Back to School - August 30 Update

Another month has gone by already since the last post. Although things have been quiet on this blog, they've been very busy in the real world. We are in a critical time for any organization when the novelty has worn off, volunteers are called to other worthy groups and students from last year have graduated. It's time to stir up some enthusiasm that will bring in new volunteers, donations and ideas. These things have been trickling in up til now, we could use a flood of all three. Here's what's been happening that can help us.....

In June we shipped 160 bikes to Working Bikes in Chicago. Some were sold to pay for shipping, the rest were shipped to various needy countries worldwide for basic transportation.

In August we finalized our design for a bike generator, and came up with new ideas to use the energy (pumping, grinding, lifting). We have the materials to make a bunch of prototypes, all we need are the volunteers to put them together.

Last Friday and Saturday we supported the Sprint, Splash and Spin mini-triathlon with free bike inspections. We prevented a couple of certain accidents and made the ride more enjoyable (just by pumping up tires and oiling chains mostly) for everyone involved.

Last nite was the inaugural meeting of the Morgantown Bike Board. This board has been convened through the terrific efforts of Suncrest Councilman Don Spencer and is looking for ways to serve Morgantown's pedestrians and cyclists with better transportation corridors, education and advocacy. If you have ideas for the board contact a member via Don.

Tonite we were invited by Tau Beta Pi to share a table at the WVU freshman Engineering fair where we talked about our cooperative Christmas Bike Project. It was a great chance to meet new students who are interested in helping out in the community and learning about sustainable transportation.

We want to reach out in the non-university community as well. It's time to get going on Safe routes to schools but we need a parent volunteer in each school to act as the sparkplug. We can always use more volunteers for collecting and repairing bikes or doing office work around the shop.

We have new business cards and flyers in the shop. If there's a place where you can distribute them please come and get 'em. I can't tell you how many people have told me what a great idea this organization is, but volunteers that put the idea into action and we need more of you.

Thanks.
Nick Hein
Director, Positive Spin
Morgantown, WV

Summer time at Positive Spin

OK, so it's been 2 months now since the last update. Our bikes were well received in Chicago, some were sold at Working Bikes' retail shop to pay for our trip. The rest went all over the country and the world to help most where they would work best. Mountain bikes went to Guatemala, 26" bikes went to Cuba, street bikes went to Ghana. Working Bikes, founded and led by Lee Ravenscroft, does magnificent work in arranging the shipments. They also collect and warehouse most of the bikes themselves, as well as raising money for the shipments by fixing and selling recycled bikes. We're very lucky to be connected with them.

We would like to work further with them on other projects. Of the world's 6 billion people, 4 billion don't have electricity. We've come up with a simple design for a pedaled generator that could bring electricity to remote villages using bike frames and other salvaged parts would otherwise be thrown away.

We are also gearing up to get "Safe Routes to Schools" programs started in Morgantown. We would like to contact at least one parent in each Morgantown school and provide them with the organizing literature and support to teach and inspire kids to get to school under their own power, with the resulting benefits to personal and community health that can result.

All this depends on volunteers however. Now that a new school year is approaching please consider whether you can help us with a donation of bikes, funds or your time to support Morgantown citizens who bike and walk to make the town a better place for people. See the website at www.positivespin.org for all the ways you can help.

13 June Update

I can't believe it's been a month already since the last update, but it's been a busy month. Here's the list of what's happened.

- We were contacted by the new WV Safe Routes to Schools coordinator and have been asked to send an "intent to apply" form to indicate how we would like to spend state transportation funds to get kids going to school under their own power. We are looking for volunteers with grant writing experience to help us fill out this form. We are also beginning to apply to other sources for substantial funding.

- Last weekend we drove to Chicago with 160 of our bikes (plus parts) so they can be distributed to New Orleans and countries around the world that need them for basic transportation. This is how we will probably do all our shipments from now on. There were enough bikes in the shipment that can be sold at Working Bikes' shop to pay for the truck. The rest will go to developing countries in one of the 11 shipping containers that Working Bikes sends out every year. The timing for this shipment worked out perfectly - that same afternoon a truck showed up to take bikes to Guatemala and many of our bikes will go on it. Yesterday (Monday) Working Bikes (and some of our bikes) were featured on a Chicago TV News segment. See it at this link, includes a video link.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=community&id=4266619#

- Shop hours will continue to be 5-7pm Wed and 1-5pm Sat. Other hours by arrangement.

- After getting rid of all those bikes, I got home to hear that there are about 60 more that are being donated whenever we can take them. Please come volunteer this week to help clean up shop and fix these additional bikes.

- We are supporting Boys/Girls club for all their bike needs. We've fixed up 16 bikes and will be providing helmets and instruction for their regular rides. We could use volunteer help with this, if you can help please call the shop phone no. and we'll sign you up.


Thanks
Nick Hein
Director, Positive Spin

14 May update

Here's a photo from our first Mountaineer Mall Bike Rodeo. Kids were invited to bring their bikes decorated for judging, ride through a safety course and listen to talks from Officer Trump of the Morgantown Bike Police Patrol and Nick Hein of Positive Spin. It was a small turnout, but a great success judging from the kids smiles.











Happy Bike Week! To celebrate Positive Spin is selling bike pins for $1/each. These bright and attractive pins are a great way to get others to start seeing bicycles - not just as a fun way to exercise, but as a way out of gridlocked traffic. Proceeds will go to support our bike recycling and Safe Routes to Schools programs.










Preparations are underway for the second annual Bike to Work Day / National Bicycle Greenway Day in Morgantown. See the website for details. If you would like to join us for the ride from Morgantown to Pittsburgh, or any part of it, contact us (see website for contact info).

29 April Update

Good evening,
It's been a while since I updated this blog, but I'll make it worth the wait for you. Today we held our first annual Bike Tradeup Day at the shop. With a minimum of advertising we attracted dozens of attendees and raised over $500. Even bigger than the publicity and fundraising was the experience of seeing people of all ages light up over the chance to ride a bike - some for the first time, and others for the first time since they were young. My favorite person of the day was Sarah, she came to us in the morning with her parents and the bike that she's been riding with training wheels for the last 2 years. She was afraid to ride it because she hadn't learned to balance yet. I showed her Dad how to take off the pedals and teach her how to scoot along by pushing her feet along the ground. She made this into a game of pushing off and seeing how far she could go before putting her feet down. This was automatically teaching her how to catch herself safely to prevent a fall. She picked out a different bike that fits her better and she left with her parents to ride on the rail-trail. They came back a few hours later to show me how she had learned to ride ALL BY HERSELF. Families like Sarah's make this one of the greatest ways to spend volunteer time. Sarah's parents also picked out bikes so they can now all go riding together.

Many other people came in and brought old bikes to donate and trade. We ended up with many more bikes than we started the day with. Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the day such a success including Jeremy Alio, Will Ravenscroft, John Lozier, Paul White, John Williams (?) and Joe Sallmen. We also recruited a few new volunteers from the event and we look forward to working with you in the future.

5 March Update

Good evening,
Just returned from DC on Friday night. It was an incredible experience, I would strongly recommend coming along next year to anyone thinking about it. There were 350 other fit and energized cyclists in the room - with a fascinating range of other common interests too. I spent Thursday lobbying on Capitol Hill (just like the defense contractors) as the only delegate from WV. I met with aides from the offices of Mollohan, Rayhall, Byrd and Rockefeller. All were interested in doing what it takes to get more West Virginians off their butts and out of their cars to get some fresh air and exercise while they go to work.

On the other days I saw seminars on liveable cities, trails, safe routes and a zillion other topics. I would like to do a group presentation if there's interest. Email me at info@positivespin.org to give your opinion. More later.

Nick

19 February Update

Thanks to all the many volunteers and MDS student students who came out this week to help out with the Biloxi bikes and program development work. On Wednesday during the shoptime several people came in to work on bikes. In addition, Lee Ravensburger (Director of Working Bikes in Chicago) was in town on his way home from Maya Pedal in Guatemala. He brought with him all the parts necessary to turn any bike into a pedal generator. You should definitely come down to the shop and try it out if you're interested, but basically for $50 worth of parts this is a complete system with battery and inverter that can run any AC appliance up to 120W. We've been running the shop TV and VCR off it to show movies. We also have the other generator that runs the compressor off an exercycle. We're continuing to experiment with variations on both designs. One of the next ones will be a recumbent, much easier to adjust for riders of different size.

We got a few more bikes fixed up for Biloxi on Saturday and it's looks like we've found busloads of drivers going that way over Spring Break. Now we just need to locate a truck and funds to cover expenses. There are 55 bikes ready to roll, another 15 that can be sent as-is and 25 bikes at the Morgantown Police Station that should arrive at the shop this week. Next Saturday maybe our last workshop for these bikes, but we will still collect them until March 10. See the website for this week's shop times. Hope we'll see you there!

Preparations are underway for the League of American Bicyclists' Bike Summit in DC Mar 1-3. We are sending 1 representative, but on Friday Mar 3 there is a bike ride with members of Congress that everyone is invited to join. Sign up at the shop if you are interested in going. We'll try to arrange carpools.

14 February Update

Happy Valentine's Day,
The website is now up, it looks a little rough but we have a WVU student working on getting it polished. At present there is just a front page with no subordinate pages, but these are in work.
On Wednesday night (Feb 15) there will be a shop night from 5-7 pm - I'll try it a little earlier and see if anyone else shows up. If we get good attendance the midweek date will continue. We are now offering memberships to anyone who wants to use the shop for fixing their own bikes. Dues will pay for shop tools. Members receive free access to recycled parts, use of the shop and tools and we are working on discounts with local bike shops. Look for more info in the upcoming newsletter.

We have about 50 bikes ready to go to Biloxi but are still looking for transportation. If you plan on driving South over Spring Break and would like to get free one-way transportation drop me an email at info@positivespin.org. Our police bikes have been delayed - we hope to get them next week.

There are several new articles up at the shop bulletin board about other community bike shops that have sent bikes to the Gulf Coast. Also an article about Plan B which mentions Morgantown having sent bikes - right along with Chicago and Phoenix.

This Saturday the shop will be open 10-5, with public time from 1-5. We will be starting a pedal car restoration project. This pedalcar will be our visual aid for public events at the Mall in April and during May bike month. Come help out if you can.

Thanks!

5 February Update

On Friday we had another Critical Mass ride with about 12 riders, making the rounds of downtown several times before disbanding. The planned movie night at the shop was cancelled due to lack of attendance. Most of the Mass riders had other commitments. This has been postponed to next Friday Feb 11. I will have a better selection of movies then, and photographs to look through as well.

This Saturday we got more bikes fixed up for Biloxi, bringing our total to 45. If we get bikes from the Morgantown police we will still try to get 100 total. Otherwise we'll call it good at 50. We are still looking for transportation to get them to the Gulf Coast. If you know of anyone going that way with truck or trailer space please let us know.

We've had a lot of interest in having a midweek workshop night for members and volunteers to work - many of them leave town on weekends. We'll do our first trial night on Wednesday Feb 8 from 6-8 pm. I'll be managing the shop and Will may try to be there too. After that we are looking for a skilled volunteer to supervise one night during the week. If you can help out please let us know.

Event Summary:
Wed Feb 8 - Open shop 6-8 pm
Fri Feb 10 - Movie night 6-8 pm (no shop work)
Sat Feb 11 - Open shop 1-5pm

Hope to see you at one of these events.

28 January Update

Good evening,
On our last workday for Biloxi bikes we managed to get only a few more bikes out, bringing our total to 35. I would like to see if the local bike shops could repair a few more for us so we can get the total up to 50. I've come across a church in Biloxi and may be able to wrangle something through my local church to get them there.

Our website is down for a few days due to homelessness - the host provider went out of business. A new site has been found and the content is being transferred. It should be up by Friday.

This Friday Feb 3 will be the Critical Mass ride at 5pm in front of the Lair. We're planning a party for afterwards at the shop in Grand Central Station with various fun movies (Human Power and Transportation themes). Hope to see you there.

On Saturday the shop will be open for volunteers who want to help fix up the remaining Biloxi bikes, and members who want to work on their own bikes. The shop doesn't have tools, so you'll need to bring your own. We are selling memberships to raise money to buy tools, once we do we'll offer free classes to members in how to use them properly and you'll basically get access to hundreds of dollars worth of tools for $24/year. Members also get free access to our stock of recycled parts.

We've decided to add morning hours for working on the Biloxi bikes. The schedule is:
9am - 1pm Biloxi Bikes
1pm - 5pm Open shop (bring your own tools, the shop doesn't have any yet)

Hope to see you then.
Nick

Nick

21 January Update

Welcome to new volunteers Jennifer, Jerry and Jeremy who helped us get more of the Biloxi Bikes done this weekend. We'll need lots of help next weekend to get them finished. Please volunteer, especially if you have bike skills. We've got about 25 bikes done toward our goal of 100.

Also next Saturday we've been given the chance to exhibit at the Morgantown Mall Community Service Fair. We'll have a table setup from 10am to 9pm with a display board and brochures to hand out to promote our activities. If you can help staff this table please call Nick at 599-1791. We've received our bike locks and helmets - we'll be publicizing their availability at this event. Even if you can't help at the shop days or events, if you want to volunteer, call or email and we'll find a job for you.

This Wednesday (Jan 25 at 7 am) Nick and John will be giving their Katrina Trip report for the Morgantown North Rotary Club at the WVU alumni center. The presentation will last about 20 minutes.

In February Positive Spin will enter a new phase, shifting from bike collection and donation to education and member service. Look for these events....

Regular Saturday shop times for personal bike repair.

Membership drive.
The benefits of membership will include free use of shop tools and recycled parts (new parts will be offered for sale as available). We will see about getting member discounts at local bike shops.

Monthly membership meetings.
After the Critical Mass meetings (5pm on the first Friday of each month) we'll meet at the shop for a movie or other transportation-themed event.

Beyond that we've begun a full-year calendar with these events tentatively scheduled...
April 15 - Bike Tradeup day
Bring in your old bike to trade in on a new one

March 20 - Earth Day (Monday)
All Day Critical Mass ride. Special Movie night at the shop.

May 7 - Spring Spectacular ride
Traditional opening day of bike season in Morgantown

May 19 - National Bicycle Greenway Day in Morgantown
Be part of scouting a national trail and roadway system across all of America

14 January Update

This was expected to be a big weekend at the shop, with the helmet and lock day planned. On Friday Nick and Will painted the White room, cleared out and mopped the showroom and did other general cleanup and beautification. We didn't get any customers for locks or helmets, but this may have been due to the fact that it snowed all day. Volunteers were there though, so we finished some minor construction projects and started in on the Biloxi bikes. We have completed 20 of them, putting us 20% of the way toward our goal. We have another 40 waiting in the shop for fixup, and 30 coming from the Morgantown police impound lot. If you have more bikes, or know someone who does please get in touch - we'll still take them.

Thanks to Will, Beth, Dan, John and Joe for all their great help and inspiration.

By the way, we now have about 50 helmets available and 40 cable locks on their for whenever we reschedule helmet/lock day. Contact us by phone if you need yours before then. They are available to anyone for a $7 recommended donation (our cost) or free if you received a coupon at the Christian Help Christmas event.

7 January Update

Good evening,
It was a big day at the shop today. On Friday we had the first Critical Mass ride of the year with 5 people showing up. Nearly everyone continued up to the shop afterwards to help get the place spiffed up for this month's big events - the Jan 14 Helmet/Lock day and the Jan 28 Biloxi Bike fixup day (our goal is to have 100 bikes ready to ride and shipped to the Gulf Coast at the end of this month).

This weekend's effort included stripping and recycling old bikes and frames, sheetrock repair, painting, cleaning, reorganizing and craft projects. Thanks to Carmen, Scott, Will, Joe, Tiger Joe, Gibran, Ivan, John and several people who came by to drop off bikes. We put fluorescent bulbs in all the old commercial fixtures so there is light everywhere. As a result we saw that there was dirt and grime everywhere too so we cleaned and vacuumed the whole place. We've hauled the junk out of the office and made it a little more workable. We completely rearranged the parts room to take advantage of the light and space better (next project is to organize the stock). All of the collected Biloxi bikes (about 60 so far) have been reorganized and we're ready for more. About 30 bikes will be coming from the Morgantown Police impound lot this week.

Also this week we'll be publicizing next weekend's helmet/lock day at which we'll offer helmets and locks at discounted prices (anyone who brings in a coupon from the Christian Help event will receive theirs free). We could still use some help with final preparations, if you've got time in the evenings this week please give me a call at 599-1791. Nick

1 Jan. Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2006. Will Ravenscroft, Lee Ravenscroft, their families spent some time this weekend getting the shop fixed up and collecting more bikes for the Hurricane Relief drive. Our goal is to have 100 bikes fixed up and ready to ship by the end of January. We have collected more than 60 bikes so far, not all of which are useable so we still have lots of collecting to do. There will be open shop hours every Saturday 10-4 for anyone who wants to come in and work on the bikes. If there is a time that is better for you call or email and we'll try and accomodate you. January 28 will be our big day and lots of volunteers will be needed that day. Please volunteer generously. Please also ask your friends to donate bikes and financial gifts.

On January 14 we'll be having the helmet and lock day. We've got some helmets and I've ordered more. The locks and cables will be ordered this week. As noted in the previous message, we'll need lots of volunteer help - before and during the event. If you can help give a call or email.

Wishing you peace in your heart, on Earth and all through the year.
Nick Hein
Acting Director.