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Bicycle use for community building

Date started: 
15 October 2009
Last updated: Monday, 23 January 2012
Related initiatives: 
Amherst

Website

http://odt.org/gabor/BestonBicycleBarn
http://www.transitionamherst.org/blog/projects/building-community-with-bicycles/

Images

Beston Bicycle Barn a year ago
Cargo bike or Bakfiets
All wheel drive (hand bicycle)
bicycle built for two
Tadpole tricycle for slippery conditions
Electric Utility Bike: with Xtracycle Free Radical kit and electric assist
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Project Aim

 To explore all the ways bicycles can be used in our lives in transition

 

Further details

 This project is to better prepare myself and my neighborhood for the transition to a lower energy use, simplified society. It creates community resilience by helping and providing alternative transportation to a culture, utterly addicted to cars, and through that, the extensive and unsustainable use of fossil fuels. It consists of building a facility for bicycle maintenance, repair, and building special bicycles with a certain goal in mind. 

Inspiration

* My admiration of bicycles as tools for transportation, energy generation, health generation, community building, fun. * To help my preparation for transition to a different, and hopefully more resilient, life. * To inspire my community for more bicycle use. * To enjoy life by expressing myself creatively.

Outcomes so far

* I built a bicycle shed, named Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center (or as my neighbor who the idea came from, likes to call it, 'Beston Bicycle Barn') * I stocked it with tires, tubes, wheels, mud-guards, lights and other appliances * I acquired and built bicycles for various road-circumstances, here is a list: 1) Bought a folding bicycle forbeing able to use public transportation better. 2) Built a tadpole tricycle for winter biking. 3) Built a tandem bicycle from two used bikes from the dump. 4) Bought a bicycle with fat wheels for biking in soft snow or on bumpy road/sand 5) Built a cargo bicycle using an XtraCycle kit and an electric bicycle kit. 6) built several bicycle trailers out of conduit and bamboo (that I grow) 7) Added good quality lights and generators for night biking. 8) Got studded tires for winter riding. 9) built two hand-bicycles for balancing the load on my body, upper body workout. 10) Acquired several special bicycles (electric, continuous shift, etc.) for demo purposes.

Unexpected outcomes

* I quickly ran out of space, so I have set up a car-shelter to store the bicycles in. * I feel more prepared * I have a fabulous relationship with my local bike-shops - they like my projects, the activity, the advocacy, and the buying too. * I acquired welding skills and honed my bicycle-maintenance skills. * I became even more interested in bikes, and am more familiar with the local bike community. * I befriended several people who I helped out with the new facility. * I have more energy for biking and more creativity to use bikes in general. * People start to turn to me for help with bicycles, even though I didn't publicly announce the project as of today. * Since I don't have a car, I can easily afford all these things.

Obstacles, and how we overcame them

 * First I built the Bike Barn on my neighbor's property (she agreed to it then, because it was better visible from the road), but her son, home from college, really didn't like the idea, so a man from my men's group (banded together for supporting each other in our preparation) helped me move it over to my side.

* I had a bicycle stolen off the porch. Having travelled to the Netherlands, I bought some of those great locks that lock around bicycle wheels, and applied to my bikes. And inside the shelter there are wave bike-racks are set up to which the bicycles are locked.

*  I ran out of space, so I set up a car-shelter for bikes that didn't have space. As a result there is more space in the Bike Barn as well as less bicycles on my porch.

* I have very little time. Don't exactly know how to deal with this one (that's why I didn't announce the project publicly yet). But the economic slowdown/collapse will soon help, as I hear software designers are not needed much when the economy doesn't expand (or outright shrinks:-).

 

Lessons Learned

Be very clear about what support you are getting, who supports you, and if there is a catch. I still tend to talk to people from a point of view that they understand the world similarly than I do, and having come from Hungary, living in New England, that leads to misunderstandings, that complicates life. I also let my to-do lists 'sit on my life'. I am striving to create more balance, where I enjoy working on my lists (of activities I love), but I can easily create a 'to-do obligation' out of them, which then eats into my free time (if it is an obligation, I schedule time for it, which is not free time any more, if I don't press myself too hard, I do it joyously in my free time).

Links and Partnerships

* Local bicycle shops Laughing Dog Cyclery, and Hampshire Bicycle Exchange as well in a smaller extent.
* Help from friends and family.

Sources of materials

* The dump, and tagsales/garage sales, friends donations, for acquiring used bicycles from.
* Local bicycle Shops

Contacts

Primary point of contact: 
Gaborzol

Comments

Ben Brangwyn's picture

Wonderful project

15 May 2011 - 10:32am — Ben Brangwyn

Hey Gabor,

Thanks for writing that one up. It's lovely, and as someone who does free bike maintenance in Totnes market on a Saturday, I share your passion for getting/keeping people on two wheels. (www.doctorbike.org).

I'm thinking of where to take it next - I'm already doing training courses - and you've given me some food for thought. Interesting...

Cheers. Ben. 

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