Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society

Beginning March 11 and continuing every Thursday evening at 6:00 P.M., EBC will be offering a series of how-to bike maintenance seminars.  We’ll start things off on Thursday the 11th with a basic bike maintenance and tune up class. No previous experience is required.  Bring your bike if you have one or come and practice on our bikes!  All courses are free for EBC members and $5 for non-members.  While registration is not mandatory it is strongly recommended as courses will be capped at ten people. To register, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  And make sure to check out our calendar for upcoming courses covering topics from wheel care to drivechain overhauls!

Design and build your own custom bike lights: wearable lights, colourful LEDs, ultra high-power front and rear lights, neon lights, helmet lights, dynamo LED upgrades—we’ll teach you how to make whatever you want.

We’ll go over circuits, LEDs, batteries, soldering, weather-proofing, and help you design and construct your own custom lights. No tools, soldering, nor electronic experience necessary! Just bring your ideas of what you want to build.  You can view the course outline here.

To register for the bike lights workshop, please e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The workshop shall be on Saturday, February 20, 2010, from 5pm-9pm.

The cost of the workshop is free to members, and $20 to non-members.  You will have to pay for any materials you require for building your lights.  You can look at the preliminary price list, but in general, the most expensive, high-power lights will cost you about $25 to build, and another $25 for a lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack and charger (if needed).

Depending on the complexity of what you design, and the availability of parts, we may schedule later small-group sessions to do the actual light construction.

You can also view a comparison of some of the front lights, some of which are available for immediate purchase (i.e. you don’t have to do any work, but the prices will be higher than what’s listed).

As a bonus, there will be free button/watch/coin cell batteries available, so bring your dead watches, mini-electronics, and valve stem lights for a free replacement. 

Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Time: 6:30pm-9pm
Location: BikeWorks (10047 80 Ave, entrance through back alley only)
Cost: Showing up to talk or ask questions is free. If you want to stud a tire, it costs $5 for members (to cover materials), $10 for non-members. Supply your own tire, or buy used ($5) or new ($10) tires at the workshop.
Registration: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (registration for tire studding is required)

Do you fall down a lot?  Do your fingers and toes go numb in the cold?  Did your eyes freeze shut last night?  Do you think people that ride bicycles in the winter are crazy?  Did you know that the average daily temperature in January 2009 was -10.5C, and that the average daily high in February 2009 was -4.1C?

Come talk with us about how we do it.  While you’re at it, put some wicked studs in your tire.  It took me ~45 minutes the first time I made one (and I’m awful with a drill), and I enjoyed it so much that I studded 4 more tires, and I’d do it again sooner than repack my bottom bracket. Didn’t even get dirty.

Over the holidays, BikeWorks will be closed December 24 through December 28th, and on December 31st. So come by and visit us on December 30th, otherwise we might get lonely.  We’ll be back to regular hours promptly on January 2.

Join us for another workshop where you can add retro-reflective material to your clothing in stylish and creative ways or make retro-reflective patches that you can sew onto clothing, backpacks, etc.  The first one was great fun—below you can see some of the designs that were made that evening (without need much technical or artistic skill, even!).

As the nights become longer cyclists increasingly need to use every tool in their arsenal to stay visible to motorists on the road. One tool is silver retroreflective material that, when light (especially from headlights) is shined on it, reflects light back to the source.

Bring:
- clothing you would like to make more visible in the night. Make sure it is clean, and when you wash it, don’t use fabric softener. This process in this workshop isn’t suitable for some materials (like plastic rain coats) that can’t be ironed.
- ideas for designs and motifs, because reflectivity doesn’t have to just mean a big ol’ X on the back. We will have a computer and printer available if you want to bring ideas in digital form.

Hope to see you there!

Location: BikeWorks, upstairs lounge (10047 80 Ave, entrance through back alley only)
Cost: Free for members, $5 for non-members
RSVP: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  - space is limited
Time: 7-9pm
Date: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 (tentative)

Dance Party! On Friday December 18th, for the first time ever, EBC will be having a dance party at Bikeworks! Come on down to the shop starting at 9 PM to pump away those winter blues and Pump Up the Jams! All ages - cash bar (bring your ID)

I updated the website. A whole bunch of stuff vanished. I was sad.

I spent the next 3 hours fixing things.

If you come across broken links, missing text, or notice any other unsightly exposed guts of the website,  please let me know: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I’ll appreciate it.

Apologies for any inconvenience!

PS. Check this out:

View Larger Map

NB: You may have initially seen this posted as happening today (November 30), but it’s not! It’s actually happening on December 7. Sorry for any confusion.

The Edmonton Bicycle Commuters is very grateful to have an abundance of volunteers who want to help this organization grow. We know that our volunteer base has a diverse range of backgrounds and skills that they are hoping to share. The Volunteer Committee’s aim is to help shape policies and initiatives to help make volunteering with EBC fun, insightful and as diverse as our volunteers are. If you have ideas or comments that you would like to share, please come by the meeting.  Help us to make volunteering with EBC more rewarding and effective!

Please e-mail us for an agenda, or to add items to the agenda.

Location: BikeWorks (10047 80 Ave, entrance through back alley only)
Date: 7:00pm - 9:00pm, Monday, December 7, 2009
Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
More info: http:/edmontonbikes.ca/calendar

Our DIY retroreflective workshop is happening right now. If you missed registering (it’s over capacity!), don’t fret, there will likely be another: just keep an eye here, and sign up to our mailing list (you’ll find the sign-up on the right).

A big thank you to Wildrose Garments for supplying the retroreflective material, and CityTV for televising us.  You can watch again tonight at 11pm.

If you’re interested in our winter riding workshops (how to ride safely, and how to stud your own tires), check out our calendar and register now.

And if you’re new to the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters’, welcome!  We operate a volunteer-run community bike shop, where we teach anyone that wants how to fix and maintain their bicycle.  We also have cheap used bikes and parts for sale.  EBC does advocacy as well, working with the City to improve conditions for all cyclists in the city, whether you ride to work, school, the grocery store, across the country, or to the market once a week.  If you want to be more confident riding on the road, we have courses on effective and safe cycling, we teach cycling to special needs children, and we have formal mechanic courses, as well.

If you’re interested in more info, or want to be involved with any of our work, let us know by e-mailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

EBC will be hosting a free bike building workshop on Sunday October 25th from 1pm to 5pm. We’re excited about turning some of those donated bikes, with a little bit of love, into amazing on and off-road commuting machines. Mechanics will be there to help you learn how to help bikes!

Note:Bikes being built on this day are EBC’s bikes, not your bikes

I am thrilled to announce our best winter hours ever. (Effective October 1, 2009)

Monday: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Wednesday: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Thursday: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Saturday: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Sunday (first and third of the month, women/trans only): 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

EBC volunteers will once again be tackling the infamous BikeWorks yard to keep it easy to find that gem you’ve been looking for!
To try and keep on top of the flood of donations that are rapidly filling up the BikeWorks yard, there will once again be a fun-filled Bike Stripping Extravaganza and organizing party at BikeWorks on
October 4th from 5:30pm to 9:00pm (or until we run out of energy)

BikeWorks will be closed tomorrow (Sunday, September 13).

Come to our AGM instead, at Parkallen Community League Hall (11104 65 Ave) from 1-4pm.  We’ll feed you, and you can learn more about the organization.