Cargo Bicycling

It’s a rainy spring here! During wet times, cold or warm, more things can go wrong with a bicycle, if not properly maintained.

Come to this workshop, where we look over all things that can go wrong, and build some understanding about what to do when something happens, but, even more importantly, what to do to avoid the problem even before it happens.

Time and location:
As usual we will meet at the Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center, so come to 44 Beston street on June 14 Saturday, 4 to 6 pm.

See related past workshops:

Bicycle Maintenance

Spring Bicycle Tune Up

Adverse Weather Bicycling Workshop

The three-part CyclingSavvy course that Transition Amherst sponsored during Bike week was well attended as you can see it from the crowd on the right. Friday evening we got our classroom part amidst delicious finger food from one of the trainers’ Mom (yes, special thanks to her, Eli!).

And in a beautifully sunny Saturday (I even got a bit sunburned) we had both the bike-handling and in-traffic part of the course. Since then I don’t always take the lane like many of the pictures below show a bicyclist can, but I sure have the option in my mind and do it easier when I need to.

Transition Amherst invites you to a three part experiential bicycling course to teach us all bicycling in traffic effectively.

CyclingSavvy Pioneer Valley is excited to offer the   3-part course in Amherst for Bay State Bike Week 2014 beginning Friday, 05/16, 6:00PM-9:00PM and continuing Saturday, 05/17, 9:00AM-4:30PM with lunch break.

Tuition is $75. To register, go to http://register.cyclingsavvy.org/howtoregister. For more information, go to http://cyclingsavvy.org or contact CyclingSavvy Instructor Eli Damon at 413-530-3861 or email cyclingsavvy-pioneer-valley@eli-damon.info.

To register, go to
https://register.cyclingsavvy.org/howtoregister

Details of the three parts:

1) Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling
Fri May 16, 2014 @ 6:00 pm

This fast-paced 3 hour classroom session features guided discussion, video and animation. This session familiarizes students with bicycle-specific laws, traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies. Students discover that bicycle drivers are equal road users, with the right and ability to control their space.

This session is available á la carte. You may take it as a stand-alone class.

2) Train Your Bike
Sat May 17, 2014 @ 9:00 am

This 3 hour session is conducted in a parking lot. It consists of a set of progressive drills designed to increase students’ control and comfort handling their bikes in various situations.

Most bicycling crashes do not involve motor vehicles. They are with fixed objects, pavement hazards, pedestrians, animals or other cyclists, and could be avoided with better bike-handling skills.

This session is available á la carte. You may take it as a stand-alone class.

3) Tour of Amherst
Sat May 17, 2014 @ 12:00 pm

This session is a 3.5 hour experiential tour of our city’s roads. The course includes some of the most challenging road features (intersections, interchanges, merges, etc.) a cyclist might find in his/her travels. The students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location.

This session is only available with the full course. Bike-handling exceptions can be made for trike drivers.

This session is designed to give you the confidence and problem-solving skills to handle any situation you might encounter.

CyclingSavvy Pioneer Valley is the local branch of CyclingSavvy (http://cyclingsavvy.org),
a wildly successful nation-wide cycling training program.

Transition Amherst is co sponsoring an event with Grow Food Amherst and Sustaining Amherst; a tour of some of Amherst’s edible gardens on bicycles.

The tour will take place on Saturday, August 24th – we will leave the north side of Amherst Common at 2 pm sharp, so arrive sooner, like at 1:45 PM. All are encouraged to join along the entire tour, but individuals may select tours at specific locations. No need to register for this event, but don’t be late!

Garden stops are scheduled at the following times/locations:
2:20 PM – 39 Longmeadow Dr (Nancy Karella)
3:00 PM – 44 Beston Street (Gabor Lukacs)
3:40 PM – 483 Montague Rd (Becky Reed)
4:10 PM – 324 Henry Street (David Lovler)
4:30 PM – Potluck at Henry St location

There will be a potluck immediately following the tour beginning at 4:30 PM at the Henry Street location. Contributions to the meal are welcome, but not required. Please contact David Lovler at (617) 733-7577 or via e-mail: howitallvegan@yahoo.com to confirm attendance at the potluck.

See more in a Gazette article as well as on the town’s website

Also, in another event, please join Peg Thibbitts on Thursday, August 22nd in the Large Community Room at the Bangs Center from 6 PM – 8 PM for the second in our summer series of jam making workshops. Enjoy the tastes of summer all season long by learning how to make your own homemade jam. All participants will leave with a jar of jam. Pre-registration is required as participation is limited to twenty individuals. Please contact Stephanie Ciccarello at (413) 259-3149 or via e-mail at ciccarellos@amherstma.gov to register.

Another bicycle workshop, but with a twist. I have a group of folks, who are interested in the basics of bicycle maintenance but also want to know how to build a bicycle trailer. Not only they want to know, they want to do it. So we are getting together this Saturday, August 6th at 5pm to shortly look at the basics around taking care of a bicycle and then we will switch to high gear and harvest bamboo, and start building some trailers out of them.

Lots of reference information here with a lot more on bicycle maintenance:

Lubrication

Adjusting the Adjustables

Adjusting the Adjustables II.

As for building a bicycle trailer see these links for a good description on how to build one:

Audio-visual

The steps of the process from a previous workshop

As more and more people realize the damage using a car does to our environment and to our wallets bicycling gets a better press in spite of all the discomfort we associate with it. And wait until you actually get on one: the freedom is hard to describe to someone who commutes by car.

That’s why we will talk about bicycle maintenance again Saturday, July 27, from 5 to 7 pm (I pushed it later toward the evening so it is not so hot…) at Gabor’s Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center, 44 Beston street in the framework of another Transition Amherst Reskilling workshop. As usual the workshop is free, bring yourself and your questions. If you bring your bike we will oil it too.

References:

Lubrication

Adjusting the Adjustables

Adjusting the Adjustables II.

Special Note:
This time please let me know if you are coming via my email: A local CSA, Many Hands, will bring all their interns, so we already have a sizable group!

As more and more people realize the damage using a car does to our environment and to our wallets bicycling gets a better press in spite of all the discomfort we associate with it. And wait until you actually get on one: the freedom is hard to describe to someone who commutes by car.

That’s why we will talk about bicycle maintenance Saturday, June 22, from 3 to 5 pm at Gabor’s Neighborhood Bicycle Resource Center, 44 Beston street in the framework of another Transition Amherst Reskilling workshop. As usual the workshop is free, bring yourself and your questions. If you bring your bike we will oil it too.

References:

Lubrication

Adjusting the Adjustables

Adjusting the Adjustables II.