Mac Bike
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
Mac Bike is a student organization at Macalester College working to promote bicycle use on campus and in the larger Twin Cities community. We believe in promoting bicycle-use as an ecologically sustainable and socially just alternative form of transportation. Bike Share is one of our programs designed to make bicycles more accessible to all of the Macalester community, including students, staff and faculty. We also have group bike rides, bike skills workshops, and other fun and healthy activities.
Current Activites
As the school begins, Mac Bike will continue to hold weekly open shop hours. The workshop will be located in the bike shop on Thursdays, 6 to 8. We will be selling more bikes for cheap, using any funds we raise to either purchase more parts or donate to various bicycling-related activity.
[edit] Meetings
Mac Bike Meetings are currently held on MONDAYS at 10pm in the Upstairs Campus Center. All members of the Macalester community are more than welcome! (No prior bicycle experience needed)
[edit] History of Mac Bike
The history of Mac Bike prior to the Fall semester of 2003 is unknown to current Mac Bike organizers (if you know some history, please add it here!) At the Org Fair in Fall of 2003 sophmore Renee Lepreau and first year Claire Stoscheck started chatting at the Mac Greens org table about the need for a bike student org. We knew there was something called Mac Bike, but when we investigated it, we discovered that it was in hibernation and had been inactive for many years. Bike enthusiasts like Jed Fixx handed us over the keys to the workshop, and students such as Jason Tanzman, Liz Kamerer, Ryan Bough, Ried Lustig, Renee, Claire and others started meeting regularly.
[edit] 2002-2003
The past 2 1/2 years for Mac Bike have been very busy, and the student org has done a lot to change bike culture at Macalester and beyond.
- One of the first things the Org did was to clean up and paint the Mac Bike Workshop (located in the basement of 30 Mac adjacent to the Mac Weekly and WMCN offices) making it a usable bike workshop.
- We then began having weekly open workshop hours for people to come in and use the workshop to fix up bikes.
- We also held many bike rides around the Twin Cities which were well attended. We petitioned and rallied for more bike racks on campus, as the current ones were overflowing.
- We began discussions with the administration about the possibilities of a bike share program (see below for more on Bike Share).
- We also brought Macalester students to the monthly Critical Mass bike ride Critical Mass The Halloween Mass was especially fun, with festive costumes and a risky take-over of the freeway!
[edit] 2004-2005
The next year Mac Bike continued to grow--with more bike rides, more workshop hours, more advocacy and many more memebers. We continued working on bike share and began a relationship with Sibley Bike Depot, a local bicycle shop which promotes bike advocacy (it's part of MN Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance (http://www.bikeped.org/ ). We had someone from Sibley come and teach a bicycle maintenance workshop at Macalester, and purchased bikes and tools from them.
[edit] Fall 2005
We probably experienced our most growth in the Fall of 2005. Our membership swelled (40 people at our first meeting, then between 10 and 15 very dedicated core members throughout the year).
- We held many rides at the beginning of the year with the hopes of introducing first years to the joys of using bicycle transportation to get wherever you need to go in the Twin Cities. We went to the St. Paul Farmers Market, to the Resource Center of the Americas, Mercado Central, etc. In addition we went on some of the Cities' beautiful river and lake bike paths.
- We also went on all the Critical Mass rides, the most exciting being the Mass which 40+ Macalester students went to (we had our own mass on the way to mass!).
- We also had about 12 Mac bikers go on the Sierra Clubs Tour de Sprawl.
- Besides many very well attended bike rides, we held weekly bike repair workshops out on Bateman plaza. During this time Mac Bike activists would come set up bike stands and tools and help the Macalester community fix up and repair their bicycles.
- We had a fall break trip in coordination with MULCH.
- We had a Cruiser ride with CHEEBA. We collaborated with other student orgs at every chance we got.
[edit] Bikeshare
- Probably the biggest thing we did in Fall 2005 was the implementation of Bike Share in the Campus Center Info Desk. We had started Bike Share in the Spring of 2005 but it was a bit haphazard as we didn't have a central location to run it out of. However, we proved that there was demand because there were always tons of students each week wanting to borrow bicycles.
- We also passed a MCSG resolution in support of Bike Share and gathered signatures to prove student support.
- And finally, in the Fall of 2005, in collaboration with the administration in the Campus Center, Mac Bike was able to institutionalize the Bike Share program into the Campus Center Info. Desk.
- Thanks to the Environmental Studies Department, we were able to obtain a workstudy position for a student to be the Bike Share Program Coordinator to ensure the smooth continuation of this successful program.
- Since its grand opening out of the Info. Desk in the mid-fall of 2005, Bike Share has been very successful. Many members of the Macalester community have taken advantage of this service and it has allowed dozens and dozens of people with convenient access to bicycles for commuting and recreation. This innovative program can serve as a model for other college campuses and community groups.
[edit] Spring 2006
We kicked off the season with the January Critical Mass. Taking over the streets? In JANUARY?!?! You bet! Over 100 people gathered in Loring Park, 9 from Mac Bike. Cold? Oh, yes...but the Critical Mass crowd has never been one to dwell on such insignificant details. Post-Mass burritos were a glorious finishing touch.
Once the weather got nice, in early April, Mac Bike organized a very successful bike drive, in which we got about 60 bikes donated! Many were children's bikes, but there are also many bikes that just need a little repair. Additionally, we conducted several BIKE SALES; our first sale sold over $1300 for Sibley Bike Depot. Later sales gave us over $1500, all of which was donated to Biciaccion, our partner bicycle cooperative in Quito Ecuador (email Claire Stoscheck [1]from Mac, who is currently in Ecuador working with Biciaccion).
[edit] International Bicycle Solidarity Work
Mac Bike has expanded its frontiers of bicycle advocacy work and now has a sister organization in Quito, Ecuador called Biciaccion. Biciaccion is an ONG working to promote a bicycle culture in the very contaminated and congested capital of Ecaudor, Quito. Mac Bike objectives are to promote bike culture all over the world, and for this reason the activists of Mac Bike decided to work in solidarity with Biciaccion in a project to promote social justice through the bicycle in collaboration with Biciaccion and also with La Funacion Sol de Primavera, another ONG in Quito which works with low income teenagers who are at high risk for drug use, homelessness and gangs. These three organizations are currently working together in collaboration on a project called Basic Bike Mechanics for Youth with few Resources. This project has the following objectives: (first in spanish and then in English)
•Capacitar a un grupo de adolescentes y jóvenes hombres y mujeres apoyados por la Fundación Sol de Primavera en mecánica y manejo básico de bicicletas. •Promover una cultura de la bicicleta e incentivar el uso de ésta en los participantes. •Reparar una bicicleta donada a cada participante del grupo para su uso personal. •Facilitar la integración del grupo. •Desarrollar competencias y habilidades en los jóvenes para posibles espacios. •Conocer su propia Ciudad a través de la perspectiva de la bicicleta como medio de recreación y transporte alternativo. •Detectar líderes para que sean parte de las actividades en mecánica en los ciclopaseos quincenales en la Ciudad de Quito.
-To capacitate the group of youth in basic bicycle mechanic and manegement skills -To promote bike culture and the incentive for the use of the bicycle for the youth -To repair the donated bicyles so that each participate can have a bike for thier own use -To facilitate the integration of the group -To develope capacities and abilities in the youth for possible work -For the youth to get to know their own city through the perspective of the bicycle as a means of recreation and alternative transportation -To detect liders out of the group of youth to be part of the mechanic activities in the Ciclopaseos (work with Biciaccion)
This project has a duration of 2 months. We meet every Saturday morning for 3-4 hours for class. We have 2 mechanics, one professional and one who is a bike advocate with passion and a knack for working with youth, as well as a coordinator from Sol and a coordinator from Biciaccion (who is Mac Bikes own Claire Stoscheck) for support work. Each class the youth learn several lessons of bike repair and get to practice on their own bicycles which were donated through a bike drive conducted by Biciaccion and Sol earlier in the year. In addition some of the youth didn{t know how to ride a bike before, and so Claire taught some bike riding workshops. In the following Ciclopaseo (see Biciaccions website for more info) the youth with spend time in the bike mechanic tents to observe, help and practice their new mechanic skills. In a few weeks, after a class on safe urban bike riding, we will all leave in mass on a bike ride together so that the youth can get to know their own city better through the perspective of the bicycle.
There are 12 youth in the workshop (between the ages of 12 and 17) all of whom are in extreme poverty and all of who either currently work or have had to work on the streets in the past. They are all at high risk of drug use and gang participation and many have violent family lives. Sol de Primavera works to provide a safe space for the youth and has capacitation workshops in a bakery, a carpentry shop, a clothing shop and a jewelry shop so that the youth can learn concrete skills that can bring in an income and give them opportunities to get stable work in the future (because currently many of them work on the streets, shining shoes, selling cigarrettes, etc). Sol has an ideology that is very integrated, as they also have a clinic for health, programs for integration of the family (like Alcoholics Anonymous, family counseling, etc), and educational programs (help with homework, help with school logisitics, as well as a small school for some of the youth). There are about 70 youth that assist the programs at Sol.
The hope with this project is to promote social justice through the bicycle, that is to say that the bicycle shouldnt just be for those with the resources to buy a bicycle, but for everyone. The goal is also to promote self esteem and confidence in this group of high risk youth, as well is auto sufficiency (i.e. if they can repair and maintain thier own bike as well as those of their friends etc... they will be more confindent and self sufficient). The idea also is to increase the mobility of the youth so they have easier access to school, work, etc... as well as to facilitate the youth to know thier own city and country better. The bicycle is a form of freedom because it greatly mobilizes you. In addition the idea is that the youth will gain concrete skills which they can use to gain money in Ciclopaseos as well as to perhaps get a job at a bike mechanic shop later in their lives.
Finances:
Mac Bike worked hard in the Spring of 2006 to raise the funds for this project. For the sake of transparency here is a budget of the project (subject to change with time):
Presupuesto Para “Capacitación en mecánica básica para niños y adolescentes de escasos recursos”
Salary Gato Coordinator of La Escuela de la Bici $150/mes $300 Salary Lenin Educational Mechanic $125 total $150 Salary Jorge Coordinator from Sol $100 total $100 Salary Claire Coordinator from Biciaccion $100/mes $200 Tools for Biciaccions Escuela de la Bici $400 Parts for donated bikes $100* Food $15/diario $120 Tools for Sol $100 Salary Ángel professional mechanic $150 TOTAL $1,620
- = subject to change
Total= $1920
We still have about $300 for security, in the case that we need to spend more on something that we didnt expect.
Future of Project and Relationship of Mac Bike with Biciaccion
The idea is that the solidarity work that Mac Bike does with Biciaccion and Sol wont end this summer with the end of the project, but Mac Bike and Biciaccion will continue thier relationship well into the future to promote bicycles all around the world. In this era of peak oil, oil wars, and severe contamination of the environment, the use of bicycles as an alternative form of transportation in the world is more important than ever.
UPDATE July 2006
We just finished the workshop last week with a beautiful ride to the park Itchimbia where we had a lovely picnic. All the youth now have helmets! And Sol has plans to continue bicycle rides weekly and to continue working with the youth to repair bikes. More to come...
UPDATE August 2006
The remaining money that was left after the project with Sol was completely paid for was used to send the film-makers of a bicycle documentary called "The Return of the Bicycle" (working title) to Bogota, Colombia, to study the bicycle movement there which is much more advanced than the movement in Quito. Claire Stoscheck of Mac Bike was able to go along and observe, and was amazed to see over one million working class and low income residents of Bogota using thier bicycles daily to get to work and DO work (the transport of frieght on bicycle is extremely common there, as are mobil bike shops, bikes with wood-fired stoves on back, etc...) She was also apalled to observe that only about 1% of communiting cyclists in Bogota are women, and that bici-feminismo (bike feminism) is a much needed movement. This documentary will be finished in 2007 when the film maker (Santiago "Gato") will send a copy to Macalester so that Mac Bike can screen it. Mac Bike will be in the credits as having helped fund this important documentary, which works to document the bike movement in Quito and in Bogota and to encourage changes in Quito to make it a more bike friendly city.
Check out this link to see the cover of the lastest Biciaccion Newspaper which had as its feature story and front cover the project funded by Mac Bike and in collaboration with La Fundacion Sol de Primavera.
[edit] Prospects
Mac Bike has worked hard to foster a bike culture at Macalester, and currently it seems that there are more bikes on the Macalester campus than ever before. There are more bike racks than ever before, and they are all overflowing.
Mac Bike organizers have goals of expanding their bicycle advocacy work beyond the Macalester bubble to the greater Twin Cities area.
They hope that bicycles can be a means to help integrate the Macalester community with the broader community, and that they can work in solidarity with community groups to make the larger Twin Cities a more bike friendly place to be.
[edit] Mac Bike in the News
[edit] Mac Bike Photos
Coming soon ...
[edit] Macalester Bike Share
BIKE SHARE NOW UP AND RUNNING!
After years of dilligent work, meetings and struggle, Mac Bike has succeeded in collaborating with the Campus Center to run Bike Share out of the Info. Desk so that it is accessible to ALL in the Macalester Community at all times. We also have secured a Work Study position to ensure the sustainability of this program. Next year we hope to expand this program to the larger Twin Cities community!
The program now has 10 beautiful bikes ready to be used by anyone with a Macalester ID (Students, Staff, Faculty). Each bike comes with a helmet, lock, and map. Bikes are checked out for periods of up to one week, but if you want one for more time, it is usually possible to check a bike out for another week (depending on demand).
Don't be discouraged by the elements! Check out one of our bikes today!
[edit] Bike Share Bikes
Bike 1 is a Bronze-colored Cruiser
Bike 2 is a Maroon 10-speed Schwinn (Currently Being Repaired)
Bike 3 is a Blue 5-speed Schwinn
Bike 4 is a large-frame Light Blue Fugi 10-speed road bike
Bike 5 is a Green 5-speed Schwinn with large baskets on the rear tire
Bike 6 is a Light Blue 6-speed Bauer
Bike 7 is a White 18-speed Diamondback Mountain Bike
Bike 8 is a Red Single-speed Schwinn
Bike 9 is a Navy Blue 18-speed Peugeot Mountain Bike
Bike 10 is a small-frame Black Mountain Bike
[edit] Bike Share Updates
[edit] Bike Share FAQ
[edit] What is MacBike?
Mac Bike is a student organization working to promote bicycle use on campus and in the larger Twin Cities community. We believe in promoting bicycle-use as an ecologically sustainable and socially just alternative form of transportation. Bike Share is one of our programs designed to make bicycles more accessible to all of the Macalester community, including students, staff and faculty. We also have group bike rides, bike skills workshops, and other fun and healthy activities.
[edit] How can I become involved in Mac Bike?
Who can I contact? How can I get more information?
Come to our weekly meetings, currently held on Monday evenings from 10-11pm in the Upstairs of the Campus Center. You can contact us at macbike@mpkb.net, or email BikeShare Coordinator Sandy Robson at sandyrobson@gmail.com.
[edit] What do I do if my Bike Share bike breaks down?
Stop riding the bike immediately and return it to the Info Desk so that a Mac Bike member can fix it. Borrow a new bike!
[edit] What do I do if my Bike Share bike gets stolen?
Go to the Info Desk, inform them that the bike has been stolen and write a description of the circumstances in the "Problems" cell of the checkout sheet. The Bike Share Coordinator will follow up with you for more information about the incident. To avoid incidents like this, lock your bike at all times!
[edit] Where can I put air in my tires if they get soft?
The Info Desk will have a bike pump available for use at anytime. Please stop by! If not, go to the Super America down Snelling, but take care to inflate it only to the maximum pressure indicated on the tire.
[edit] Do I need to wear a helmet and use a light?
Yes! Definitely. Wearing a helmet can save your life. Never go without one! Mac Bike requires that Bike Share participants wear a helmet at all times. And a rear light is required by law and also is the only way that motorists will be able to see you at night. Each Bike Share bike has a light; never remove it!
[edit] Can I bike in the winter?
Certainly! Mountain bikes are more safe on snowy roads, but you can use a road bike with no treads if you are very careful. Avoid ice at all costs. Bike slowly. Make sure you are overdressed because wind chill is cold! Ski masks and mittens are a must. There is definitely a culture of winter bikers in the Cities; it's fun & we encourage it!
[edit] What are some good local bike shops?
Express is right down the street on Snelling and Marshall. It's the closest used bike shop and is a not-for-profit that we want to support. Sibley Bike Depot is located in downtown Saint Paul at 509 Sibley Street. Sibley and Mac Bike have a long-standing relationship and we have gotten many of our Bike Share bikes from them. We love Sibley and think you should support them! The Hub is located at 3026 Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis. It is a cooperatively-run bike shop that we also like to support.
[edit] What is Critical Mass?
Critical Mass is a bike celebration/ride that happens on the last Friday of every month in cities all over the world. By participating in Critical Mass, bicyclists are saying "We don't block traffic, we ARE traffic!" It's a fun and festive event. CM meets in Loring Park in Minneapolis on the last Friday of each month year round at 5pm. Mac Bike organizes CM rides. Be sure to come on the next one! http://www.critical-mass.org/ for more info.
[edit] What are some other bike resources that I can explore?
The Twin Cities are FULL of resources, as is the internet! Here are some useful links to get you started: The International Bicycle Fund http://www.ibike.org/; League of American Bicyclists http://www.bikeleague.org/index.cfm; Sibley Bike Depot http://www.bikeped.org/Depot.html; The Hub Bike Co-op http://thehubbikecoop.org/site/intro.cfm; There are many more, just google "Bike advocacy" and explore!
For more information, comments, or questions, please contact Bikeshare Coordinator Dillon Teske at [2] or Mac Bike at [3]
[edit] Bike Share Documents
MCSG Bike Share Resolution [www.macalester.edu/mcsg/resolutions/ 0405BikeShareResolutionRevised.doc ]
