Hobart Bike Kitchen

It’s been a while between posts, so whats been going on?

Well the title sums it up, it’s been 3 lovely years but the time has come to say Goodbye Seaview Ave.

It is amazing how much has happened under the Hobart Bike Kitchen banner since we got started and Gus convinced Liam that a few bikes in the backyard and some friendly bike maintenance was a good idea.

We’ve literally passed on hundreds of bikes, we’ve held a Sunday Session virtually every weekend since then and have had a wonderful time doing so.

Liam has been a generous and understanding landlord and his support has enable HBK to find it’s feet, and to prove that there is a need for, and community support for what we’re doing.

Liam is now travelling around and wasn’t going to be onsite as much so we needed to give the backyard back to the vegies and the animals.

Taroona has been a great venue for HBK as the community has lots of people who have liked what we’re doing and come along to get bikes or learn skills, others have donated and it’s been really positive.

However, we do recognise that it works well if you’ve got transport to get there or your bike is working but if you need to get a bike for transport then we’re a little hard to get to. So we’ve been looking to find a more central venue that you can get to easily.

Also we like to get ourselves setup a bit better in terms of storage, work areas, coping with bad weather, …

So we have been looking for another venue. We have a venue which we’re sure will be great but are still working through planning/building issues before the new site is up and running. More details when we can. So in the meantime we wont be running Sunday Sessions or taking donations.

Please have patience with us as we’re very busy behind the scenes getting this established.

We also hope to run some one-off sessions at various venues. So if you are organising an event where you’d like some friendly bike maintance vibe please get in touch and maybe we can work something out.

So to sum up, this is not an obituary, Hobart Bike Kitchen is moving on and changing. We hope to bigger and better things.

It is a chance though to thank Liam for all his support. I’m not sure if he envisaged what HBK would grow to but I do know that he ensured that HBK got off to a good start and that our efforts will mirror his in the promotion of all things healthy and cycling.

I’d also like to thank everyone who responded to our request for help with the packup and move. We’ve accumulated a fair bit of stuff in our time and assessing, packing, loading & unloading it was a task beyond the core group of chefs in the time we had. But that is an example of how we see Hobart Bike Kitchen, it isn’t a bike club for a few backyard bike repairers it’s a community of people who want to support more people on more bikes in a friendly, cooperative, supportive, sustainable way.

So please stay in touch, come back to the site in the near future for updates on what we’re doing and please come along and join us when we’re back to normal service.

 

We’ve just had a great day at PULSE.

Lance, Steve & Mark and a bunch of keen bike riders had a great afternnon of bike fixing.

I think we surpassed ourselves and by the end of the afternoon a dozen bikes were ridden away. That would be the most bikes that we’ve got through in one day.

So thanks to everyone who took part, and to all those who have donated to us and made this possible.

We’d like to also thank PULSE for making us welcome and getting everyone along.

There is a repeat session next Friday so if you’re looking for a bike get in touch with PULSE or MRC so that we can plan ahead for next week.

Here are some photos from a terrific afternoon.

While we haven’t been busy on the blog we ceratinly have out in the Bike Kitchen backyard.

There have been plenty of Sunday Sessions (just remember to check the Upcoming Sessions list to see what’s happening) helping put many bikes out on the road, and a considerable amount of cleaning up. Thanks to all those who have helped with making the backyard look more inviting.

One of the frequently asked questions is can we help/what do we know about electric bikes.

We can recommend our friends at http://www.eco-bikes.com.au. Tell Ahmet that Bike Kitchen sent you 🙂

But here is a post about doing it yourself with a conversion kit. Convert your bike to an e-bike!.
Sure worth noting that one of the suggestions is “In fact, the best type of bike is a RECYCLED bike, so we are minimising the need to buy a whole new bike!
So we’d love to see you grab a Bike Kitchen bike and give this a go and then let us know how it all went.

Ride to Work Day 2011 provided a great oppoptunity for HBK to hit the road.

The Mawson Place breakfast saw Lance, Steve and Sam dishing out some bike care and having a chat with many of morning crowd to spread the good word of Bike Kitchening.

But that wasn’t enough for Lance, he had his long bike loaded and so he fitted in an afternoon session for the travellers heading up the South Hobart Rivulet track and setup a mini session there between 5-6pm.

He provided oil or air to about 10 people, and chatted to about another 5-10 about stuff. Which, I’m sure you’ll agree, made it a highly succesful bike hour!

All the gear you can see Lance carried on the bike.

Thanks very much Lance for taking the HBK message to the streets, but also for a terrific lesson in bike packing.

Let’s get ready to party.

We’re getting out party pieces ready for the upcoming Sustainable Living Expo which is on 5-6 November 2011.

You can have a look at the bikes that we’ll for the auction. This year the plan is to have the bike auction only on the Sunday so that you’ll get the chance to browse on both days if that suits you, or just come on Sunday and check out the bikes for yourself.

This is our once a year fund raiser and ensures we can keep providing wonderful bikes back to the community in a way everybody can be part of.

If you’ve got some time to help in preparing the bikes, it could be as simple as giving one the clean and polish it needs to look it’s Sunday best, we’d love you to come along to a Sunday Session and join us.

If you’re looking for a bike that’s a little bit special that’s ready to go this is the opportunity that only comes along once a year.

So check out the page Auction Bikes – 2011

Well it’s more the case of HBK going to YouTube.

Angus Ashton has put a HBK bike to good use and you can see it’s guest appearance on his video

Sometimes you gotta break the rules. Like crossing on a red man. Not locking your front door. Walking backwards up an escalator. Wearing odd socks with pants that are too short. Wearing odd pants with socks that are too short. And so on.

Well, add one more to the list – Finishing a HBK session after 5 o’clock. After a spiritual afternoon giving the people of Hobart all the bike learning our bones had to offer, the skies darkened and we realised the error of our ways, the witching hour was here and there was no stopping it. While we had busied ourselves with work the whispers of night had crept into our very minds and now compelled us to new tasks.

So by the light of a bicycle chain oil lamp, we set about the city inserting spoke cards, repairing tyres and correcting the braking clearances of any innocent bicycle left alone.

At least thats what I heard.

Some people say it never happened.

– Better go check your bike… –

Continue reading Full moona in Taroona

You know all that stuff we get taught about what makes people feel valued in the workplace & how positive feedback is worth as much as a pay rise or other rewards so it was great to get this letter

Hi bike kitchen people,

only checked my email today after going to sunny queensland for easter. didnt get a chance to ride before the holiday but just want to let you know that my bike has brought joy to our family. i have been dinking the kids, used the bike as transport with 1 on the back and one on their own bike, and completely punished my legs by taking each of the three kids for a ride over the weekend and today, something i hope will be a daily ritual. i forgot how peaceful and in touch with your environment you are when riding a bike (especially when it is 9 degrees!).

Anyway i totally intend to come and pay back the goodness of the bike by helping tidy up the shed or whatever but just needed to get it together after the holiday.

thanks

How good is that! We’ve got joy, exercise, family togetherness & peace all brought togther by a Bike Kitchen bike, a bit of time and a pair or two of dirty hands.

With apologies to Darren Hanlon
What joy it’ll bring, piece of metal and two wheels

Bike Love,
from all at Hobart Bike Kitchen

We’ve always wanted everone who comes in contact with the Bike Kitchen to feel they can contribute in some way.

So we’re expanding the use of our Google group to share ideas and keep in touch with you a bit more than just the weekly advice on the Sunday Sessions.

You’ve been invited to Hobart Bike Kitchen

Hi everyone,

we here at the Hobart Bike Kitchen have been happily working away at recycling bikes and donating them for about 18 months now, and we are soon planning on undergoing a bit of change. We really want to keep growing and keep getting better but we need more help!

One of the things that the core group of organisers would really really like is to get a few more people actively involved with discussions, decisions and organisation of the kitchen.

As a first step to this, I’m inviting everyone to join our online discussion group. At present there are a very few of us who use this, but its a valuable way to start getting some broader discussions about the directions that we are heading and how we are going to actually get enough help to be able to keep getting bigger and better.

I understand that there are probably only a few of you on this list who would like to take this extra step, but rather than send this invite only to people whose names I know, I thought it would be much better to make it an open invite – after all, coops are all about community and sharing, not about having a small core group of managers…

If you would like to join up, please do so and over the next couple of weeks I’ll make a real effort to approve membership requests as they come in. Have a look at our past discussions to see how we run, and start making some input when you want!

cheers!

Lance
Hobart Bike Kitchen.

You can subscribe by clicking the following URL:
http://groups.google.com/group/hobartbikekitchen/subscribe

It’s a new year and often a time to look back as much as look forward so some of you may be interested in how we got started.

Here’s a link to the original discussion on Facebook started by Gus.

It still very much sums up our aims and aspirations.

I’d like to either embed the article or export from Fbook, but neither are simple tasks so you’ll need to follow the link.

But don’t worry there’s still much to look forward to, soon you’ll be seeing our new trailer, we still on the lookout for a more central location and as discussed above we want to get connections with the local bike groups etc…

So here’s to a terrific 2011.

Bike Love, Mark