the Pedal Pals bike donation on June 30th was a huge success, especially in bringing the community together! P2P fixed 83 bikes which were donated to children and adults in Spokane County. SCOPE gave new helmets to the folks who received bikes. KHQ promoted the Pedal Pals event, provided the storage containers for the bikes, and bought new supplies. Dishman Dodge provided a space to store the bikes and a place for the actual event. and Wheelsport East donated tires, tubes, lube, cables, and brake pads at cost.

thanks to everyone who participatged and got behind this cool project. you gotta love bikes, bringing folks together and spreading joy in the world :,,)

we spent another eventful night at the dishman dodge parking lot adjusting brakes, changing flats, tightening cranks, and evaluating bikes. man, we had some great help last night! mike was there again. i love how determined he is to see an issue through. he spent some quality time with a mongoose bmx. joe came back, and it was awesome having him there to determine which bikes we should work on and which bikes we should toss to the junk pike. ken returned with tools and tons of mechanical know-how. ben came out to help with tire changes. he was proud to discover that he could do it without tire irons :,,) amanda lended her bubbly energy to the tire changing crew, and shirley swaped a cracked tire for a shiny new one. john and i fixed and helped out where needed. at the end, we had one pod full of completed bikes and another pod filled for us to tackle later this week.

only a few more days to get these bikes ready to roll! we can always use more help. call john @ 981-3348 if you want to come out and wrench with us.

my new, old schwinn hollywood is taking the place of the old columbia as my parade and event ride, yay!!! it’s even challenging to take the place of my mixte as my favorite bike. i can’t stop riding it. i want to ride this bike everywhere, day and night. especially at night because it’s a made-for-chillin-in-the-summertime cruiser. i just don’t think it gets any better than this.

why i love this bike:

1. curves. this bike was fillet brazed and the tubes gently meld into each other creating these beautiful, swooping lines.
2. hub. it sports a bendix 2 speed, kick-back hub with a coaster brake that, to this day (with little maintenance, i’m guessing) is smooth and responsive.
3. tires. the hollywood uses S-7, 26 X 1 3/4, 571 iso tires, and they’re fogiving on bumpy roads, gravel,etc.
4. trail. lots of trail on this bike. i can ride it no-hands with my eyes closed. it really adds to the smooth riding.
5. saddle. even after 50 years,the saddle has plenty of life left in it. it’s springy and wide enough to provide comfort and support.
6. chrome. little bit of steel wool and the chrome sparkles. it cleans right up, so the handle bars, headset bits, cranks and chain ring shine.
7. well-loved. the paint is worn off in places, and the brick-red primer is visible underneath. dents and scrapes show this bike was riden and enjoyed by its last owner.

tuesday afternoon i’m going to ride it over to josh scott’s vintage toy and bike shop, timebomb. i’m hoping Josh can tell me the year for the hollywood and some info about servicing the hub. i think i need to open up and repack it with grease, but i don’t know for sure. i can’t wait!

some more pictures here.

ok,
so it wasn’t a “party” but we had lube and tools, popsicles and mini
bikes. kind of sounds like a party, doesn’t it? we celebrated bikes and
the summer solstice tonight. it was warm, but there was a breeze, and
the killdeers
loud call helped drown out the roaring of the cars on sprague and appleway.
when we left the parking lot at 8, the sun was still high in the sky.
too bad i had to haul 4 bike stands and all the tools; it was a
beautiful night for a ride.

kathleen, mike, ken and i met at dishman
dodge in spokane valley to fix up bikes for the pedal pals bike give-away,
co-sponsored by KHQ and DD. the bikes will be given away on saturday,
june 30th, and the regional health department will throw in free
helmets with each bike. pretty cool.

whoo-hoo!!! what a fun party hosted by Fresh Abundance! the steet fair celebrated homegrown talent and brought local farmers, artists, and non-profits together. and because it happened in our neighborhood, it felt like a huge block party : ,,)

by our estimates, we talked to 50 people about pedals2people: some folks from out of town (deer park, chewelah, colville), some old, some young, some cyclists (a husband and wife on a recumbent tandem and their daughter and granddaughter on a santana tandem), some not into biking at all. this was a great oppurtunity for us to hone our mission statement, or at least fine-tune the delivery of our group’s mission. it went something like this…”we want to get more people on bikes. we’re doing mellow weekly rides, teaching classes, and going around the community to fix up bikes for free. we also collect old bikes, fix and donate them to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them.”

we also set up a booth for the first time. by chance, we placed ourselves next to ingrid. ingrid is from sweden, and she’s also one of our neighbors who is a year-round bike commuter. it was nice to finally meet the woman we often see riding by on her way to wilson elementary with her daughter and pedaling to the corner grocery store. anyhoo, we had more than enough info to pass out, more than enough accessories and tshirts to sell. having the family tandem and mixte on display was a nice conversation starter. the floor pump came in handy airing up tires. i think a good thing to have that we forgot was contact infomation for people that were interested in advocacy. next time we will have a list of web addresses for the Bicycle Advisory Board and maybe a few other local orgs.

my thanks goes out to Outspokane for organizing an amazing pride parade! the week’s worth of community-building, awareness-raising, pride-boosting events that they hosted before the parade were great too. hopefully, we can collaborate more with these folks next year and get a pride ride on the schedule of events for pride week. for now, i’m just happy we were able to get an awesome bunch of people together to ride in the parade with us. thanks to everyone who joined us. i had a great time :,,)

john’s photos

mike’s photos

one male pheasant hiding

one canadian goose family grazing

one pink bike laying in the river

one can of coors sitting

one old guy fishing for trout

one california quail perched on a railing

one cat hunting a tasty morsel

one public pool filled and ready for action

one carousel twirling

one downtown fountain gushing

one thursday nite rider riding

our first thursday night ride was on may 17. four people showed up (thanks dena, mike, ken and shioban!), and we were on the trail by 6:45. what a great night for a ride! i love cruising by the river and taking in all the fertile smells of spring, all the trees leafing out. we rode east for a half an hour, then headed back. on the way, we passed two kids with super-stylin bikes. the girl had a purple chopper with silver stars, and the boy had a black chopper with flames–so cool. they inspired me to ride my banana seat bike on the next ride.

we stopped at riverview thai for beers and spring rolls. love this place. we sat outside by the river and enjoyed the evening.

mike made the suggestion that we should have themed rides. hmm? i like it but that would mean staying on top of things and posting ahead of time, so people know what’s up. don’t know if i can commit to that at this point.

liza

i’m not really sure what i’m doing, so i’ll just post some info about our first event:
Potluck at the Foresty Pavillion (NE of the clocktower) in Riverfront Park, this saturday, May 12th at 12 o’clock. here’s a map: http://www.spokaneriverfrontpark.com/content.php?id=146

come and talk about biking, eat some food, share some food, and see if you want to be a part of what we’re doing. we love to meet other cyclists, and we never tire of talking about bikes. and bring a yellow or orange t-shirt so you can get it screenprinted by a local artist with our pedals2people logo.

next up…OutSpokane Pride Parade, June 9th, at noon, downtown Spokane