thing. Your volunteers were great!

Generic Price List

2006-03-07T19:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Bill Sinner, Aaron and Downtown Dave, we now have a generic price list to go by for many of our used parts and some new things. This list has already proven useful on Monday and Wednesday night this week as Volunteers like me and you were able to sell some things and actually know how much they go for. It's really cool! And it makes us more consistant and capable on all shifts! I even typed the list up and printed it! It's on the clipboard in the office. Obviously it's a work in progress, but it's a great start!

Item of the day: Rim Strip $ .50

;-)

Taking a break from all your worries

2006-03-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Lately I don't feel like going to help out at the Depot, but there's probably no better pick-me-up after a long Monday at the office. Yesterday we sold a bike, lock & rack to a customer who was enthusiastic about supporting local shops, and that made me feel good to be there. Wilbur came in with some home-brewed IPA and that made me feel really good to be there (thanks again Wilbur--I thought it was better than Bell's Two Hearted).

It's just like riding a bike; sometimes I don't feel like doing it, but I'm invariably happier after a ride. Some weeks I want to stay home from volunteer night at the Sibley Bike Depot, but I'm always glad I came.

(cross-posted at Sui Generis)

Bikes for Project Connect

2006-03-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Stephen came in and worked on a few bikes for 'Project Connect' which will be raffled off on Monday night at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It's a cool thing they are doing and we are happy to be a small part of it by donating some good reliable recycled transportation for people.

Terry S. and Ying were working on bikes that had problems. It's slow going when you run into things like bent rims and cracked frames.

Our shop was broken into again, and someone went right for the cash drawer, where we no longer keep money. It's sad. Since the last time we were broken into we no longer keep money in the shop. So, they did not know I guess. Now they know. Can it really be worth the small amounts of money they have stolen in the past? We will be forced to improve security even more, which is unfortunate, because that's added expenses.

We helped two individuals today get their main mode of transportation back on the road, for almost no money. It was nice. Roy brought pastries for everyone and I made the coffee and it was a fun time! I just love the new atmosphere brewing at the depot these days. And with Spring on it's way, everyone is getting Spring Fever. Today I was talking with some newcomers about our monthly rides in the summer from the Bike Depot.

Pretty soon now! I'm feeling it in my bones!

Phil and other Friends

2006-03-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

Phil was really drunk tonight when he showed up at the bike shop. I offered him a cup of coffee but he said no, but he wanted a beer. He said he used to be a member and used to come here to true up his wheels. Now his wheels are all bent out of shape. We talked for a bit and then he pointed to a guy in the shop and told me that that was the guy who kicked him out last summer. After we talked for a while Phil went on his way to another bar. As he was leaving I told him, "Take care of youself Phil." And Phil grabbed my hand and shook it, and then held onto it with his other hand and mumbled something. Then he went to the bathroom and left. He was having trouble walking a straight line and talking coherently. And off he went. I don't know if I'll see Phil around again, but I was nice to him, so probably. But Phil is destroying himself. So maybe not.

So the Bike Depot can get to be an interesting place. Tonight Charles and someone else were working on a bike and trying to come up with appropriate parts, when in came a donation bike with a front fork that was destroyed. Somehow it was bent WAY back. And the parts will transfer nicely onto the bike they were working on. It was a Sibley Bike Miracle! Parts arrive at the door at at the appropriate time! Too cool for words!

Hey, Terry S., our BMX'r will be at the Bike Expo Sunday representing the Red Ribbon Ride. We have information on the Expo at the shop and discount coupons, so stop by and pick them up.

Tonight Bill worked hard at improving our general price list, and we set up the bike rental book to get ready for the season.

Reid is working on our bike tags. I'm excited to see the results!

Jackie started sorting parts for us. So we will be blessed by more organization and order. I can hardly stand it! ;-) Order out of chaos is beautiful.

After the shop hours I rode home with one special customer to collect the money for his bike repair. Then I hung out for a while and got to experience his extraordinary child. What a great, gentle little soul this child is! Gentle, Playful, joyful and loves affection.

I couldn't get into the computer tonight because I couldn't remember the password. But it turns out I never knew the new password since it was changed Monday night. Now I know. Neat how that works.

OK. NOW last but not least, we need help fixing up bikes for the Spring Sale! Right away. If you can work on bikes come on in and help us meet our March 26 deadline. 100 bikes is a lot, but we can do it! With your help of course. This sale will help us pay our rent and get our programs kickstarted for the season! Monday night, Wednesday night and Saturday mornings.

A Beautiful Operation

2006-02-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say. And what I see now is a beautiful operation shaping up. There are a lot of things going on, and hardly time to mention everything, but here are a few highlights:

We have new bike safety checklists for every bike to help increase our quality.

We have a new bike-shop-communication book to leave notes for everyone running the shop.

We have a new Board Guidebook set up with Non-profit legal and organizational information to help guide us as we move forward.

We have two functional computers now, soon to be three, for cash register, email checking, web page maintenance, data entry, member login, etc.

We have the same word processing and spreadsheet programs on both computers now.

The shop is looking great! DT Dave called this the 80/20 rule. You don't see the results until at least 80 percent of the work is done. I think this is true. Aaron's work of cleaning and inventory management has finally paid off. Most items are sorted and we are working on pricing things.

We have a new general price list to aid volunteer shop stewards in running the shop. This will provide consistency and efficiency to our organization's sales efforts.

We have several programs going on now, and soon to start up more. In fact, a LOT of things will be starting up in March. March will be awesome! May will be better!

So, I'm excited. Things at the Depot are beginning to heat up. On Wednesday night last week we had 14 volunteers working, for the second week in a row! This is awesome. In the summertime there are as many as 30 people there at once. I know how crazy it gets! The more the merrier though, come on in and help out! It's a lot of fun and we all learn a lot! See you around.

AE Bike Art Show

2006-02-27T07:34:00.000-08:00

I don't really know anything about Altered Aesthetics but you can check this out. Bike-themed art show. It might be cool.

MORE: They're also creating a NE Arts District Bike Map to encourage bicycle traffic during Arts District events and Art Crawls. An admirable project.

Terry Hansen, Data Entry Guru

2006-02-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

Terry was getting excited about the 'auto-complete' feature of the spreadsheet program he was entering things into. Last night the two of us were in the shop working and I wanted to put the shop sign-in sheet into some kind of an electronic file. This seemed the easiest for the moment. Terry was not very computer literate, just learning how to use the mouse and the keys on the keyboard, but he was excited to learn and he did a good job! Terry, thanks for your help! Consider it 'cross-training!'

a broken chain kind of day

2006-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

I won't retell the whole story here since I already wrote about it, but I had an unusual experience on Wednesday while biking through Minnehaha Park. I noticed a child's bike stashed in the woods with a broken chain, so I decided to be a good samaritan and see if I could fix it, figuring it was left behind by the owners after an unexpected breakdown and would be retrieved later. As I mended the chain using the tools I had in my backpack, I met and talked to a man out for a walk. He was interested in my bike and also in what I was doing to the child's bike. We talked for ten or fifteen minutes about several subjects, including the man's old Peugeot at home that he wanted to fix up sometime and I learned that he was a former olympian, having competed with the US speed skating team at the 1968 olympic games in Grenoble, France. The encounter was very unusual for me and a nice reminder that there are still plenty of friendly and caring people out in the world.

Brushing the experience off as an oddity, I made my way over to the bike depot for volunteer night. As I walked up the steps, a man I didn't know was walking his bike up to the depot. It turns out he needed a repair, and the problem was a broken chain of all things! The man and I wheeled the bike inside, flipped it over, and examined what was left of the chain. The break was exactly like the one I had repaired on the child's bike in the park not an hour earlier, and I repaired it in almost exactly the same way and the man was on his way.

I don't see any underlying meaning in the coincidence, but how often do you find and repair two identically broken chains on bikes that don't belong to you in two different cities all within one hour. Uncanny!

We've been very productive at the depot recently. A ton of things have been organized, sorted, moved around, and inventoried. The wall of used tires is in better shape now, many tools have been sorted out, and we even had some people in sorting and bagging used chains that were formerly heaped together in a big bucket. Spring can't be too far around the corner, and we are getting ready in many ways. New plans and opportunities for keeping bikes at the shop and where to store those that aren't at the shop are being worked out, and powerful lights are being assembled for the pedicabs to help them be more visible at night. John's awesome bike shop table is nearly complete, and we scared up a display case to better organize and display smaller items for sale.

Ice Bike races are on for tomorrow, Feb. 11

2006-02-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

From the HPVA website:

As of 8AM Feb. 9 the race is a "Go"
Ice is good except for some cracking.
We will get a crack filling team going, starting about 9AM. Volunteers welcome.

Some representatives from Team Sibley should be there, look for us.

Flying Bearings and other freewheel tricks

2006-02-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight Karl threw one 1/8" loose bearing at me when I told him I was going to blog about them right now. haha. They were taking apart an old freewheel to show someone the guts and they fell all over the floor. 'Wheel' be picking them up for the next year as we find them here and there.

We had 13 people in our shop tonight working on various volunteer projects, from tearing apart old wheels to building up new wheels with old hubs. Terry's still working on his three-speed wheel, and several others were working on bikes for our big Spring Bike Sale! Our goal is a hundred bikes in 5 weeks! You can look for more information about it in the next month. The race is on!

You know it's cool.

Not so boring board meeting!

2006-02-08T01:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight's board of directors meeting was awesome! It was more than just a little chilly in the shop, haha, and my agenda was too long, but we need to get some of these things settled now before the real biking season hits. So I was happy to see every board member show up and have such a great discussion. I'll work harder at keeping the board meetings to 2 hours and stick to what absolutely needs to be accomplished as a board face to face. I think a lot can be done in email, on the phone and in the shop.
Tonight's board meeting though was very encouraging and makes me think that we will have fun this year! YES this should be fun! haha. And I was happy with the way we all had input and everyone's ideas were valued and considered.

Next board meeting is the regularly scheduled second Tuesday of the month, March 14th.

Screwed by a Screwy Recumbent

2006-02-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

So, today at the depot Mike Wheeler (MHPV) stopped by looking for an old hub. He found what he was looking for but we got talking about recumbent bikes and I showed him the new-old bike we got and he said that was one of the 'unrideable' ones with the short wheel base! Wow, so sad. And we were going to use this as a rental bike. Mike told me about another guy who will modify these frames and extend the wheel base, but that's expensive. We'll see. I think we'll build it up and see how it rides first. I don't want to scare anyone away from recumbents though, by trying to rent them a screwy, hard to handle poorly designeed bike!
We'll chalk this one up to a learning experience.

On a good note, Mike is riding in the ice bike races next week. Yes, it's still on and has been rescheduled from last week due to the unseasonably warm weather and water on top of the ice. Hopefully with this colder weather we'll have some good ice covering next Saturday. :-) I'm so excited! Let's play on the ice with bikes! Isn't Minnesota great!?!

Shop sign-in

2006-02-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

So far the new (old) shop sign-in has been working. It will be very useful as we plan our path forward. Everyone that uses the shop should sign in. Since we have many people actually 'running' the shop, and no one person or owner here all the time to track usage, I'm hoping everyone will read this and just automatically sign in when they come in to use the shop. MEMBERS Pay attention to this: We are dedicating one workstation at minimum to your use so no matter how busy we are, you should have a place to work on your own bike using our tools. this is truly a community effort and resource.
If you can't find the sign-in sheet, just ask for it. It'll help us make a better resource for everyone and possibly used to obtain and dedicate more resources in the future. I hope you like the new shop order and policies.

If you sign-in that you were there doing volunteer work, we will be sort of keeping tabs for awards throughout the year or at our annual meeting next year. Prizes are cool huh? More fun reasons to sign-in. haha.

Annual Meeting Success!

2006-01-31T06:51:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we held our Annual Meeting for the MBPA/Sibley Bike Depot. Everyone I talked to said it was a great success and fun! We had a social-hour with pizza and refreshments; the Peace Coffee was a hit! Sorry Spokes for the trouble you are having with your ovens. I love your pizza the most! ;-) Next time.
Then we presented some awards and held our elections. Smooth. Everyone was in high spirits and we now have a new board of 7. Check out our Board members page on our main site for contact information and a little introduction blurb.

So here we go 2006! We're rolling!

Ice Races Postponed: no race today

2006-01-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

The lakes are frozen up solid, but they're covered in standing water from this freakish warm weather thaw. Looks like we may see the race occur in a couple of weeks if we have anything resembling a normal winter between now and then.

Annual Meeting Imminent

2006-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder, tomorrow (January 28) is the MBPA Annual Meeting & pizza feed at the Sibley Bike Depot. Email Stephen to RSVP so we know how much food to order. Dinner bell at 6:00, meeting at 7:00. We won't even force you to stick around that long if you don't want to, but it would be nice of you to stay. See you there.

Snowball's Chance in Hell Formula Ice Race and Snowy Dash for Cold Hard Cash

2006-01-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

The forecast is looking good for the HPVA race this Saturday.

For another chance to ice bike, Surly's hosting a get-together on February 11. See their blog for details.

Bring more pets!

2006-01-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

Some customers brought their adorable bulldog into the shop last night. It was great seeing a dog at the Depot. Hey, if you've got a pet that can accompany you downtown, come on in to the shop and spread the love. I'd like to see more dogs in the shop especially. That's just me, though, I don't know the building policy or anything. Anyway, yeah, more friendly and well-behaved animal visitors, please.

Here's a nice flyer for a bike sale

2006-01-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

Watch out for this man if you're biking in Portland

2006-01-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

He will attack cyclists. Here's the full story. (link via gundog99)

Locking Cabinets

2006-01-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

As part of our effort to get a handle on inventory, Dave, Aaron and I got two tall, shelved locking cabinets for the shop yesterday. This morning I got Bill's help to haul them into the shop. Then later Dave showed up and helped me move the trailer back into the pit so on Monday the building manager can put a big dumpster where our trailer was parked. On Monday Dave, Aaron and I are going to get the locking cabinets in place and actually start an inventory database. It's all part of the NEW, IMPROVED way of doing business so we can better use our resources to carry out our mission.
Then on Monday night volunteer night from 6 to 8:30 pm we are going to try to actually work on some bikes, hehe.

Bizarro-bike

2006-01-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

Fat Cyclist has photos of the Hirondelle Retro-Directe, rocking the two-freehub no-rear-derailleur reverse-pedalling drivetrain system John was talking about earlier. I couldn't visualize it before, but now I see it, it's a thing of beauty. We are totally building one of these for the shop, John.

R.I.P. John Sinibaldi

2006-01-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Mr. Sinibaldi was an Olympic cyclist who kept on riding almost until the end. He died in his sleep on Tuesday.

Sinibaldi almost always rode home after breakfast. That day, he asked his son to drive him home.
"That's when I knew something was really wrong," the younger Sinibaldi said Tuesday.

See also a photo of his bike at the Fixed Gear Gallery.

Wedding Day at the Depot

2006-01-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Tonight at the Sibley Bike Depot a lot was going on. It's almost expected that volunteers need direction on what to do there. I didn't have a plan for specific things to be done but talked to a lot of people about a lot of different things. Many of those people did not know what was going on with the others in the shop. Seva was working on his Tandem bike and gaining experience with wheel bearings, having to repack a front axel and adjust the cones properly. He also trued up his own wheel with the fresh experience he gained by doing the rear wheel on Monday night! Nicole came in for expertise on her grinding bearings in her rear wheel but unfortunately did not find the right person to help her. She's a bike messenger and needs her wheels for transportation. I want to make sure we have the expertise in house when she needs it. That's one of my goals for this year; devolop expertise in our volunteers and staff. It'll take time.
Terry was working on his 3-speed for the Spring Lake Pepin Ride. He's doing good and I can't wait to share this experience with him.
Dave, the shop manager, was in and out, dealing with his own crisis, trying to buy a chainsaw for his own heating needs; I never did talk to him tonight! lol. Nicole could have used his expertise tonight.
Stephen (Board Secretary) showed up with a friend and we talked for a bit about what's going on and what we are doing. They left after a while for a show at the Minnesota History Center. I think Stephen is a great asset to this organization and had some great ideas. We will impliment some of these ideas for sure!
Andrew H. was there with friends working on their bikes. I got his corrected address since our letter for our Annual meeting was returned. It was cool that I was able to hand him the letter that he should have received and corrected his address in the computer.
Tom Started building his new 700c wheel and was off to a good start! Terry was helping him. Dave B. got them started in the right direction before he left and they were building a wheel!
Jerry and I talked about a youth winter-bike activity at his school. In late February we will take about 7 bikes to his school and in about 30 minutes His students will have a drag race through the snow. I think it will be a cool winter activity and promotion of bicycles as a viable winter sport.
Bruce and Jerry made Popcorn. I brought cookies and they were almost gone when we left. It was good snack food and good social activity tonight. If we could have got the coffee maker working properly we would have had good coffee also! But instead we were cleaning up water off the floor!
Jaak, the bicycle artist was here tonight and we talked about collaboration of parts and sorts. He welds guitar sculptures out of old, discarded bike parts. If you want to see his work, it's on display currently at the Old Man River Cafe on Smith Avenue just across the High Bridge and up the hill, corner of Annapolis and Smith.
Andy K, The new checks came, and you weren't here tonight, but just the same, there's bills to pay, but it's ok. I got it all with me. There are changes in the wind and I'm happy you are part of the wind. See you soon.
Tonight I gave out copies of our Annual Letter to all the volunteers that didn't get one yet. Saturday, January 28th, 6pm, be there or be square! But RSvP at stephen@bikeped.org just to make sure we have enough free pizza!
You know we all have to not take ourselves too seriously. This is a cool thing that's going on, and for lacking a plan tonight, we came a long way toward what happens after January 28th! A new year, new faces, good deeds and happy biking! A New Sibley Bike Depot that will have T-shirts again! ;-) Coming soon.

Not on Wednesday

2006-01-10T23:12:00.000-08:00

I ran into Melvin tonight downtown and discovered he has been riding his bike without one pedal! I told him to come by the shop Wednesday night and I'd give him a new pedal. He said, "No, not on Wednesday! W.E.D. It's too close to 'wedding' and I've already been there once, did that!"
Melvin, it's ok. Saturday is fine, especially since you've somehow managed to ride for who knows how long with only one pedal!
Let's do the math on this one:

Local people (friends who ride bikes) + bikes as basic transportation + low cost + convenience (open on Saturday's as well as Wednesdays logically) = Community building!

Melvin gets a pedal and a medal for riding with one foot!

Winter Open hours

2006-01-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

The shop is open for business again, so stop on by at the following times:

Monday Volunteer Night: 6pm - 8:30pm
Wednesday Volunteer Night: 6pm - 8:30pm
Saturday: 10:30am - 1:00pm

The inventive bicycle guy and cardboard recycling

2006-01-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an interesting day at the Sibley Bike Depot. We had a little crisis with someone breaking into our account and stealing from us. That's like stealing from the homeless guy that came in for three replacement spokes who did not have any money to pay for them! But thankfully the damage was not worse than it was and with a lengthy bank visit by our Treasurer deluxe, our account is now secure! I'm happy we have people like this involved in our non-profit group because it means we can still help people replace their spokes and innovate. Which leads me to the other very interesting events at the depot yesterday...
Karl, the inventive bicycle guy became a new member! He had just found us and was totally excited to see what we had going on there. Karl had just completed the most fascinating bike I've seen in a while and was taking it on it's maiden voyage. It was an interesting reincarnation of an old French design, as I'm told, where the bike has two gears, different sizes, with no shifting mechanism! The rider pedals forward to ride in one gear and as the riding becomes more difficult, as in going up hill, the rider simply reverses the direction of pedal rotation and it drives on the easier gear. At first I though this was going to be difficult to get used to but after a few minutes of riding this bike I forgot all about it and it was second nature to pedal backwards! OF COURSE I HAD TO TRY IT OUT!! Who in their right mind would not want to try such a strange and delightful contraption as this! I want to build one for myself now. My single-speed project which has not made it past the collection of parts stage may take a turn for the wierd but interesting. And Karl wasn't deterring me from these thoughts but rather scandalously goading me into being the beginning of a strange trend of dual-spead, reverse-pedaling french-bike-design wielding wierdos. At first glance everyone thinks it's a singlespeed but then the gawking starts. First with the wierd figure-eight chain and then the double rear sprockets, each turning in opposite directions! I'm quite sure I've never seen anything like this before, or even imagined it. Karl will be around more now that he knows about us and loves to work on bikes, so I look forward to seeing his finished design and building some of these myself. Exciting times these are!
But the spectacle gets better! While we were in the shop Tom and I broke down cardboard from the building and stacked a mountain of it on the truss-trailer to haul off to the recycling center on Como. It was a sight to see. It weighed a ton, but according to Tom not as much as one of our pedicabs loaded down with five people! So around 1:15pm after the shop closed, the three of us, Tom pulling a mound of cardboard behind him, Karl on his dual-speed, reverse pedalling circus bike and I, on my Schwinn Suburban commuter bike, rode off together to the recycling center. Since Tom had a bit of a load to haul, we let him lead us. I told him the general location of the recycling center and off he went. Sometimes standing and bearing down on his pedals, he strained but managed to keep a fairly decent pace. We had a few cars honk at us and wave, with one thumbs up I saw. Very cool. We did it and the ride back was almost giddy from the lightened load and the feeling that we just did something special we've never done before, indeed like something few of us would have imagined doing, like going on an adventure and returning as heros. Somehow the experience changed us all a little and it was good. It reminds me of the time Andrew and I hauled a pile of scrap bikes out of the woods to be recycled. It gets you right here, you know! Now I'm getting all teary-eyed and sentimental.
On another note, Karl had homemade studded tires and plans on doing the Human Powered Vehicle Association ice-races on January 28th. I'll be there too. It will be another cool adventure in January! What more could we ask for!?

Inventory (out of) control

2006-01-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Every time I go into the shop now, I see exciting new changes. I see inventory being inventoried and spaces being cleared and cleaned up. It's a big challenge, but Aaron is doing a great job. Even though we are on winter hours now, everyone who has come into the shop is noticing also. Change is good! Especially when it brings a clean, fresh feeling with it. With better inventory control and a cleaner, more organized shop, this Spring we can focus on our Earn-a-bike program, teaching classes, and all the other great programs we do. Thanks to Aaron I am seeing progress on the process I started this summer and I'm excited about the arrival of Spring and expanding back to our daytime hours. It feels good do do some Spring cleaning in January! If you've been in the shop before, you'll love it too.

R.I.P. Isai Mendina

2006-01-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

A Chicago Rat Patrol member was hit by a car and killed while standing on the sidewalk with his bike.

Critical Mass

2006-01-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

Minneapolis Critical Mass Ride this Friday, January 6, 2006.
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Meet at Loring Park in Minneapolis at 5 p.m. to ride at about 5:30.

Annual letters

2006-01-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

Our yearly mailing is going out tomorrow, so if you're a member or we got a hold of your address somehow, then you can be watching your mailbox for that.

Who Wants a Moustache Ride

2005-12-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

As if there wasn't enough going on this weekend... make sure you come to our meeting though. Link via the Surly blog. Also check out photos of the unsupported Pugsley tour through Australia... incredible.

15th Annual Ice Bike Races

2005-12-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

It all goes down one month from today. Click for details. You can race and still make it to our annual meeting that day, so go for it.

Annual meeting in January

2005-12-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

The MBPA annual meeting will be held on January 28th. Mark your calendars. We'll probably get the party started around 6:00. Free food provided by Spokes Pizza and a chance to vote for new board members, how exciting! More details/corrections to follow.

Happy Christmas

2005-12-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

We got you melting snow cleared streets and seriously mild weather to ease your winter bike commute. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Going to the Depot

2005-12-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

When I'm away from the Depot
my heart stops and I find myself
missing the cool and funky people
who prove every day that
it's not about bikes or wealth.

What a great time to start a blog

2005-12-21T07:44:00.000-08:00

We got a new year starting and the winter riders out in full force. Someone donated a tallbike frame and a new unicycle, so I have projects to last me all winter. Watch this space for more detail. Welcome to the Depot blog.

Shop closed for holidays

2005-12-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

We're not open for the next couple weeks. See you January. Stay toasty.