village bicycle project (VBP), based in moscow, idaho, works within a larger nonprofit organization that centers around environmental issues. VBP focuses on shipping used bikes and new tools to ghana, africa. they also teach basic bike maintenance to the ghanians so they can keep their new wheels turning. jon snyder of outthere monthly did an interview with VBPs director, david peckham. read the article here.

an inspiring article. one, for the fact that VBPs approach is very organic. in peckham’s own words, they didn’t start with a “set idea.” their plan has changed, and they remained flexible and open to that reality. they look at the problems facing the people of ghana, and they work to find solutions. or as peckham states, “it has all been lessons.” two, VBP moves away from the old school (“multi-lateral plan backed by big money”) approach to development. working with people and not simply using big money to solve the issues.

i wish i could be here to talk to peckham when he’s in spokane for the screening of the VBP documentary,Ayamye. ken and mike will have the opportunity to talk with him instead (luckies!) i hope they glean more wise words and lessons for P2P. and i hope the film gets a good turnout,Saturday, September 15, at the Magic Lantern Theater, 7 PM.

wheelbuilding is a lot like knitting or weaving. you pick a pattern, chose your materials, do your thing, carefully and repeatedly, in a sequence of steps, and you have a beautiful piece of handiwork when you’re done. wheelbuilding, like knitting, is truly difficult for me. it has never been easy. not since the first time i learned, with my husband trying to help me comprehend Sheldon Brown’s instructions, to this last time, with mismatched nipple sizes and an offset rim, augh!

when i build wheels i always get my UBI manual out,so i can reference it when i get lost. i usually make a careless mistake. i typically take more than 2 hours to lace,true and tension a wheel. even though frustrating and time consuming, the result is so awesome and so worth it. it’s damn near perfect when i’m finished, and i love it. it’s unique, strong and true.

the learning is slow (so slow!!!), but the only way to get better at wheelbuilding is to build wheels, over and over again. it’s true of most things in life that take time and are worthwhile. if it were easy, would i still appreciate it or keep trying like i do? probably not : )

latest wheels: Velocity Synergy 650b rims, Shimano Dynamo (front), Shimano 105 (rear) hubs, DT Swiss 15g spokes

i don’t mind doing paperwork. i’m a list-maker, so that’s a form of paperwork. i take the minutes at our meetings, and i enjoy it. i taught English for 3 years, which meant a ton of student papers to grade, record, comment on, and keep track of. teaching in general requires much paper-schuffling and paper-trailing. you call a student’s house about a discipline problem: record it. you attend a curriculum meeting: sign in and log your hours. if you write a multiple choice test, you should make at least 60 copies, file the master copy, and run a few extra copies, just in case. teaching involved too much paperwork, even for me.

at my current job,there is much paperwork. a great example is our primo Bicycle Maintenance Agreement Form (a fancy way of saying “repair form”). this baby has four copies,corresponding stickers, numbered tags, a diagnostic checklist, and lots of room for making notes. it is a marvel to behold. or it is a major pain-in-the-ass, depending on your take. as long as you know the procedure and what to do with those four copies, stickers, tags, etc, you are golden. it saves us time in the long run. if you don’t know the process, at least you can ask, right? yes you can, and should! at the REI bike shop we manage the paper load pretty well. bikes are fun, but there are inherent safety issues, and there are forms to file that deal with those issues 🙂

so, mike asked a good question when we were working last night…should we make a list of our wheels and inventory them? ken said no. i said, not necessary as long as the wheels are easy to get to and check. but, maybe we should write down what we have. i certainly don’t know all the wheels or even how many. necessary? unnecessary? safety concern? efficiency issue? to create paperwork? or not? good questions–ones that we probably haven’t completely answered yet.

this picture is my screensaver. it is my zen rock garden. i like to space out and stare at it.

it’s also the workbench layout utilized at UBI and similar to what you see in most bike shops. you could also use a tool chest with marked drawers, a table with outlined spots for tools, etc. when you have more than one person working in a shared space and using the same tools, it’s imperative that tools stay organized, that everything has a home. we’re going to try the work table model for now. mostly for the reason that it’s mobile, and we can take/use the same configuration when we’re doing events like the free bike tune-ups around town. with any new system, we it may or may not find it to be the best system for us. we need to try it on for size and see if it fits. that’s been the approach this summer: try it, see if it works for us. some things have really clicked, like the neighborhood outreach programs (free tune-ups). some things are taking longer to figure out, like the configuration of our bike storage and work space.

i know that we’re creating a beautiful thing. i know that we’ll look back at this time and say, “wow, we did a some really amazing work!” the part i have a harder time visualizing is the process and the beauty within it. the uber workbench is a thing to behold; it gives me the chills. but,so is our less-than-perfect workshop. note to self: be present,enjoy the learning process, the growth, and the subsequent growing pains.

Liberty Lake held its 1st annual In Motion! Bike Fest yesterday. P2P had information at a booth, but we were not able to attend and chat with people. i hope they had a good turn out. i love that someone is putting on an event like this to encourage biking in our area!

another idea that i love, once again, is combining the slow-food and slow-transportation movements. portland is hosting a tour d’organics this october. the idea is simple: tour local organic farms in your area by bicycle and sample tasty, unadulturated goodies–yipee!! i can’t sign up for the portland event cause it’s a sale weekend at REI. but it just gets my brain churning. could P2P organize a similar ride for spokane farmers, foodies, and freaky cyclists? does riding to quillisascut cheese in rice, washington, olsen farms in colville, and tolstoy farms in davenport get your mouth watering and your legs twitching? it sure does for me :,,) and after all, why drive to portland, when we can ride from our door to some of the best local produce around?!

we had another productive meeting at vien dong’s today. usually, we do a lot of premeeting discussion through email. we get our thoughts out in writing before our bi-monthly meetings, which is nice for people like me who mull stuff over before verbally commiting to something. our lunch meetings are reserved for decision making instead of hashing stuff out, and this process seems to work for our group cause we sure get things done in 1 hour.

today we decided to plan a garage night, just for organizing stuff–no bike work. we need to sort stuff, find homes for everthing, clean, and clear things out where ever possible. in the short time we’ve been working in the garage, the accumulation of bikes and parts has been overwhelming. we have wheels tucked in small places all over the garage, parts laying all over, and unmarked boxes with unknown pieces hiding inside. with at least 4 people working at any given time, it’s too much chaos. we sorted out some other things like call lists,bike logs,repair tags.

we also agreed that we’d like to do a bike-to-market day at the spokane farmers’ market this fall. this was suggested by our friend dena, who does the marketing for the farmers’ market. it’s a great chance for some fundraising, and it synchs up with our message of sustainability and community action. and like beth and i like to joke, if the slow-food movement is all the rage right now, why not share some of that momentum and promote the slow-transportation movement. it’s happening folks, right here in spokane!

kathleen is moving into a different role with pedals2people. she will still be a committed volunteer, but she’d like to have more flexibiliy in her role. being a steering committee member means regular meetings, all those emails I mentioned before, attending events, making multiple phone calls and then some. thank you kathleen for all your input and help so far.

all good happenings, a little mundane for most, but all necessary details to work through. what a great idea to team lunch with our meeting. if it wasn’t for that, i would have missed out on vien dong’s awesome avocado smoothie. go to 1730 E Sprague, bring $3, and slurp down one of these amazing little drink-treats. the texture, sweetness, and flavor are pure perfection. so yummy after a ride in the summer heat.

i believe the world is what you make it. if i had to choose a motto, that would probably be it. or maybe “be the change you want to see.” i think between the two, that’s how i try to get by in this lifetime. so i’m not at all surprised to find so much support for pedals2people, but it does warm my heart and make me smile.

until i figure out how to post an actual thank-you page, i’ll need to add it to our blog. so…..many thanks to Tina at Bikeworks in seattle for sharing their liability waiver, to Dave at Spoke N Sport for donating 10 kids bikes, to Cup of Cool Water for helping us at the shop, and to all the individual donors who have given us bicycles.

i wanted to share this list about the highly effective habits of BMX pros…thanks jim boswell for writing it. to be a “pro” anything, check out the real list for all the insights and details.

#1. Effective Pros take care of their bodies.

#2. Effective Pros take care of their bodies.

#3. Effective Pros don’t fiddle with their bikes too often.

#4. Effective Pros maintain their bikes properly.

#5. Effective Pros don’t waste their time griping about
other riders.

#6. Effective Pros study their competition.

#7 Effective Pros study themselves.

i need to be organized. it’s not a matter of “like.” i need to be organized, so lists work well for me. i’m
a visual learner too, and if i can see an uncluttered, broken-down list, it feels like my purpose becomes more clear. any list under 10 is manageable and memorable. i have this one memorized, and i’m going to start living by these simple declarations, or a modified version of it them anyway.

i work at REI, and i’m a level 1 bike tech. i’m just starting out, a baby in the world of bike mechanics. in the old-school way of learning about bikes, i would still be changing flats. from now until next year, probably. but in today’s world,i get to learn about bikes and their mechanics by actually working on them. lucky!!! in the three months since i started,i’ve learned a lot, but i still have a TON to learn. so…

get good rest, eat right. don’t smoke, don’t drink too much–that should keep my head clear, so i can think better and keep my brain cells chugging along.

don’t mess with new tools and techniques too much–learn the basics and pratice what i know till i’m solid.

maintain a clean workspace–keep things well-stocked and in order so i don’t waste time searching for tools or running out of supplies at the last minute.

don’t be a complainer–there’ll always be a conflict with supervisors, managers, employees, customers. just deal, and don’t be a whiner.

study your co-workers–learn from the masters you work with. they know. they’ve been around bikes a long time. they are patient and generous teachers with their knowledge.

examine myself–look at my habits, good and bad. listen to my heart and my intuition. ask for help when i stumble; don’t be afraid to try and to look inept while trying.

it’s a good start.

**cheers to seth for whooping all our butts at the time-trial the other night, on a schwinn predator BMX**

A list of things to do tonight:

1. give bikes to their new owners! have them sign waivers, record info on the bike that’s given away. help them load bikes if needed.
2. receive bikes. give people receipts, if they want them, for their donated bikes.
3. clean the Rollfast. talk to Josh about the 5 bikes we would like to sell at his shop. figure out details on how to do this.
4. talk to Noah, Seth and Mark from Cup of Cool Water or other new volunteers.
5. work, work, work on bikes to give away.
6. load the truck with the remaining trash for a dump run tomorrow.
7. tag bikes and make a list of TO DO items for next time.
8. take several deep breaths, relax, enjoy.
9. clean the shop, put things in order.
10. prepare to beat Joe’s current record of 37.46 seconds from last week’s time-trial.

WOW–the results are amazing! our new workshop is clean, organized, and well lit. we’ve got shelves, a woodstove, and some supplies to get us started. three weeks ago we hauled away a couple couches, broken dressers, and rotted mattresses. last monday night, we moved out the remaining pallets, a busted futon frame, one moldy armchair, a dozen car parts and forgotten blankets. we hung the 20 bikes that we need to fix, and scoped out the work areas.

i love that kind of work…

• take one giant mess of a place
• connect an energetic bunch of people
• add tools,sweat,muscle power, common sense
• mix in some music, beer, lots of cool water and iced tea
• work your butt off for 3 hours straight
• and presto–one helluva workshop. don’t forget to stand back and admire the greatness of all your hardwork : )

we have our regular crew that john blogged about last week. plus, we may have brian, a bike commuter named john, and a co-worker of mine and master mechanic, jason, joining us. shioban is ready to learn bike mechanics, and johanna will be around to lend a hand. i also have a hunch that ann may catch the wrenching bug.

john wants to end each monday night with time-trials on the Rollfast. just one timed lap around the block on this 24″ wheeled beauty

PS: never toss out old refrigerators; they make great storage cabinets