Bicycle Repair - Spring Tune Up Workshop

Another wonderfully practical workshop this weekend was basic bicycle tune-ups.  Our yard was transformed into a make-shift bike repair shop with buckets of tools, cleaning supplies, bike stands, pumps and more! We had Jesse from Recycle Cycles here to walk participants through an introductory session of how to get a bike ready and safe for spring riding.  He covered changing flat tires, adjusting breaks, oiling chains, checking gear shifters, general maintenance and cleaning (and looking for things like broken spokes, wearing tire treads, worn down break pads), then spent a good deal of time answering questions specific to each person's bike. Useful, empowering knowledge, to know how to fix and maintain your own bike!

Building resilient communities

During our recent holiday I had a chance to stop in at a favourite cafe, the Mondragon, which happens to be a worker co-op.  They have a bookshop, green grocery, and coffee house (and downstairs in the same building is an awesome bicycle shop, Natural Cycle, also run as a worker co-op, and where my sister happens to work).  I always like to browse the book selections, and picked up the most recent issue of Yes! Magazine.  I have always liked the concept of Yes! Magazine, whose byline is "powerful ideas, positive solutions" and I believe it used to be called "the journal of positive futures".  It's a magazine with a critical voice, yet always offering hopeful stories and solutions.  This issue is about building resilient communities - exactly the kinds of things we are hoping to do as urban homesteaders, as transition town groups, as barter networks, as food co-ops, as bicycle co-ops, and so on.  I highly recommend getting a copy of this magazine!

Celebrating the potential of urban bicycles!

In most cities, bicycle transportation is a simple, affordable alternative to decreasing our dependence on fossil fuelled transportation.  For the urban homesteader, a bicycle tends to become a key component, a necessary tool, an extension of self...If you google "bicycle transportation" you will find impressive photos of people around the globe transportating just about everything on bike - from huge sacks of grain, massive produce baskets brimming with food, to small livestock, furniture, and even entire families - the bicycle as we know it used in North America still has a lot more potential!  Looking up bicycle trailers and carts brings up equally exciting results - with people rigging up fantastic carriers, trailers, extensions, wagons, sidecars, front compartments, and more!  Here are just a few beautiful and creative examples - be inspired:

Here is a photo of bicycle adaptation in Peru, using a front compartment as a fruit vending cart.   
Here is a most outstanding photo of a man carting huge bags filled with recycling in Shanghai.

Then, for you urban cyclists out there, Velo Couture is an online forum for sharing favourite urban cycling photos (bicycles, trailers, baskets, panniers, etc) with you as a well-dressed rider - celebrating cycling with your own style.