First Bike Clinic
CTP and I are embarking on a new venture this month:
We’re going to start holding a monthly free bike clinic behind my place in Berkeley, providing repair, advice & instruction to anyone who needs help with a bike.
This grew out of our Burning Man experience. We basically do exactly this for the citizens of Black Rock City every year (for the past 6) and find it a fun way to be useful to people while promoting bike ridership.
Bikes are fun to work with. They’re mechanical. They’re proven technology: hundreds of years of proof. They’re just complex enough to be interesting and just simple enough for a mere mortal to figure out. I will probably never learn car repair, especially these days when they’re all different, electronically controlled, and incredibly complex. But to a greater extent, if you understand one bike you can understand another bike.
It’s good to work with the hands on something, and it’s nice to see the smile on someone’s face when they’re able to ride away smoothly. Riding a bike is a simple and wholesome physical pleasure. For many of us, it brings back memories of childhood. For all of us, it’s a cool way to get from one place to another without losing your connection to the ground (as you do in a car). Riding a bike keeps the world big.
And bikes are good for the Earth. Most of us don’t have the luxury of living somewhere that has everything you need within walking distance. But a fully bikeable city is a totally doable thing. And you can’t beat a zero-emissions vehicle that keeps you in shape. DP likes to say that you’ve got to pick one small way to work against the bullshit that’s raining down on our world right now, and this seems like a good way to me.
Come on out to my place on Sunday, between noon and 5, for a free tune up, a quick fix, or a lesson in how to do it yourself. CTP has even taught a few adults to ride bikes for the first time. So if you are in that camp, you’re welcome, too.