Very Classy – Classes are Back!

Posted April 23rd, 2012 in Events by veggieburgher

Dear Volunteers, Shop Users and Would-be Bicycle Mechanics!

Free Ride has been ramping up to its full warm season glory after months of winter wrenching (tangentially, it’s ramps season…!).

  • When March arrived, we expanded our hours with the return Monday’s Volunteer Night and Thursday’s General Open Shop.
  • Women, Trans, Queer and Femme Only Shop Time, held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month, came back in March with great momentum and new direction.
  • Free Ride is incorporating new events, such as the Open Mic Open Shop during Open Shop this Thursday (26th) at 8PM.
  • We have at least one youth Earn-A-Bike program scheduled for the year, with Lawrenceville United bringing folks up on Mondays starting in June.

And now… CLASSES ARE BACK!

As of this week, you can come down to the shop on Sundays at 4:30PM and Tuesdays at 6:30PM for two hours of comprehensive instruction and wrenching on one of 6 class topics.

To learn which class is available on which date, check the Free Ride Calendar of Events.  Bring your volunteer hours (2 hours per class), $15, or just your Access card so we can waive the fee.  Bring a friend or a sister…!  These classes are for general attendance, so all are welcome.

Volunteers!

These classes are also an opportunity to earn volunteer hours and help Free Ride continue to offer classes, which are a powerful way that we follow our Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together ethic.  If you have already taken a given class, you can shadow the class.  Instead of paying to attend again, you earn volunteer hours if you act as a teacher’s assistant.  Also, because you’re already moderately familiar with the curriculum, you can observe how the class is *taught* and, if you are a Collective Council Member, you can try your hand at teaching it yourself.  To shadow, sign up on the staffing calendar the same as you would to volunteer to staff an open shop or volunteer night.  Feel free to contact Alicia (me) or Ned with any questions, or leave a comment below.

For women, trans, queer and femme people only

We also offer a drop-in class on every 1st, 3rd and 5th Wednesday, at 6:30PM.  Same curriculum, same price, same shop, with a focus on offering an opportunity to learn, for those folks who want or need to wrench on bikes without the challenges that working as a woman, trans or queer person in a mostly male-bodied/male-identifying atmosphere can create.  Shadowing is welcome and appreciated in WTQF drop-in classes, too!  You are encouraged to become as advanced a mechanic as you want to – you can try your hand at teaching a particular class after shadowing it, if you are a Collective Council Member.

See you in class!

Truly,
Alicia

2 Comments;

Open Mic Open Shop

Posted April 19th, 2012 in Uncategorized by ned

“Dear Free Ride,
There has been talk of having a (social) event next Thursday, the
26th, starting at 8pm. Far as I know we don’t actually have a
microphone, so we’ll just have to listen carefully. This will go on,
or at least start, during open shop, so will not exclude shop use.
Please come, and also please, play us music, tell us stories, read us
something, dance for us… I don’t know what people actually do at
these things, but I am confident there are some talented people among
us.
Sound good? …
Yes?
Ok.
-Aryn”

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2012 Hours

Posted February 28th, 2012 in Uncategorized by ned

We’re reopening for the year this weekend!

No classes scheduled for march yet :( but stay tuned. (Meantime, Earn-a-Bike requirements are volunteer hours only, as in winter.)

Open Shop still on saturday afternoons, plus thursday nights again. (Sorry, but we’re short-staffed: until folks get trained, we may not be able to sell anything for the first couple thursdays.) Also monday’s Volunteer Night again & Women & Trans Night is back wednesdays.

Sundays 1-3pm MIGHT be social events… again, stay tuned for details.

6 Comments;

New Year’s Eve PARTY!

Posted December 21st, 2011 in Uncategorized by ned

Hey Free Riders,

Come to our benefit party! Flyer below, print & post if you’re able. Details repeated if it’s too big…

10pm-?? at the shop
DJs & live performers: Hip-hop, Bounce, Balkan, Cumbia, Electronic & more!
$10 cover, free booze (BYO champagne), 21 & over event.

Bring friends & get in free; if your membership’s current, RSVP to sink.b at freeridepgh dot org & get on the half-off list.

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Holiday Bicycle Build-a-Thon

Posted December 6th, 2011 in Uncategorized by ned

We’ve opened up some extra shop time to fix up bikes for local charities including FORGE/Pitt, the Thomas Merton Center, North Allegheny School District, Three Rivers Reservation and a community bike shop in Northview Heights. Stop by:
Sundays 11 & 18 December, 12-4pm
Refreshments, tools & oversight provided, experience suggested.

Flyer

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COFFEE!!!

Posted November 29th, 2011 in Uncategorized by ned

Thanks to La Prima Espresso for donating coffee for the shop, it makes our wrenches spin really fast!

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Departed bikes mid-June through mid-October in 2011

Posted November 16th, 2011 in Uncategorized by William

Here is a list from the computer spreadsheet we have been keeping. You can see the completed earn-a-bike projects, fix-for-sales sold, and also as-is purchases.

Congrats to the 23 Earn-a-bike projects that were completed.

ID # Date In Color Mfr Model Status DateOut
00691 07/14/11 blue Trek 7000 As-is 07/14/11
00158 06/30/11 GRAY MONGOOSE As-is 07/16/11
00510 06/20/11 Light Blue SR Grand Touring As-is 07/16/11
00517 07/07/11 DARK GOLD HERCULES As-is 07/16/11
00563 SchWINN unknown As-is 07/16/11
00329 05/05/11 Blue Folks As-is 07/28/11
00757 08/01/11 SilVER Univega 303-Rover As-is 08/04/11
00092 02/19/11 Red Schwinn World As-is 08/05/11
00106 02/19/11 Gray Huffy Carrera As-is 08/05/11
00725 07/18/11 black Giant As-is 08/05/11
00545 07/11/11 SILVER SCHWINN Varsity As-is 08/06/11
00038 02/19/11 Red Giant Rincon As-is 08/11/11
00356 05/16/11 Pink Murray MtClinker As-is 08/13/11
00795 08/13/11 VFX Dyho As-is 08/13/11
00796 08/13/11 green Diamondback outlook As-is 08/13/11
00805 08/12/11 purple roadmaster sport As-is 08/15/11
00534 07/09/11 GREEN SCHWINN SUPERSPORT As-is 08/18/11
00692 07/16/11 blue Mongoose Crossway 450 As-is 08/18/11
00734 white trek antelope As-is 08/18/11
00871 08/18/11 chrome Pacific DS2 As-is 08/18/11
00104 02/19/11 Black/Red Raleigh M20 As-is 08/20/11
00530 08/20/11 blue Schwinn As-is 08/20/11
00799 08/13/11 purple/blue Pacific As-is 08/20/11
00809 08/12/11 purple/blue Magna Zip Drive As-is 08/20/11
00811 08/20/11 purple Pacific Electra As-is 08/20/11
00878 08/20/11 black/silver Schwinn Sierra GS As-is 08/20/11
00879 08/20/11 black/red Giant Option As-is 08/20/11
00880 08/20/11 blue Specialized Crossroads As-is 08/20/11
00533 07/07/11 BLACK As-is 08/25/11
00756 08/01/11 Red Roadmaster Mountain Pass As-is 08/25/11
00758 08/01/11 Blue/Green Huffy Blades As-is 08/25/11
00893 08/22/11 green GT Timberline As-is 08/25/11
00371 05/16/11 Black Specialized Rockhopper As-is 09/01/11
00894 08/22/11 Light Blue Fuji Dynamic 10 As-is 09/01/11
00764 08/08/04 Black GT Vantura As-is 09/02/11
00899 08/29/11 White Gitane Tour De France As-is 09/03/11
00905 08/15/11 Pink Pacific Quantum As-is 09/03/11
00912 Kmart AllPro As-is 09/03/11
00541 07/09/11 POWDER BLUE PANasonic SPORT 500 As-is 09/08/11
00739 07/25/11 red/white Huffy Stone Mountain As-is 09/08/11
00848 08/13/11 Grey Gary Fisher Advantage As-is 09/08/11
00892 08/22/11 silver Roadmaster Mt. Fury As-is 09/08/11
00924 09/15/11 Charger As-is 09/15/11
00927 09/15/11 White Diamondback Apex As-is 09/17/11
00035 02/19/11 Blue Jamis Explorer XV As-is 09/20/11
00933 09/17/11 Dark Gray Jeep As-is 09/22/11
00938 09/24/11 Black Tommaso Imola As-is 09/24/11
00918 09/09/01 Green SCHWINN World Sport As-is 09/30/11
00890 08/22/11 Specialized Rock Hopper As-is 10/01/11
00920 09/12/11 Maroon Concord As-is 10/01/11
00925 09/15/11 SILVER SCHWINN Sprint As-is 10/01/11
00964 10/01/11 Blue Huffy Good Vibrations As-is 10/01/11
00967 10/03/11 Trek 800 As-is 10/01/11
00792 08/10/11 Light Blue/Gray SCHWINN World As-is 10/08/11
00930 09/15/11 Red Trek Mountain Trek 220 As-is 10/08/11
00949 09/26/11 Silver Raleigh Technium As-is 10/08/11
00968 10/08/11 Blue/Silver Next As-is 10/08/11
00472 10/10/11 Purple Diamondback Wildwood As-is 10/15/11
00952 09/29/11 Red Huffy As-is 10/20/11
00947 09/26/11 Yellow C. I OH As-is 10/22/11
00963 10/01/11 Black Scwinn World Sport As-is 10/22/11
00983 10/20/11 Red Schwinn Mirada As-is 10/22/11
00984 10/22/11 Beige Schwinn Clear Creek As-is 10/22/11
00931 09/15/11 Specialized Crossroads As-s 09/15/11
00467 06/20/11 White Trek 7000 EAB 07/14/11
00511 07/02/11 Blue Nishiki Olympic 12 EAB 07/14/11
00554 Gary Fisher Aquila EAB 07/14/11
00535 07/09/11 YELLOw UNKnown EAB 07/21/11
00256 03/31/11 White Polidor Trekker Rider EAB 07/30/11
00484 06/13/11 Red Nishiki Colorado EAB 08/04/11
00740 07/25/11 yellow True Temper EAB 08/06/11
00347 05/05/11 Silver Fuji Sports12 EAB 08/11/11
00551 07/11/11 WHITE/RED/BLUE AMERICAN EAB 08/13/11
00785 07/25/11 maroon Raleigh Olympian EAB 08/13/11
00478 06/27/11 Blue Diamondback Outlook EAB 08/18/11
00480 07/02/11 Orange Schwinn EAB 08/24/11
00403 05/28/11 Blue Columbia Formula 10 EAB 08/27/11
00754 08/01/11 Blue MonGOOSE Hilltopper EAB 08/27/11
00755 08/01/11 silver Trek 830/Antelope EAB 08/27/11
00788 08/10/11 gray Schwinn World Sport EAB 08/27/11
00888 08/22/11 black Columbia/ATB Mountain Sports EAB 08/30/11
00235 03/21/11 Blue Columbia Prestige EAB 09/08/11
00117 02/19/11 Blue Giant Sedona CS EAB 09/15/11
00921 09/12/11 Trek 1400 EAB 09/19/11
00782 08/08/11 Red and black Schwinn Sports Tourer EAB 09/22/11
00102 02/19/11 Yellow/Green Schwinn EAB 10/01/11
00961 10/01/11 Green Trek 820 Mountain Track EAB 10/13/11
00397 05/26/11 Neo Yellow Diamondback Sorento FFS 07/16/11
00388 05/22/11 Yellow/White/Blue FFS 09/03/11
00777 08/08/11 Blue Nishiki Arroyo FFS 09/08/11
00932 09/17/11 Baby Blue Iron Horse Maverick 1.2 FFS 09/21/11
00294 06/27/11 Yellow Univega Rover Sport FFS 09/22/11
00941 09/15/11 Crimson GT Talera FFS 09/22/11
00032 02/19/11 Blue Schwinn Mesa Runner FFS 10/06/11
00965 10/03/11 SCHWINN Spirit FFS 10/08/11
00437 06/06/11 Purple Raleigh M20 FFS 10/12/11

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Winter Hours 2011

Posted October 25th, 2011 in Uncategorized by William

Free Ride Winter Hours

Free Ride will begin a winter hours schedule this November. For the
weeks between November 26 2011 and March 3 2012, we will have open
shop on Saturday and will be closed for all other days.

Classes in 2011 end November 13 and will resume in March 1, 2012.

Starting November 13, Earn-A-Bike requirements will be 4 hours of
volunteering since it will not be possible to take classes until
March.

Free Ride will be closed on these days:
November 24
December 24
December 31

Criteria for Earn A Bike During Winter Session

Beginning November 14 2011, ending after March 1, 2012,

The standard criteria in order to be eligible for the Earn A Bike
Program, is to enroll and complete 2 classes offered, @ Free Ride.

During Free Rides winter session no classes are offered,as a result,
there is a change in the criteria in order to begin the Earn-A-Bike
program. In order to meet the requirements for the Earn-A-Bike
program, there will be a required 4 volunteer hours, to be completed
and documented prior to the selection of a bike. Please note that the
four volunteer hours will need to be recorded on the sign in clip
board at Free Ride in addition to the Member Log prior to beginning
Earn-A-Bike program.

During the winter session of Free Ride, the ideal cycler for the
winter session of the Earn-A-Bike program would be familiar with some
basic bicycle specific tools, the proper names of these tools, and
their function.

In addition in order to be successful in Earn-A-Bike winter session,
it is suggested that the participant have a working knowledge of
the regular bike maintenance. The winter session at Free Ride is not
an optimal time for those new to cycling and/or those who have not
maintained or performed general bike repairs. For those new to biking
it is suggested that you volunteer at Free Ride and accumulate
volunteer hours and then begin taking classes when they are offered
Spring 2011.

As always the Earn-A-Bike program should be very close to complete by
the end of 8 weeks and documentation that would still need to be
worked on at least every 2 weeks.

2 Comments;

Bike Bonanza 2011

Posted September 16th, 2011 in Uncategorized by William

Come on out to the Kingsley Center this coming Saturday, September 24.

Several organizations are teaming up to have a family friendly day. There will be refreshments, crafts, and guided tours to help introduce you to bike lanes in the city.

See the event flyer

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Completed EAB projects in Spring 2011

Posted August 1st, 2011 in Uncategorized by William

Spring and much of summer is behind us and I would like to take time to look back at some numbers to see what happens with the bikes that go through Free Ride.

In the spring, we started giving bikes an ID number. We have been revising our paperwork system and started accounting for bikes from all of our programs under the same process. Right now, we have a list of completed Earn-A-Bike projects and hopefully in the future we will have similar lists for Fix for sales, as-is purchases and bikes used for kids programs.

Following is a list of the completed Earn-A-Bike projects from the end of April to the beginning of July. Congratulations to everybody who successfully built a bike!

ID #

Date In

Mfr

Model

Color

DateOut

00034

02/19/11

Giant

Yukon

Black

04/30/11

00300

04/11/11

Peugeot

Iseran

Gray

05/05/11

00118

02/19/11

Huffy

Omni

Blue

05/12/11

00317

4/18/2011

Schwinn

Varsity

Red

05/12/11

00299

04/11/11

Trek

7000

Green

05/14/11

00037

02/19/11

Raleigh

M30

Gray

05/23/11

00275

04/02/11

Trek

Singletrack

Magenta

05/23/11

00079

02/19/11

KHS

Westwood

Silver

05/26/11

00346

05/05/11

Schwinn

Le Tour

Silver

05/26/11

00036

02/19/11

Peugeot

Montreal Express

Blue/White

05/28/11

00391

05/20/11

Thomas

and Friends

Blue

06/05/11

00404

06/06/11

 

Regutte

Red

06/11/11

00487

06/15/11

 

 

Black

06/15/11

00033

02/19/11

Saint Tropez

 

Blue

06/18/11

00241

03/21/11

Cannondale

 

Yellow

06/25/11

00132

02/19/11

Bridgestone

NB26

Green

07/09/11

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