Learning With Vince HIATUS!

Yup, I'm putting the Learning w/ Vince thing on Hiatus for now. School is starting up, dissertation chapters are calling, and I want to figure out a way to make the class a bit more organized for the upcoming school year. Keep an eye out b/c once we roll it out, it'll be fabulous. Til then, if you have anything in specific you want me to work on during an open hours, I'm pretty sure I can find something to show and tell on. If I'm working on my bike for anything specific, I'll post it here and you'll more than welcome to come on in and find out how I'm doing X bike thing.

No learning with Vince today...sorry!

I just got back from a Rocky Mountain trip to Salt Lake City and Denver and arrived in Champaign at 1am this morning so I have to regretfully postpone the class on shifting today. Of course, the volunteer staff will be more than happy to help.

On a bike note, I don't know how the University of Utah students ride their bikes to and from classes. The campus is on the mountain (it takes less time to get on a hiking trail than it does to get to a Target) and most the students are commuters. I saw a bunch of folks riding their bikes up and down the main road. I could barely walk up a set of stairs. And finally, the fixie scene seems strong in the SLC, even though the beer is weak.

Learning With Vince UPDATE!

Just an addendum to the previous post about the Bike Repair classes coming up: this first one is really meant for people who have NO to little experience wrenching (that's what we call fixing bikes). So if you don't even know what "righty tighty - lefty loosey" means or don't know the difference between the stem or the handlebar, well this is the class for you!

And even if you do know what those things above are, I will try to inculcate folks with ways to think like a mechanic. Or at least how I think like a bike mechanic. So this means more of understanding how things works as opposed to memorizing a set of procedures to do when X happens.

Hope to see some new folks tonight during open hours at the UC-IMC shop!  This is a great way to get involved and orientated to what these fancy (and not so fancy) tools do.

Learning with Vince! - a bike repair class or something like it.

Yes, you heard correctly - a bike repair class! Or something like it.

TBP will be holding informal bike repair classes during the hour of the Wed hours (say, 6:30 til 7:30pm) and this will be open to all members. It's informal b/c....well...I don't have quite a schedule laid out. So far, it'll probably look something like this:

Week One: Safety check of the bike, identifying parts of the bike, and basics of wrenching.
Week Two: How brakes and shifting works, drivetrain (chains etc)
Week Three: Installing Stuff
Week Four: Fixing Stuff.

As you can tell, the last two weeks are up in the air. You'll be learning some basics of bike repair as I learn how to teach it. A big win for all.

So keep an eye out on this blog as I'll post more specifics of what I have planned for Wed Night Repairs. Let us know if you're interested in anything in specific and I can address that if you'd like in the future.

this sunday: seminar on brakes

This Sunday, 2 May at 3pm at The Bike Project shop at the UC-IMC, we'll be holding an informal class on brakes.  We'll be tackling basic issues like brake pad alignment and cable adjustment.  If there's time, we might also speculate on the historico-material significance of the difference between rod brakes, cantilever brakes, and drum brakes.

(Hint: dialectically speaking, these differences are determined in the last instance by capitalism itself.) 

Bring your bike by the shop and we'll help you shape up your brakes!