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.
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