Want to learn how to overhaul, maintain and fix your own bike? Want to brush up on your skills?
The Adult Repair Class is for you!!
The January/February Adult Bike Repair Class starts on Monday, January 25th, and will meet from 6:30-9:00pm that night and the next three Mondays (February 1, 8, and 15). Lessons typically include going over parts of the bike and bike fit, care and feeding of your brakes and shifting, and an introduction to overhauling bearings. Participants are encouraged to bring their own bikes. The fee for the class is $60. To sign up, please visit January/February Adult Bike Repair Class @ Brown Paper Tickets or email repairclass@neighborhoodbikeworks.org.
Want to build a track bike? A hybrid? A fixed gear? A mountain bike?
The new NBW Build Your Own Bike Class is for you!! No experience necessary!
The Neighborhood Bike Works Build Your Own Bike Class for adults meets for four Sunday afternoons, on February 7, 14, 21, and 28, from 3:00 to 5:30pm. This class will lead you step-by-step through building your own bike. Bring your own bike frame and parts or purchase them from our selection of used frames and used & new parts. (Cost of bike frames and parts not included in class price.) To sign up, please visit Build Your Own Bike Class @ Brown Paper Tickets or email repairclass@neighborhoodbikeworks.org.
Please email or call 215-386-0316 with any questions about either of these classes.
Hope to see you then!
Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Neighborhood Bike Works invites all graduates, their families, and community members to ride to a picnic shelter in Fairmount Park behind the Mann Music Center for a barbecue and presentation about Major Taylor.
Join us this Saturday, November 28th for this year’s ride and barbecue plus a special party at Haddington!
To come on the ride, show up at the 40th Street shop at 10am, or earlier if you need to borrow a bike. Contact us for more info or if you’d like to volunteer - email andy at neighborhoodbikeworks dot org or call us at 215-386-0316.
You can also meet us behind the Mann Music Center just before noon.
Afterwards, come to the Grand Opening Party of the new Haddington Shop!!! We’ll have food and a screening of Bikes Work, a film made by NBW youth with Scribe Video Center.
- When: 2-4pm
- Where: 230 N. Salford Street, between Race & Vine (Salford Street runs between 59th & 60th streets - click here for map)
Neighborhood Bike Works was lucky to have the opportunity last week to bring twenty NBW youth and family members to the UniverSoul Circus at the Mann Center in Fairmount Park. Instructor Cat Bergeron led the trip. Nine youth rode to the Mann Center with Cat and one of our dedicated volunteers, while eleven more youth and family members met the NBW contingent at the event.
Thanks to Representative Vanessa Lowry Brown for making this trip possible by donating free tickets to NBW!
Here’s a note from one of the kids who went on the trip:
Thank you for giving me and my grandmother tickets to go to the UniverSoul! Circus. My favorite part was the magic and the contortionist. They were so flexible they made my neck hurt. We had a good time.
We’re excited to report that NBW, along with a committed group of volunteers in Norristown, is getting ready to hold our inaugural Earn a Bike class at our location in Elmwood Park. We have secured a space, prepared for the class, and raised almost the full $5,000 we need to run the class (click here to donate and bring us closer to our goal!). What we’re looking for now: lumber donations and volunteers.
We need lumber to finish getting the Norristown location ready. What we need:
- eight 2×4x8’s
- eight 2×6x8’s
- two 4×4x8’s
- two sheets of 5/8 to 3/4 plywood (to make a closet door), or a door that can be cut down, and a couple of hinges.
We need volunteers for the Earn-a-Bike class. You don’t need to know about bike repair, you just need to like working with kids. Classes will be held twice a week Monday through Friday from 4pm to 6pm at Elmwood Park in Norristown. All volunteers will need to attend an orientation session that will be announced within the next week. We will also need volunteers for group rides, to repair bikes that we sell to raise money, and other projects. If you are interested in volunteering please send an e-mail to norristownnbw@gmail.com and visit our website at http://sites.google.com/site/nbwofnorristown and subscribe to the RSS feed in the announcements page.
NBW received a check for $360 from Frankenstein Bike Worx for royalties from the design of the Street Cred urban fixed gear! Andy Dyson and Josh Case went over to the shop to receive the check from Jeff Harris.
NBW’s eighth summer day camp is over. Great congratulations to camp director Cat Bergeron and instructors Liz Brown, Giulia DeProphetis, and Olivia Haas. Many other people helped out, including several parents and family members, intern Jeff Cao, work study students Susan Fang and Dave Hilbert, numerous ride volunteers including Jeff Appeltans of Go Cycling and Kristin Gavin of Gearing Up. Interns Sara Kruger and Yowei Shaw mobilized youth employees to make audio yearbooks for the camp students. Keep an ear open for those being posted here soon! Youth assistats Joshua Case and Devon McPherson worked the full eight weeks. If I didn’t know anything about NBW’s summer camp and you described it to me I would think it was pretty cool. But it’s more than just the activities that are planned and the individuals who attend, work and volunteer. Because the summer camp is such an intensive bike repair and riding experience, people form special friendships that are lasting and meaningful. That is the thing that is most impressive to me. This is made possible by the dedication and skill of the people who work with the children. Each session I wondered if the 12-15 bikes would be done, but each time they were done with time to spare. It is a tribute to the planning that the staff put into the camp and to the motivation of the students. Thank you to everyone. Volunteers, donors, families–NBW is lucky to have you all. Come back next year!
– Andy
Olivia has joined us as the new Volunteer Coordinator after an awesome summer of counseling our summer campers! If you have any interest in volunteering, contact Olivia at volunteers@neighborhoodbikeworks.org! Welcome Olivia! Yay!
Design from the first session of summer camp
NBW has Summer Camp t-shirts for sale. The shirts were designed by the campers and silk-screened with Reclaim Print and Hottt Off The Press. We have 4 different designs printed on white t-shirts, one design from each session of the summer camp. T-shirts are $12.00. Call or email for information about purchasing shirts–215-386-0316 or info@neighborhoodbikeworks.org. They’re pretty sweet!
Philadelphia’s CBS station did a spot on Neighborhood Bike Works on their recurring Brotherly Love report on July 22, 2009. Visit their website to read a transcript of the report.
Correction: Andy Dyson has been Executive Director of NBW since 2002.
The Summer Bike Camp was in for a special treat today… Do-it-yourself Bike Bars!! Megan, a camper’s mother, taught a lesson in how to make your own energy bars for biking, and do they ever look delicious! Thanks to Harvest Market Natural Foods on Lancaster Pike in Hockessin, Delaware for donating all of the ingredients. Make your own tonight!
Do-It-Yourself Bike Bars
Adapted from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson (www.101cookbooks.com)
Grease a baking pan with coconut oil or coconut oil spray. Use a pie pan or a loaf pan for this half recipe or a 9 x 13 pan for the full batch.
- 1/2 c + 2 Tbs rolled oats
- 1/2 c +2 Tbs chopped nuts
- 1/4 c oat bran
- 3/4 c unsweetened crisp brown rice cereal
- 1/2 c dried fruit, chopped
- 1-2 Tbs seeds, shredded unsweetened coconut, or crystallized ginger
Mix above ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- 1/2 c brown rice syrup
- 2 Tbs natural cane sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp fine-grain sea salt
Combine the syrup, sugar, vanilla and salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly as it comes to a boil and thickens just a bit, about 4 minutes. Pour over oat mixture and stir until it is evenly incorporated.
Spread the mixture into the pan and cool to room temperature before cutting to desired size.
EAT!
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