Christmas donation bike workshops Sunday Nov 27

Today we had another small group, but they were enthusiastic and got a lot done. We had Tyler (my 10 yo neighbor), Tony (a New Orleans evacuee) and Dan and Beth (local car-free citizens and activists). Tyler helped me get more hookboards put up to hang extra wheels and we now have them all off the floors and hanging on walls (until we find more). Tony was fantastic at going through the kids bikes, changing the tires and giving them a general checkup. Tyler was also our chief pilot for test rides. Dan and Beth worked away at cleaning up the bikes as we got them done. Our "finished" pile is slowly getting bigger - we now have about 20 bikes done and 50 more to go.

Tonite in our church bulletin I read that Christian Help's program will be Dec 15th - only 2 weeks away(!). I'll have more workshops next weekend, but that will probably be our last chance to get bikes ready. Look for schedule times on the webpage and please help as much as you can.

At the end of the day we were able to hand out 2 (earned) bikes to area car-free residents who will be using them for transportation. Thanks to everyone who came out and all who are helping in other ways. Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving. My thanks to you for making Positive Spin a reality.

Christmas donation bike workshops Saturday Nov 26

Today (Saturday Nov 26) we had a small but productive crowd show up. Thanks to Will for building the bike shelves in the storage rooms. We can now hold about 90 bikes between the 2 rooms. This is the same number as before, but now there's room to move around and storage for other things. Thanks to Joe Sallmen who drove up from Fairmont and worked on bikes all day. We got 8 more done, bringing our total to 12 out of the 75 bikes ready for repair. However, it would be great to get a bunch more done tomorrow. Please join us if you can for the 12-5pm work party. We'll be working mostly on kids' bikes, these are easy and if you're new to bike work give good initial experience before moving on to more complicated bikes (caliper brakes, shifters, chainrings, etc) Even if you don't want to work on bikes we'll have other jobs for you - also Christmas music and fresh fruit.

Hope to see you there.
Nick

Bike Maintenance/Tuneup class Friday (11/25) 4pm

Just a reminder that there will be a 1 hr bike tuneup/maint class Friday (11/25) at the shop. If you are planning to attend please let me know (Nick 599-1791) so I know how many chairs to put out.

Today I worked in the shop with a volunteer (a co-worker) and managed to clear enough space so we can build the bike shelves along the walls in the basement storeroom. I've listed the lumber we need on the wish list of this blog site. We also got the metal shelf fully assembled and in position. I started putting up some more of the hook boards and hope to finish tomorrow. We are doing some shelf construction in the storage rooms to make room for more bikes. Once we get the bike shelves built we'll have room for about 40 adult bikes and 40 kids' bikes in the storage rooms alone.

The bikes to be repaired are now all sitting out in the workshop/classroom area. There are currently about 74 bikes in the shop waiting for repair. I'd like to shoot for getting 50 of them out by Christmas.

Here's the full schedule for the rest of this weekend

Friday
1 pm - Board Meeting
4-5pm - Bike maint/tuneup class
5-8pm - Bike repair worktime

Saturday
10am-5pm - Bike repair worktime

Sunday 12-5pm
10am-5pm - Bike repair worktime

Thanks on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope your holiday has been an enjoyable one. I want to tell all of the Positive Spin volunteers, friends and merchant supporters - THANKS for the many great things you've helped us do in the short time we've been working together.

Now we've got about 50 bikes sitting in the shop that we'd like to get fixed up for Christmas donation in the next 3 weeks. This is an invitation to any available volunteers, whether you've helped before or not, to come join us every weekend in December (Through the 20th) for bike repair parties. Times will be listed on the website at positivespin.org.

Tomorrow (Friday) I'll be presenting a 1-hr class on bike maintenance basics. You may find this helpful if you're new to bike repair. Everyone's welcome to come help, please RSVP to me at nick.hein@verizon.net so I know how many chairs to put out. Earlier in the day on Friday we'll be building storage fixtures for the bike rooms. Check out the wish list. If you can bring any lumber listed there, please do.

Saturday and Sunday we'll have work parties as follows:
Sat: 10am - 5pm
Sun: 12pm - 5pm

Positive Spin Work Parties This week

Good afternoon,
Starting this afternoon(Monday) a few of us will be at the shop to tidy up and get the shop setup to fix bikes for Christmas donation (until 7pm). If you can help out, show up. I intend to have other work parties for the rest of this week. These are the scheduled times:


Monday 5-6 pm
Tuesday 5-8 pm
Friday 8am to 5pm
Saturday 12pm to 5pm
Sunday 12pm to 5pm

Tonight's work will be moving/arranging furniture and vacuuming. After that we will be fixing up bikes with the goal of getting 10 for Christian help and 10 for Rock Forge Neighborhood house. As of today most of the bike repair is changing tires and cleaning. By the end of the week we'll be down to the bikes that need real work (replacing components, repacking bearings). Please volunteer whatever services you can as much as possible. In order for these bikes to be ready for Christmas I'd like to get them done by Dec. 1.

If you have any questions you can enter them as comments. I'll reply anytime I read the blog.