Much fun was had by a valiant troop of bicycle valet parkers, at the Farmers' Market. last Saturday, June 13th.  Despite the oh-so-soggy weather, we parked 160 bikes, with nary a complaint from the hearty volunteers (you guys are so amazing!).  If the rain ever lifts, we expect to park MANY more this week (dare we hope for 300+?).  Sooooo--ride your bike to the Market (8 am-1 pm), and stop by to park your bike, or to just say "Hi!"  We would love to see you there!

On Saturday June 20^th, SLCBC will be presenting at the 4^th Annual Venture Outdoors Festival at Canyon Rim Park (3100 S. 2900 E.) at 6 pm. We will also have a table set up to promote what we do.  This family friendly event is free, and features live music, recreation clinics, speakers, giveaways, creative children’s activities and good food.  The festival runs from 3-9 pm.

Morning Venture activities include Fill-the-Ark 5K, guided canyon hikes, kayaking, rock climbing, bike rodeo and health and wellness fair for older adults.

The Venture Outdoors Festival features scores of free clinics and seminars. Everything from giant climbing walls to ATVs and mountain boarding will be part of this year’s event. Other activities include gardening, bicycle maintenance, volleyball, photography, agility dogs, triathlon training, health screenings, uni-cycling, even kite flying. Learn fly casting from one of the states best instructors or get personal with some exotic critters with Scales and Tails and Bugsology.

There will great music and it’s all free. You’ll enjoy this year’s line-up with artists Josh Rosenberg, Josh Wilson and Bre Larson. The night ends with a unique fire performance from Incendiary Circus

SLCBC is part of this exciting event and will be presenting workshop promoting safe commuting on a bicycle . We look forward to seeing you there!

Get a complete listing of activities at www.millcreekoutdoors.org.

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Do you have an understanding of basic bicycle mechanics? Do you love to teach others your invaluable skills? If so, then we need your help! We are looking for new mechanics to help us out during our Community Bike Shop hours. We are unbelieveably busy down here, and with your help we could continue on our mission to help as many of our community members as possible. Please contact Cal

Greetings and Salutations,

I know, I know--you have been having withdrawals from my emails, but never fear---'tis the season, which means LOTS of oportunites for you to help out your favorite community bike shop!

Coming up, for your volunteering pleasure, are the following opportunities:

1. Starting this weekend (and running the whole summer) is one of our favorite valet bike parking events--that's right--the Farmers' Market--yayyyyy! This means that summer is officially here :). We have two shifts, 7:30-10:30 am, and 10:30 am-1:30 pm. Bonus points if you do both (points being lots and lots of appreciation)!
2. Beginning next week, we have mucho Kids' Earn-a-Bike classes. These run Mon & Wed, from 10 am-12 noon, and 3:30-5 pm; Tue & Thu, 9-10:30 am, 12 noon-1:30 pm, and 3:30-5 pm. No experience necessary--you just need to have a basic non-hatred of kids. We can teach you the rest.This is a good way to learn wrenching skills, along with the kids.
3. Next week, on Wednesday, June 17th, 1-4 pm, and on Saturday,June 20th,10 am-2 pm, Krisha needs help with kid's bike rodeos.
4. ALSO next week, we are starting our Trips for Kids mountain bike rides. These are on Thursday, from 12-3 pm, and on Friday, from 9-10:30 am.
5. To round this all out, we are tabling the Venture Outdoors Festival, on June 20th. There will be shifts from 1-5 pm, and 5-9 pm.

WHEW!! Lots of fun to be had this week (and in the weeks to come). Please let us know for which events you want to volunteer. For kids' events, contact Krisha Pessa.

For all others, contact moi, your esteemed volunteer coordinator. Step right up--don't be shy--you can do more than one!

For those of you who are interested in improving your wrenching skills, we will be offering FREE lessons from the Park Tool School for the first 30-45 minutes of each Monday Volunteer Night at the Community Bike Shop.  Each week we will pick a different chapter (schedule below), and provide you with bikes to practice on, so don't bring your own.  We will have the textbook, Park Tool's Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair, for sale during the classes.

• June 15th @ 5pm sharp: Tires and Tubes
• June 22th @ 5pm sharp: Hubs, Rear Sprockets
• June 29th @ 5pm sharp: Wheel Truing
• July 6th @ 5pm sharp: Pedals, Cranks & Bottom Bracket
• July 13th @ 5pm sharp: Chains
• July 20th @ 5pm sharp: Derailleur Systems
• July 27th @ 5pm sharp: Rim Caliper Brake Systems
• August 3rd @ 5pm sharp: Caliper Disc Brake Systems
• August 10th @ 5pm sharp: Headsets

This is a great opportunity to learn the proper way, so come on out!  If you have a good time, we encourage you stick around for the rest of the volunteer night to practice.

If you really get into it, inquire about volunteering your new found knowledge during our Do-It-Yourself Nights (we really need confident women for the women's night), or as an Youth Instructor in our Earn-a-Bike classes.  We can teach people to be technical, but we can't teach them to be personable, so if you like people, we can turn you into a great mechanic.

If you have any questions contact Jonathan Morrison.

We would like to thank Liahona Bicycles for becoming an official SLC Bike Collective part Bike and Part drop off location.

Liahona Missionary Depot
ATTN: David Chappuis (801-261-0735)

4759 South State Street
Murray, UT 84107

Monday-Saturday 9am-6pm 

Local photographer, Charlie Ehlert (www.redwellimaging.com), asked if he could photograph one of our Earn-a-Bike classes.  Here are the wonderful results, go to our Photos section to see the other 70 photos.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Update: 06-14-2009

We've had a remarkably strong response to our previous call for volunteers and are just about ready to start training. If you still want to pitch in, please contact me, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , as we can always use more hands.

Delays in the shop development have forced us to move our opening to Mid-July.

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The Salt Lake City Public Library has jumped into the pool of cycling advocacy organizations by partnering with the SLC Bike Collective. Starting July, the City Library will be providing space for a small satellite location of the Collective at the Day-Riverside branch of the Library system. Day-Riverside is located on 1575 West and 1000 North, just off Redwood Road and adjacent the Jordan River and accompanying parkway. We're very excited about this location because it's one of the first advocacy-oriented bike orgs in the North-West side. We consider that point important because it's a location that has practically no retail shops that we would compete with (which we don't want to, and can't, do), has limited access to public transportation and few other options for eco-friendly transit, and has a large community of potential cyclists who just need a little encouragement, support, and instruction.

The purpose of the satellite is to provide simple tune-ups and basic instruction to as many people as possible; no component replacements, no major repairs, no bike selling, just cleanings, lubrication, brake and derailleur adjustments, and maybe repacking a hub or bottom bracket now and then. More complicated repairs will be directed to the Bike Collective's main shop as well as people interested in buying or donating bikes. It feels best to start small and not get
ahead of ourselves.

We are seeking two levels of volunteers:

1. Experienced know-it-alls
2. Grease monkeys.

• Volunteers will be needed 2 nights a week, for 4 hours.
• Please be prepared to attend one shift every week.
• We would like no fewer than 2 experienced bike mechanics present at all times
• As many volunteers as possible who want to learn bike repair, are good with kids, or speak Spanish.
• We also need experienced mechanics to help teach training courses.

If you're not sure if you want to be involved, stop in and see. We can always use extra volunteers. And even if you don't have time to volunteer, please spread word about the new location and come out to visit (but protect your tires from the goatheads.)

If you want to sign up, please contact Clinton Watson.

Entheos Academy 9th Grade body organizes ride and raises over $10,000 for the Huntsman Cancer Institute

My lovely students!

Earlier this month I traveled to Entheos Academy to help prepare them for a 4 day fund raiser ride. About 1/3 of the entire 7th, 8th, and 9th grade rode up to 40 miles per day! It was important for them to be prepared in bicycle safety and mechanics. I demonstrated and students participated in flat tire repair, ABC quick check, bicycle components, bicycle safety, and of course proper helmet fit. They were simply an amazing class and I'm so proud of their success!

 

As part of our Bikes for Goodwill Organizations program Angels in Action makes a trip to our shop.

The Kingdom of Bhutan

Refugees from Bhutan pick out bicycles from our shop.

      

They receive refurbished bicycles and new helmets.

 

The two Jeffs and Krista took tools and stands, and spent the evening of May 21st wrenching at the Road Home homeless shelter.  They were able to get working the hitherto unrideable bikes of several of the residents, not an easy task considering the state of some :).  The owners of these bikes were truly appreciative, both for the repairs and the fact that they were treated as human beings, something that unfortuately does not always happen to them.   It was a humbling and rewarding experience for our volunteers, to be able to have such a small service contribute so much to the well-being of those who have so little.

Cal and Krista represented the SLC Bicycle Collective at the Utah Conference on Service, held at the Downtown Radisson Hotel, on May 18-20.  The workshops they attended were focused on all aspects of voluteering, and contained lots of valuable information.  As conference participants, they were given tickets to a Salt Lake Bees game, with a bar-b-que provided before at the field.  It was lots of fun to be able to join with so many of Utah's dedicated volunteers, and to be recognized as such!  The conference culminated with an awards banquet, with our soon-to-be governor Lt. Governor Herbert as the keynote speaker.  Way to represent, you two!

The Collective has joined in a partnership with the Utah Department of Workforce Services to offer four (4) part-time jobs.  With the increased demand for our services this year, we are very grateful for the help and look forward to the opportunity.

The Cycle Salt Lake Century, was the perfect ending to a wildly successful Bike Week.  A group of EXTREMELY dedicated volunteers crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn, to get to Central Park in Farmington, where they spent the day working the first/last rest stop of the ride.  Valiantly (if a little sleepily) led by not-a-morning person (me), these hearty folks cut fruit, kept snacks and water/gatorade stocked, and cleaned up after the 1700+ cyclists who came by to rest and refuel throughout the course of the day.  What an awesome spectacle to see all of the bright colors and hot bikes!

UPDATE: A little birdie told us that a number of the cyclists raved to the ride organizers about us, for doing such an outstanding job.  We were told it was our best year yet--way to go!

And a good time was had by all...at the UTA Rideshare Bike Bonanza at the Gallivan Plaza!  Activities included Valet parking bikes and generally having a blast being surrounded by all things bike.  When all was said and done, we had parked 133 wonderful 2-wheeled conveyances (up from only 30ish last year--yay!).

For those of you who unfortunately couldn't make this annual event, you missed the Cycle to Cycle Fashion Show, and the opportunity to hoot and holler at our very own Davey Davis and Esther Merono. Were they ever HOT!  Many thanks to event organizers for providing free delicious VEGAN pizza (6 different varieties even!) for our volunteers--it was greatly appreciated.

What a great way to kick off our bike parking season!