If you’re looking for a used bike, make sure to stop in when we reopen. We will have a fresh batch of bikes waiting for you.

There are a few organizations (PEDAL for example) and many individuals that are getting together to organize and host this empowering radical event for around 200 people from out of town. To keep this even fun, grassroots and accessible, we are looking for a few things that maybe you can help us out with. Here’s our wishlist:

-stoked folks, as many as possible, to make a dream team of volunteers. No skills required, but if you’re good at something, that’s sweet. if you’re good at aquiring free food, let’s scavenge together. Like to cook? Let’s stew up a delicious storm the weekend of the conference for the masses. If you can fix bikes, maybe you could come to a bike building work party to get those loaner bikes rolling smoothly.

-gently used bikes, preferably close to being rideable. To get around this lovely city of ours, conference goers need some wheels, and it would be a bit silly if it wasn’t a bike that was provided. Using donations from PEDAL and the Bike Kitchen, we’ll be having work parties to fix them up and make em safe. After the conference the bikes will be redistributed to people in the community in need of

-food stuffs, the edible kind. We’re going to be feeding many hungry mouths and hopefully we can do so with healthy fare that’s cheap or free. Do you have a hookup with a food distro? Know of any good dumpsters? What about preserves? Everybody loves jam, right?

-home stays, happy healthy places to rest weary heads. Everyone attending the conference from out of town will be staying at houses around the city. Do you have a spare bed, couch or nice section of floor that someone could roll out a thermarest for a few nights? What about a back yard with a bit of grass on which to pitch a wee tent?

Can you help out with any of these things? Or is there some other way you want to support this awesome event? Please sign up at the shop or email us your name, contact info (phone/email) and whatever you can help out with.

Happy solstice! See you in 2012.

Hey y’all! Need a bike? We have a bunch of refurbished road, hybrid and mountain bikes for sale at the shop right now. Get ‘em while they’re hot and it’s chilly!

We had our trailer towing bike stolen over the weekend.  Please keep an eye out for this bike and call the shop if you have any information about it’s whereabouts (604.827.7333).  Without this bike and it’s custom hitch (on the bike at the time of theft) we will not be able to use our large cargo trailer or continue to deliver CSA boxes for the UBC farm.  Bring back our Rocky, no questions asked, and help us continue to provide car free alternatives!

On September 24, the youth of BC are biking to Victoria to deliver a petition calling for real action on climate change. We are calling for:

- Rejecting BC’s participation in expansion of fossil fuel exports, including the proposed Enbridge pipeline to BC’s north coast, increased oil tanker traffic off our south coast, and expanded coal exports.

Please take a moment to sign the online petition on their website.

Welcome back to school! We’re all here at the shop on the long weekend, building bikes and generally preparing like crazy for the week of madness that is about to descend upon us.

For those of you who are new to campus, new to Vancouver, or just new to cycling, here’s a few basics for getting set up to ride this year.

BUYING A USED BIKE FROM US

You can purchase fully refurbished and guaranteed used bike from The Bike Kitchen. Used bikes have an advantage over new ones in that they can have higher quality parts on them, but still be affordable, just because they’ve already seen some riding. We get donations of used bikes and build them back up with both new and used parts so they can enjoy a new lease on life, and so you can enjoy riding them!

We build bikes as fast as we can, but sometimes the demand exceeds the amount of time we have. We can’t take a wait list for our refurbished bikes, so if we don’t have the bike for you today, keep checking in, we’re always building!

All our bikes range from $100 to $500.

Our buy-back policy: any bike over $100 that you buy from The Bike Kitchen, we will buy back from you for half the price you paid minus half the cost of repairs.

Our Warranty: any bike over $100 that you buy from The Bike Kitchen comes with a 1 month warranty for any problems that come up as a result of the bike’s construction.

We do not sell new bikes, buy bikes, or do trades.

BUYING AS USED BIKE ELSEWHERE

There is one other shop in town which refurbishes used bikes Our Community Bikes. They are located at Main Street and 17th Ave.

When buying from other shops, or buying a used bike online, be sure you know what you’re getting! There are lots of places/people who don’t put work into their bikes before selling them. This is also true of big box stores that sell cheep new bikes. If you’re not sure a bike is in good shape, but want to buy it anyways, be ready to put some money and/or time into fixing it up. Which leads us to…

FIXING YOUR BIKE AT THE BIKE KITCHEN

At The Bike Kitchen, you can use the space and tools for $7.50/hour. You will teach you how to fix your bike for $15/hour. You can also drop off your bike for us to fix, and usually we can get it back to you the same day.

LOCKING YOUR BIKE

Bike theft is a big problem on campus. It’s important to keep your bike locked up at all times. The most secure kind of lock is a U lock placed around the front wheel and frame of your bicycle.

There are also secure bike parking cages for students located around campus. To get a code for the cages, come to The Bike Kitchen with your student ID.

Private bike lockers can also be rented from The Bike Kitchen for $10/month. However, demand is high and we don’t always have lockers free. Call or drop by to check on availability.

HELMETS

BC law requires helmets to be worn at all times when riding a bike. It’s also a generally good idea. Helmets should fit snugly around the head and be worn low enough to provide forehead protection. Helmets that have been worn during a crash may be compromised and should be discarded.

VOLUNTEERING

No bike experience is necessary to volunteer with us!

Volunteer nights are Tuesdays, 6pm to 9pm. You can come in and learn how to fix bike by helping to maintain the campus community bike fleet (the Purple and Yellow bikes). After 6 hours of volunteering, you also get a key to the fleet, so you can ride the P&Y bikes around campus. After another 6 hours, you get a free membership to the UBC Bike Co-op

If Tuesdays don’t work for you, you can arrange times to come in during regular hours and volunteer to help us out around the shop.

In honor of the mighty maple leaf, The Bike Kitchen will be CLOSED Friday the 1st, Saturday the 2nd, and Sunday the 3rd. We will return to our scheduled programming on Monday.

Today in the shop: Emiliano built a wheel, Lucia rebuilt the truing stand (it’s in dish now!), and Lucas built muscle mass. Don’t mess with him, he’s carboloaded and the saftey’s off.

(PLUS: Lucas “DOLLARZ” Gallagher goes to Vegas)

For a quiet Sunday at the Bike Kitchen, today really did reach the peaks of excitement. Via our just-finished Specialized hardrock build, which is equally suitable for climbing mountains and commuting to UBC.

In other news, today was the Bike Kitchen’s first all-female staff day in over a year! Thanks to Lucas’s mayhem-filled Las Vegas vacation stealing him from his normal Sunday shift. Lucia filled in, and andrea hacksawed two brifters apart in the service of a wishbone-framed Fiori.

Lucas "DOLLARZ" Gallagher rings us up from Vegas