This bike was locked up a couple doors down from 2 Wheel Transit.

If this is your bike, we want you to ride with us in this year’s Pride Parade. Or let us borrow your bike.

If this isn’t your bike, but you like the idea of dressing up and dressing up your bike and then riding it with a bunch of other dressed up people then perhaps you should plan on riding with us in the Pride Parade. The point of the Pride Parade is to celebrate and recognize the fact that our community, like all communities, includes gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered people. As a class, this community has traditionally been pushed out of mainstream culture, and at worse, it has been the target of violence. The Pride Parade is a place to stand up publicly against the shame of the past, recognize the contributions of all people in our community today, and embrace the potential of the future,where all folks — regardless of sexual orientation — are treated with respect and fairness in all the workings of our society.

We had about 25 riders last year. We’d like to see at least 50 this year. Dare we shoot for 75?

The parade is in June. No date has been published for this year,but last year it was the first Saturday in June. Watch the OutSpokane site for more details and start looking now for finery to hang off your bike.

Alison Boggs, spokesman review reporter, titled her recent article “pedal power to the people.” in the picture above you see Tim Bordwell, smiling and happy with his choice of wheels. it really was a pedal-powerful experience donating bikes to local teens in need.

when mike and i arrived at crosswalk to deliver bicycles, tim wasted no time coming over to check out the selection. he thanked us. he helped us unload the bikes, and he kept flashing that smile. tim got first pick of the 9 bikes we donated to crosswalk last thursday

tim, a client of crosswalk, wants to find work, but he doesn’t have bus fare to pay for transportation to the job interviews. it’s a vicious cycle…no money for the means to get to work, leads to not getting the job. no job equals no money for transportation.

tim has experience in food service, and he hopes to find restaurant work again soon. now that he has a bike, he can accept work that was out of the question before. with dependable transportation,he can work a late shift or arrive before the buses start their routes in the early morning. with a bike,tim doesn’t need money for gas or a bus pass. and that means more money in his pocket. now, he can create a new cycle…one where he pedals his way to independence.

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.