Fender Bender is a group committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for women, transgendered, and genderqueer individuals to learn about and work on bikes. All events will be held in The Hub’s Back Alley Bikes educational space (3535 Cass).  Alright.  Mark yer calendars:

March 6th, 3:30-6:30pm – Open Shop

March 8th, 2pm – Womyn’s Birthday Ride! Celebrate Vanessa’s birthday and join us on an early Spring all-womyn group ride. We will meet outside the front of The Hub at 2pm.

March 20th, 3:30-6:30pm – Open Shop

March 23rd, 7pm-9pm – Repair Workshop Topic: wheel anatomy, fixin’ flats.

March 31st – International Transgendered Visibility Day

April 10th, 4-7pm – Open Shop

April 27th, 7-9pm – Repair Workshop Topic to be decided.  Please let us know what you’d like to learn or have to offer at any of our events.

The first thing to know is that on Wednesday, March 3rd and Thursday, March 4th from 5pm-6pm we will be having our monthly volunteer meetings. Feel free to come by to ask questions, bring up concerns or ideas with everyone. We may even discuss a work day planned for April 3rd!
The second thing to know is that on the last Thursday of March, which is Thursday March 25th we will NOT be having volunteer night as regularly scheduled. Instead we will be having an alleycat bike race and movie night.
There will be an updating on all the details soon, but for now, it is looking like the bike race will start at the HUB around 6pm and end at the Burton Theater where bike themed movies will start around 8pm. If you still want to volunteer on March 25th, contact Jason(at)thehubofdetroit(dot)org and he may be able to utilize you to help run the alleycat race.
If you don’t want to race but want to come to the movie night that would be great. Keep an eye on the website for further information about event costs and other details.
Hope to see you all in March as we continue to get ready for the busy Spring Season! See you soon!

**If you have any questions about volunteering email Jason(at)thehubofdetroit(dot)org or stop by the shop and pick up a New Volunteer Manual to get you started on what volunteer nights are all about.

I am so stoked to announce the start of regular Fender Bender nights, which are a result of the awesome feedback and support we got from our first meeting in January. The next Fender Bender skill share will happen Tuesday, February 23rd from 7:00pm-9:00pm, in the Back Alley Bikes space. This month we’re starting with the basics – fixin’ flats! Expect to patch tubes, learn wheel anatomy, and get introduced to important tools all in a totally hands on learning experience.

If you already know how to fix a flat, we would love some help facilitating! Drop a line to fenderbenderdetroit@gmail.com and let us know, or just show up and we’ll make good use of your skills!

In order to make sure we are meeting as many needs of our community as possible, we have decided to begin offering regular open shop nights in addition to our recurring Fender Bender skill-share events!  The open shop time is intended for anyone (who fits within the self identified framework that Fender Bender aims to serve) who could benefit most from having access to the shop, the tools, and of course, a welcoming and safe community space in order to work on their own bikes.

The first open shop will take place Saturday, February 20th from 3:30pm-6:30pm. We will have female/gender queer mechanics on hand to help answer any questions and provide support for whatever projects you’re working on.

The format of the open shop access will mimic the regular Ally Program that the Hub offers, whereby folks can earn access to the shop’s resources after volunteering their time.  Before you can work on your own projects, you must spend at least one hour working on a volunteer project for the Hub. Basically, the open shop is three hours long so if you spend the first hour patching tubes, stripping a bike, cleaning up tools, or whatever else the Hub might need from its volunteers, you can have the next two hours all to yourself. We want to make it clear that anyone who attends Fender Bender can always attend the regularly scheduled, totally open volunteer nights at the Hub (Wednesday and Thursday nights from 6:00pm-8:00pm) to earn their Ally hours, we just wanted to make sure that there was an analogous program available for anyone who may not feel entirely comfortable in the regular shop atmosphere.

We hope to increase Fender Bender open shops to twice a month, and then possibly weekly in the near future so please check back with us if you can’t make the one on the 20th – chances are we will have added another one very soon.

If you have any questions about this event, the volunteer requirements, or the Hub in general, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We love letters. I will also point you to our Fender Bender program blog, where you can fill out a questionnaire to let us know what we can do to make these events the most useful and welcoming they can possibly be.

Hope to see you there!

Hundreds of people on bikes from all over America are coming to Detroit, June 22-26 to participate in The Second US Social Forum, including a group of bicyclists traveling through Ontario through upstate New York.

Crossing the border by bicycle through Detroit is something we’ve noticed a few approaches to, and is something people ask us about all the time. Currently, there is no regularly scheduled method to cross the border via bicycle, (and people notice). It seems so obvious in many senses, yet no one seems to be able to provide an answer as to why, or what steps towards resolving this seemingly straightforward issue might be.

With projects like the Adventure Cycling’s Underground Rail Road Bike Route and the U.S. Bike Routes System looking at Detroit for future development, signs could very well be pointing in a good direction for those of us who have yet to be able to take advantage of the nearest mountain biking to Detroit, Malden Park in Windsor due to the automotive border crossing monopoly.

The 2010 United States Social Forum will be neither the first nor last time cyclists expressing interest in crossing the Detroit/Windsor border will have the opportunity to observe and participate in some clear examples of the advantages a bicycle border crossing option might grant the Detroit/Windsor area. Only time will tell whether this is truly the signal we have all been on the lookout for with regards to bicycle access to Windsor.

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For more info about the USSF Bicycle Engagement, make sure to check out these two snippets from BikeIt.org describing

…a bit of what they’re about:

“Bikeit is also about people power. It is about alternative transportation, it is about organizing ourselves to have a world of clean air, clean water, healthy food and health care, economic and racial justice, and it is about making that statement all together. It is about joining 20,000 other folks who will be coming by any means necessary to get there.”

…and how that helps what folks in Detroit are doing:

We are asking for donations of bicycles, tools, and bike parts. Our goal is to collect as many bicycles as we can for rental during the Social Forum, and dispersal throughout the community after the forum. Visitors and residents will use the bicycles to tour the city and transport themselves to workshops. We want to create an exciting bicycle presence in our city to show that another world is possible.

What will we do with the bikes after the Social Forum is over? Your donated parts, tools, and bicycles will be used to help transform our city. We are in the process of targeting churches, community groups, youth groups, and potential businesses that have the capacity and desire to use bicycles for their programs. The bicycles and parts you donate to the Social Forum will be used by these groups after June 2010.

Donations of goods to the USSF Bicycle Program can be mailed to:

King Solomon Baptist Church

6100 14^th St.

Detroit, MI 48208

Don’t hesitate to email ussfbikes@gmail.com for more details regarding getting involved or even your organization’s potential partnership with the Bike Rental dispersal program

Last month we spoke about a new volunteer manual. This little book has contact information and frequently asked questions to get new volunteers acquainted to the space. That manual is finished and I will have copies this week!

Like always, volunteer time will begin after the meetings at 6pm. There are plenty of more tubes to sort, spokes to measure and bikes to build. In the past few weeks we have been working in teams to build bikes for the coming spring. So come on by and get your hands dirty.

At the end of the month we can celebrate our hard work on Saturday the 27th at the Park Bar downtown. There will be a benefit show for the HUB featuring Wheatpaste and The Hentchmen. Both bands have members that volunteer at the HUB. Can you guess who?

Class payment is donation based and free for those unable to donate. We ask that when you register, that you commit to the entire eight week session. A donation of $40 or more receives a tool kit at the end of the eight weeks.

To register online, email angie@thehubofdetroit.org with your name, contact info and date of the next session you plan to attend. Please put “Mechanic Class” in the subject line. You can also pick up a registration form in the shop during business hours; just ask whoever is working to help you fill it out.

Donations will be accepted at any class during the session. If you can’t make this session, the next full session will begin on April 11th.

And if you can’t make the classes this time around, don’t worry another session will be starting up after the finish of this one so keep an eye on the website for more information at that time.

- Jason X

One of the speakers, Special Projects Coordinator Ginny Sullivan of the ACA, wrote her most recent “Connections” blog about her experience here, highlighting some of the rich history and awesome upcoming expansion of their UGRR bicycle route to include Detroit!

Check it out:

http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2010/01/underground-railroad-bicycle-route.html

Musical performances by:

Wheatpaste
and
Jericho Offriguez

Open Sprinting will start after the first band, and this just in…

Top 3 Men/Women will receive prizes, courtesy of The Hub!

1st place: $25 Gift Certificate redeemable at The Hub Bike Shop
2nd place: 2nd Edition Hub of Detroit T-Shirt (A $15 value!)
3rd place: 2010 Hub Calendar (A $5 Value!)

Make sure to sprint early, sprint often, and tip your servers!

Learn more about opensprints @ www.opensprints.org!