Workshops
Do you have an exciting skill to share with us? Want to chat about creating safe community spaces? Want to make sure we fit a good bike ride into the weekend? Propose a workshop! Don’t worry if you’re not an expert, we want to hear about everyone’s experience within the many configurations of community shops we’re coming from.
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"Bike the Line": Bike Trips as Activism
46 people are interested in this workshopThere's a very infamous 63-year-old crude oil pipeline lurking in the freshwaters of the Great Lakes, posing a constant threat of leaking into millions of people's drinking water supply. Regional environmental groups and coalitions have been working on trying to get this pipeline shut down for years.
This past summer, a bike team of 2-5 bicyclists traversed the route of the entire pipeline, biking at least 750 miles, to go door-to-door to engage with communities along the pipeline route. They had no support vehicle, carried all their stuff. The trip took 8 weeks and was safely completed. The project was called "Bike the Line": www.biketheline.org
Come learn how it was done and how you could do something like it too! We'll talk about how the trip went, how things were handled logistically, and how it was done affordably.
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(Un)Sustainable Practices
17 people are interested in this workshopThis workshop will feature a presentation discussing how isms & ists infiltrate radical organizations.
It will also feature a discussion of solutions, reaffirmations of radical values, and a Q&A regarding the circumstances and structural issues that led to the present crises at Back Alley Bikes/The Hub of Detroit.
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Advanced Problem Solving 101
30 people are interested in this workshopAdvanced Problem Solving
Sometimes we know we have a problem but we don't quite know what it is. Other times we have a challenge that we are facing and we do know what it is, but we are unsure how to approach it.
This workshop will give you a tool set that will help to better realize and understand the challenge in Human terms. It will also walk you through the steps to focus on a result that is viable, reliable, and desirable.
We will start off with the discovery phase, then move into research methods, how to pull out insights from that research, discover opportunities for solutions which we will create quick and dirty versions of and learn to analyze and adapt them quickly and cheaply.
This is a hands-on workshop, so come prepared to participate!
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Allmountain for girls
28 people are interested in this workshopMTB Allmountain/ enduro It is known as hard discipline, It is common practice that many men do. But not so many girls.
Sometimes fear overcomes us we limit ourselves. But we should not fear the mountain, we can do it too.
We want to transmit this MTB Enduro love to women and we know that we can reach many hearts. By Teaching MTB skills from woman to woman. To feel safe and confident, and so, they are encouraged to practice MTB allmountain.
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Bicycle-Powered Machines
90 people are interested in this workshopWhen is a bicycle not a bicycle? Bicycle-powered machines / pedal-machines have been built and used in many different communities for a variety of purposes - grinding grains without electricity, powering a music festival with your feet, connecting a bicycle crank to a lathe! Let's talk about these machines and how they are used and built. How can you incorporate them into your space or use them to connect to your community?
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Bike Collective Software: An Overview
75 people are interested in this workshopDuring this session we would like to present the various software projects that are being developed by and for bike collectives. We will give an overview of each project, what was accomplished this year, and what we plan to accomplish next year and years to come. We will also field questions and have discussions as time permits.
Projects
Bike!Bike!
The Bike!Bike! website has come a long way in the past few years. Now, instead of being rebuilt each year, we have one website which we can use to retain knowledge from year-to-year. Getting to a stable state has been a challenge, our next challenges will be to add new features to finally make use of the knowledge that exists.
Repository: https://github.com/bikebike/BikeBike
Bike Collectives
The Bike Collectives website has not been updated in some time but there are plans to change that.
Repository: https://github.com/bikebike/bikecollectives
SignIn
SignIn is an iOS software project that tracks volunteer hours.
Repository: https://github.com/mrmomoko/SignInBikeCollectives
Intended Audience
Anyone interested in:
- software systems
- hosting a Bike!Bike!
- volunteering by copy-writing, translating, designing, developing, managing, or any other way that you think you might be able to involve yourself
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Bike Parts For The Rest Of Us
68 people are interested in this workshopWe own and operate a not-for-profit bike shop with a primary mission of giving bicycles to people in need.
We had difficulty finding affordable sources for the items we need to repair bicycles, especially older bicycles. Major suppliers were not interested in us because we wouldn't spend enough money, plus they didn't carry some of the items we needed most. We occasionally arranged to buy parts at wholesale prices through other local bike shops, but this was cumbersome. Other non-profit bike programs in our area were facing the same issues, so we started a wholesale bicycle parts distribution company specifically tailored to the needs of non-profit shops and programs.
This workshop will explain why we started Midway Bicycle Supply, and how non-profits can benefit from having direct access to wholesale items. We will bring a selection of the parts we offer for participants to examine, including our exclusive 27 x 1 3/8 studded tires! While larger organizations may have established supplier relationships, really small enterprises have difficulty meeting the requirements. We have removed most of the barriers for small non-profits to get direct access to wholesale pricing, allowing your organization to get more for your money.
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Bike Porn Collage
One person is interested in this workshopBike Porn Collage, where people cut and paste porn with bike magazines, literally deconstructing porn and rebuilding it to their own desires.
I will provide scissors, glue, posterboard and some magazines for us to get crafy with!
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Bike ride
One person is interested in this workshopA 30-40 mile ride around the city led by the hub of Detroit Racing team.
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Bike Tour of Detroit
98 people are interested in this workshopI'm happy to work with anyone else who want to put together some sort of bike tour of the city - of important cultural sites, bike projects, public art, etc.
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Civically engaging youth through biking
84 people are interested in this workshopOur workshop will cover our outreach successes and failures on youth engagement in Long Beach. We operate a youth led bike hub out of Houghton Park, a 3 acre park in North Long Beach. We'll cover how to approach youth in communities of color, share our information from our youth engagement summit, and share our experiences with civic engagement.
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Co-Ops in Latin America. Challenges and strategies.
9 people are interested in this workshopBike Co-Ops in México are for the most part in very early stages, and we face very specific challenges that are not as present in other parts of the world and other problems that are probably common but that we haven't yet figured out.
In this open discussion we would like to talk about some of these problems and some of the strategies that we have developed; getting parts, repairing the hell out of them, old (and i mean ancient) bike repairs, sexism, no money, bad neighbors, legal stuff.
We want to tell you what we do, maybe you can use it, and we want to hear how you solved it, or an idea that just came to your mind. We can all learn from each other and maybe inspire new co-ops to sprout in our sunny country.
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Coming together and getting organized!
13 people are interested in this workshopHow does your shop organize? How do you bring people together? Are you a co-op, a collective or a hierarchical organization? Are you volunteer-based or staffed?
We'd like to facilitate an open discussion about all the different ways community bike shops organize and operate and brainstorm some strategies for effective organizing for different types of goals, shops and organizations.
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Conflict resolution; Let's all get along
59 people are interested in this workshopDisagreements, arguments, squabbles, outbursts, shouting matches, resentment, disdain. I have witnessed (and in some cases, mediated) all of these at my previous bicycle collective (FreeRide Pittsburgh. I moved country and am currently collectiveless). My workshop aims to help volunteers and staff recognize early signs of conflict or negativity. When easily and accurately identified, individual concerns can be appropriately handled given the right tools, and emotional lability can also be dealt with in a healthy way. I'm hoping my workshop (+ role-playing) will allow people the chance to explore triggers for conflict and ways to handle conflict, so that staff and leaders can return to their co-ops and effectively mediate issues that arise.
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Disengaging from the White Savior Complex
117 people are interested in this workshopMainstream bicycle culture appeals to wealthy white folks, particularly white men. that's no different within all of cycling subcultures, including community bike projects. This is old news. What are true and authentic ways that we can build equity and autonomy within the communities we participate in?
Diversity is complex. It requires us to take a hard look at ourselves, the community projects we participate in, the communities we are "helping", our implicit bias, our privilege, and where we fit in this fight for equity. Let's have a conversation about systemic oppression, diversity, equity, and how these topics relate to community bike spaces.
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Encouraging youth cycling through school partnerships
57 people are interested in this workshopOver the past year and a half, New Hope Community Bikes in Hamilton, ON has been running programs to get more kids cycling, especially for their school commute.
We created a weeklong educational program called Ride Smart!, where we bring a class set of bikes, instructors, and obstacles to schools to teach grade 4-6 students the basics of road safety, skilled riding, and mechanical safety checks, as well as show them how fun cycling is.
We pair this instruction with on-site tuneups and partner with organizations that provide bikes to schools for kids who don't own them. We also work with our city's public health staff on School Travel Planning, where the school population is consulted to find out what they need in order to walk or cycle more, and the neighbourhood is analyzed for infrastructure gaps.
I can speak about our experiences with these programs, the challenges and rewards involved with getting something like this going, and best practices we've found for successfully working with school and government systems.
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Exploring the Unwanted: embracing discomfort for personal growth.
7 people are interested in this workshopTrigger warnings, safe spaces, disinviting speakers to college campuses and the removal of centuries old art in Universities has increased in the last few years. Critics of these actions are asking the question - is this harming our ability to tolerate ideas we may not agree with and adding to the increased divisions seen in our communities and on the political stage? Are these actions still serving the same purpose they were meant to when they were first implemented?
In a recent New York Times, piece, Lionel Shriver asked:
In an era of weaponized sensitivity, participation in public discourse is growing so perilous, so fraught with the danger of being called out for using the wrong word or failing to uphold the latest orthodoxy in relation to disability, sexual orientation, economic class, race or ethnicity, that many are apt to bow out.
But do we really want every intellectual conversation to be scrupulously cleansed of any whiff of controversy? Will people, so worried about inadvertently giving offense, avoid those with different backgrounds altogether?
Recently a black college professor on Oakland California proposed the following to her students:
Write a research paper REFUTING my published paper which argues that black children experience discrimination in American school systems.
Is this professor part of a budding movement away from restricting unpopular or offensive ideas?
This workshop intends to discuss embracing discomfort as a means by which to expand our way of thinking about controversial ideas and exploring them objectively, and how collectives may be able to grow by allowing the discussion of challenging institutional beliefs.
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First 40 Years of Bicycling in Detroit
12 people are interested in this workshopA presentation on the First Forty Years of Biking in Detroit uncovers the unique history of Michigan's two-wheel pioneers. These bicyclists went on to lead the Good Roads and Womens' Suffrage movements, launch the automotive industry, and much more. Much can be learned from this era, which can shape our policies and advocacy work today.
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Free bike programming under capitalism: Funding models and strategies
8 people are interested in this workshopThe structural inequity in our society has resulted in financial barriers to autonomous transportation (among many other things) for many communities. In an attempt to remedy this, a lot of programming at our shops and organizations is geared towards breaking down these barriers by providing free/by donation bikes, accessories, parts and shop time to folks that would otherwise be bikeless.
In this workshop we'll discuss the various strategies and funding structures we've used to give bikes, accessories, parts and shop time to folks that need them. We'll talk about what worked and what didn't and then open up the discussion for everyone to share their experiences and brainstorm strategies that might work for different types of shops and organizations.
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Hands on "Hands Off" Teaching, or How to Slice a Banana
8 people are interested in this workshopHands off teaching keeps tools in the hands of learners, while leaving instructors' hands free (great for eating ice cream!). People gain more confidence and retain more of what they've learned when they do things themselves – but how do you teach mechanics without doing mechanics?
Ainsley (Bike Pirates) and Kelly (Bikechain) have nearly 20 years' combined experience teaching hands off. In this workshop, we will share why we teach hands off, how to do it, and all of the tricks that we've picked up over the years. There will be time for discussion, and there will be fruit!
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How do you do EARN-a-BIKE? (Panel of Youth Oriented COOP's)
68 people are interested in this workshopOpen panel of youth oriented community bike shops that can discuss the structure of their earn-a-bike program, how to stay engaged with kids, how to build safe relationship with youth that are not invasive, how to stay in contact with parents and family members. Open to any youth community bike shop leaders to discuss these concepts and answer questions regarding challenges, successes, and start-ups.
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Let's make the International Mechanic Work Exchange Network happen!
8 people are interested in this workshopAt Rila Libre in Guadalajara we have hosted a bunch of awesome people mostly from the US during the last couple of years. Their presence in the collective has greatly enriched us and them. We would love to see this happen systematically, and reciprocally all over the world, bringing together likeminded people, skill-sharing, cross-pollinating.
We know this has been talked about before, so, let's make it happen!
Let's decide what would be a good platform, how tight or loose should the requisites be, how to tackle the problems inherent to traveling and working across borders, expectations, objectives, etc.
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Live Screen Printing
51 people are interested in this workshopThis is less of a workshop and more of a demonstration. I'm proposing having a table setup where a print maker can breath new life into people's old cloths through screen printing. I am also volunteering to be that print maker. This is something I've done for many years and recently did at Back Alley Bikes for their fundraiser.
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Macguyver Bike Repair
3 people are interested in this workshopThis workshop is intended as a space to share and demonstrate the ingenuity that goes into avoiding the embarrassment of *cough* walking or taking the bus. Let us share stories of fashioning repairs with odd objects found on our bike, in our pockets, or on the road. How about those hacked together tools your shop has employed for stubborn bottom brackets or ancient/ obscure parts.
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Participatory Budgeting: Making People Powered Budget Decisions
50 people are interested in this workshopConcentrating the budget decision-making in the hands of a few can lead to an opaque process, replicating the power imbalances outside of the shop. Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a decision-making processes that lets a group of people equitably and directly decide how their money is spent.
PB processes can be used to address power imbalances within a shop, create space for marginalized voices, increase long-term participation in the shop, transparently share budget information, and broaden out decision-making responsibility.
Leave this workshop with: background info on PB, steps for setting up your own PB process specific to your shop, ideas on how to deal with the challenges of PB if/when the wheels fall off, and maybe some snacks!
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Pimp my Bike
One person is interested in this workshopFor four years we have been presenting "Pimp my Bike" in Mexico City. We will share our our achievements and failures experiences with the political-economic context in which the project, different forms of labor and finance succeeded and failed. We will speak to the alliances we developed and projects that came out of this experience.
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Refugee Bicycle Workshops
65 people are interested in this workshopLooking for a way to help out Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, and other refugees from around the world who've just arrived and need transportation? I'll outline how to reach out to your local refugee population to provide bicycles and bike repair and establish a lasting relationship with local non-profits that resettle refugees. Details will include how to run a workshop, how to navigate language barriers, and how to ensure the program lasts.
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Rising Pheasant Farms Bicycle Delivery Ride
21 people are interested in this workshopRising Pheasant farmer's husband and keystone Back Alley Bikes contributor Jack VanDyke is leading a tour of his family's bike-powered farming enterprise. Join him on his delivery rounds via bike to local restaurants, to take a peek at the city and its culinary scene. The tour concludes on foot with a visit to urban farm Rising Pheasant itself. Located on the east side of Detroit, Rising Pheasant was established by partners Jack and Carolyn, who started with a small sprout operation that moved indoors to their attic in the winter, and has since grown to include a year-round outdoor and greenhouse operation.
NOTE: Ride will likely take longer than a normal workshop. 11am-1pm -
Running Women & Trans Hours at your bike Co op
57 people are interested in this workshopHow to start and maintain a Women & Trans* (or WTF, or whatever you like to call it/parameters your community needs!!) space in your bike collective.
Bike Pirates (Toronto) has been running a successful Women & Trans* program every Sunday for the past 8 years. Through the good times and the bad, tea parties, dance breaks, Reddit discussion about our "sexism" and numerous angry cis dudes, we have thrived, and provided a necessary and exciting space for our community.
Along with folks from other bike projects including Bikechain (University of Toronto), Bike Again (Halifax), and Grease Rag (St. Paul's/MPLS) we will help lead a discussion around Safe-r spaces, policies, language and dialogue, how to push for what you need, and how others can be allies. Brought to you by Women & Trans* Sundays! -
Services Toolkit for Your Organization
28 people are interested in this workshopAs community bicycle workshops grow and evolve, they have to adapt. Sometimes that means providing new services. Sometimes it means augmenting old ones.
This workshop is to help ease your shop through these moments. It will give hands-on practice utilizing 3 tools that can help your team be on the same page. We will focus on:
Journey Mapping - to provide visual references on the key points of the service you want to offer.
Business Model Canvas - to quickly get an idea of what the value of the service is, what is involved on the front and back ends, who is effected, what the costs may be, and what will enable it.
Improv Acting - when creating or changing a service, acting it out ahead of time will give you an idea of what is working and what isn't.
This is a participatory workshop.
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Software Demo Follow up
4 people are interested in this workshopWant to try out some of the interesting software discussed at the "Bike Collective Software: An Overview"? Live demos and help with getting things set up. I will make myself and my computer available to assist with training and installation. I hope others will also help out with their computery skills.
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Speaking Bikes to Power - Bike marshaling 101
22 people are interested in this workshopSometimes as bicyclists we have concerns that will only be solved with the involvement of local government. Sometimes we want to raise our voices in outrage, and show our strength in numbers. There are times when we gather publicly as cyclists to call for change: safer streets, lower speed limits, a traffic light at a dangerous intersection, driver awareness, etc. (Much of the information for organizing direct action rides for social change can also be applied to mass rides for community delight and health.)
This workshop will be facilitated so that everyone with experience of mass rides can share best practices, and so that everyone with questions about biking and direct action can ask them.
Have you organized a safer streets bike actions for cyclist and/or pedestrian safety? Would you like to share your experience(s)?Would you like to learn some of the nuts and bolts of organizing a mass ride for your area?
This workshop will introduce you to how to go from *idea to Rolling!* while keeping community safety in mind and gearing your action so that people of all abilities can participate.
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Storage Solution Symposium
22 people are interested in this workshopWhat do you do with all those extra bikes when you have limited space? Where do you put wheels and tires so that they can be accessed and sorted easily? How do you handle awkward parts like chainrings and cranksets? I don't know! Do you?
I'd like to host a casual open house of sorts where attendees share pictures, diagrams, or descriptions of their shops most innovative, useful, silly, beautiful, or cheap storage and organizational solutions. We need ideas at our shop, particularly for bike storage, and maybe others do as well. Come show off your shop! Bring images!
If enough information is compiled perhaps a publication could be produced to help new shops or additions could be made to the bike collective wiki.
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Sustainability and Transition in a Post-Disaster City
50 people are interested in this workshopI'm Catarina, Chief Volunteer at RAD Bikes, a workshed and non-profit in Christchurch, New Zealand. I'd love to share some of our learnings as a group who formed after a series devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. We have been "in transition" since then and in spite of transition, risen to be the budding shed we are today.
Our mission is to improve access to cycling, minimise waste and develop community wellbeing. In the last 5 years, we've grown legs of our own and blossomed into a RAD organisation with lots to share (both on the failures and learnings side of things).
I'd love to get input from the community of bike co-ops and collectives on what it means to be a 'community', build and grow that community, and foster a diverse, welcoming environment for both cyclists and volunteers.
Christchurch, New Zealand is full of roving touring cyclists, passerbys and temp-workers. We've established two fully-functioning workshops alongside our weekly open-hours, Wheel Womyn Wednesdays and After-Schools Programme, on a boot-strapped budget and the sweat of an oily rag. We'd love to share our learnings and learn from others from all ends of the world.
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Sustainable Cycles 2017
8 people are interested in this workshopBikes and Periods
A discussion about riding bicycles and shedding uterine lining. We will discuss Sustainable Cycles, The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, Lael's Globe of Adventure Scholarship, and 2017.
Sustainable Cycles facilitates period-positive workshops about the reusable options for menstrual care. Each workshop is a show-and-tell of menstrual cups, cloth pads, sea sponges, and bike touring. More at sustainablecycles.org
Una discusión sobre la bicicleta y el ciclo menstrual. Vamos a hablar de cicla.tu.ciclo, Sustainable Cycles, The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, la beca de las aventuras de Lael, y el año de 2017.
Sustainable Cycles facilita talleres sobre la bicicleta y las opciones reusables para cuidar el ciclo menstrual. Cada taller se queda de la copa, servilletas de taller, la esponja natural, y viajes en bici.
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The Global Bike Mechanics Work Exchange and Matchmaking: Sharing Hearts and Bike Grease
3 people are interested in this workshopHave you ever wondered what an alternate reality actually feels like? Ever dreamed of tasting the enchanting dollops of bike grease, climbing the rugged tire-mountains, or drowning in ecstasy through the entangling bike tubes of a TOTALLY DIFFERENT place? A Bike Mechanics Exchange may be the perfect thing to glean hands-on inspiration to enhance our own shop operations and community impact.
Come join us as we share our collective experiences and explore the opportunities of a Mechanic (or other) Staff-Swap with another bike shop in your town, another state, or nation.
We’ll also leverage the development of a match-making toolkit and online resource for connecting interested bike shops with mechanics itching to cross-pollinate ideas and broaden perspectives. Together, let's decide on a good platform, how tight or loose should be the requisites, expectations and objectives, and how to tackle the problems inherent to traveling and working across borders -
Volunteer Training and "How-To" Guides
41 people are interested in this workshopLike many groups, our organization relies heavily on volunteers for its operations, so volunteer training is an integral part of the success of our programs. Through the process of constantly evaluating and improving our volunteer training process, we have created “how-to" guides to effectively explain tasks to volunteers as a key part of training, which we have found very successful. We would like to share in a collaborative way what we have learned and how these guides can help other organizations that also face the crucial responsibility of volunteer training.
We will give everyone the template that we use to produce a guide for any task (mechanical or not) and demonstrate how to use them by breaking out into small groups and having everyone fill out the template for a specific task. Following this will be an open discussion of what went well, what not-so-well, and how this tool can be improved and integrated for the needs of your own organization.
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World Naked Bike Ride: Standing up to Oil Dependence and Car Culture.
13 people are interested in this workshopA group of World Naked Bike Ride organizers from Columbus, Ohio are presenting a entertaining, informative, and clothing optional workshop to share our experiences protesting car culture, raising awareness of the vulnerability of cyclists, and ending body shame through the World Naked Bike Ride. We will present a starter kit for anyone interested in hosting a WNBR in their own city.
