Roving SOS Bikes of São Paulo

The city of São Paulo, the largest in Brazil, has invested in creating a 45 km network of bike paths. It also provides a staffed cycle repair station in the main park and six mechanics on specially-equipped bikes who patrol the bike paths to assist with any breakdowns and give advice and encouragement. And best of all, this is all free. 


The SOS BIKE mechanics provide:

• Seat and handlebar adjustment
• Chain tensioning
• Puncture repair and wheel balancing
• Brake adjustments

The best we can tell with Google's translation is this is part of a campaign called Movemento Conviva to encourage peaceful coexistence between drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Their mission statement says: "living well begins with small actions, which generate big changes". Well, Bike Aid can testify to that!

More info http://www.ciclofaixa.com.br/ in Portuguese

Follow them on Twitter: @reporterconviva

Boris Johnson and mayors everywhere: take note.

Oil company provides bike aid stations

Photo: Mads Odgaard

Suffolk Bike Aid learned from the cycling blog Copenhagenize.com of a pilot scheme by Norway's Statoil that provides facilities for cyclists to fix their bicycles at five petrol stations in Copenhagen, a city where 55% of the residents cycle every day. The sign says:


"Dear Cyclist,
You can care for your bicycle here. You can pump and wash your bicycle and, inside the shop, you're welcome to borrow a free bicycle care kit with oil, tire levers, allen keys, etc.
Enjoy.
Statoil" 


The pilot stations in the Copenhagen area are: 

• Sydhavns Plads 10, 2450 København SV
• Godthåbsvej 144, 2000 Frederiksberg C
• H.C. Ørstedsvej 25 - 27, 1879 Frederiksberg C
• Valby Langgade 119, 2500 Valby
• Kongevejen 205, 2830 Virum

Statoil would like to know where to put the next 'bike care' stations. Send them an email at cykelpleje@statoilfuelretail.com

Statoil don't operate any UK petrol stations but are a huge natural gas supplier to the UK and are presently developing the Sheringham Shoal wind farm 17 km off the coast of Norfolk.

While Statoil should be applauded for this bold innovation, Bike Aid demonstrates that there's no need for cyclists to wait for capital investment by PR-hungry polluters. For every petrol station to stock a puncture repair kit, provide air and loan tools for the use of cyclists it would cost about £2 per site. 

Bike Aid notes that there is growing unease in Norway for Statoil's sponsorship of the arts. The education / arts / activism organsiation Platform recently said on their blog:

"...extraction-hungry oil and gas companies use sponsorship to purchase a central position at the core of social development and cultural growth, to enhance their reputation and cover up their dirty practices elsewhere. The cultural sector has been mostly been compliant, but this has to change. 

...These companies have massive amounts of money at their disposal, and the “generous” amounts they offer the cultural sector through sponsorship are mere trifles as far as their own accounts are concerned. For the cultural sector, on the other hand, these amounts are enormous, and we see an enormous amount of hesitation of speaking out for fear of losing the economic support. 

Sponsorship thereby becomes more than just a cheap marketing strategy; not only do they greenwash the unethical practices of these companies, they also place a significant proportion of our creative and resourceful young people in a position of gratitude and servility to the oil companies, purchasing a place at the heart of our culture, education and sports."

Therefore we think evidence of their commitment to change their practice by supporting cycling facilities would be more welcome. This incidentally is why Bike Aid does not seek any funding from anyone, though it welcomes any from those prepared to give. We don't ever want to fear speaking out against any kind of sponsor should we feel the need to do so.

Bike Aid kits on a budget

 


There are many sources of material to provision Bike Aid kits. Our first suggestion is to re-employ spare tools and patches widely found unused in cyclists' sheds however we have noticed that 'pound' shops and major supermarkets now stock cycling accessories. A recent visit to a 99p Store and Poundland found similarly equipped kits at their eponymous prices so we are confident that both a puncture repair kit and a pump can be purchased for less than than the cost of a large latte in chain coffee shops. Poundland's pump fits both kind of valve and their pump and patch kit with levers and wrench can both fit neatly inside a 12" x 2" mailing tube.


We are asking Poundland if they'd like to donate some pumps and patch kits to make demonstration kits which we can take around.

Holton Cycling Evening

Cycle Suffolk  presents a Cycling Evening at Holton Village Hall on Thursday 19th January 2012 from 7 to 9 pm.

Admission free, all welcome – just turn up to join in with Virtual Watt Bike racing, get a bike check, watch a presentation on a South East Asia cycling trip, meet your local cycling club, find out more about local rides and learn how to recycle your old tools into ‘Bike Aid’ kits

For further information, please contact Joseph Young on 01394 444590 / 07920 861819 or joseph.young@suffolksport.com

Holton village hall is at IP19 8PL, 3/4 miles east from Halesworth

Holton, adj Orchard Valley‎
Buses from stops nearby:
272
511
520
601A
Stop ID: sufgwpmd

Host Profile: Light Electric Vehicles

Europe's finest ebikes all under one roof...

...is the promise of LEV based in Leiston, Suffolk. Established in 2004 by motor racing engineer James Fitzgerald, Light Electric Vehicles is the UK's longest established ebike specialist.

At LEV test rides are FREE. You're welcome to whiz up and down the road outside their 450m2 showroom, but Dutch and Swiss quality do not come cheap and you need to be sure of your purchase, so they would prefer you to go further a field: Much better to take one of their demo bikes out for a morning or afternoon and explore the surrounding country lanes and coastal bridlle paths. You can bring a friend, take a picnic, make a day or a weekend of it!

www.levbikes.co.uk

Plans for new cycle route through Millennium Green

National Cycle Route 1 and the International North Sea Cycle Route pass through Halesworth and make a significant contribution to the local tourism industry although it is widely considered that at present the full potential of cycle tourism for this area has not been fully developed. This proposal is for a completely new access for the Town from the south consisting of over 1 km. of off-road route bringing cyclists right into the heart of the Town through the scenically attractive Millennium Green.

The present NCR 1 enters the Town from the west on the busy B1117 from Chediston and with the one way restrictions on Chediston Street it diverts through the Church Farm housing estate. Not the most attractive or welcoming approach to our Town. The new route provides a relaxing traffic free entrance to the Town, a fantastic local recreational facility providing opportunities for excellent safe links to various parts of the Town for cyclists, walkers, wheelchair and buggy users. You can read the full project outline hosted here.

This is provisionally costed at £150,000. The initial response from the planners is good and we now need to contact the Environment Agency to discuss issues relating to the flood plain and Waveney about the route through the Park – oh and find £150,000

Press!

Suffolk Coast and Heaths is a quarterly free sheet distributed widely in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has seen fit to feature the bike aid scheme for which we're very grateful. Get your copy here.

Host Profile: The Electric Transport Shop

Suffolk Bike Aid encountered the charming Eddie Kehoe with his Ebike Roadshow at the HinT event "Watts, From Where?" recently held in Halesworth. The founder of the UK's longest established electric bike shop enthusiastically grasped the Bike Aid concept; realising that any no-cost infrastructure to support cyclists must be a good thing.

Within a few hours, notice came that all the Electric Transport Shop locations in London, Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford will be hosts to Bike Aid. Naturally anything more than the loan of a wheel nut spanner and pump and their encouragement of your DIY repair would have to be charged for. The company provides buyers of some commuter models free cycle-rescue insurance from ETS but Bike Aid will be available to any cyclist, electric or not, calling in and needing assistance.

All their shops offer a wide range of electric cycles to test-ride and full after-sales services as well as being child-friendly and have a customer toilet, free beverages and somewhere to sit.

Each branch has its own phone number where helpful, enthusiastic people like Eddie await your call 7 days a week. Please visit their highly informative website to find out everything about electric bikes and lightweight electric transport.

www.electricbikesales.co.uk

Bike Aid going global at Velo Village 2012

Salt Spring Island: Fulford Valley from Mount Maxwell

Bike Aid activist Nat Bocking recently visited the Canadian Pacific coast and Salt Spring Island. This community of 10,000 people on 182 square miles of verdant mountain forests and lowland pastures could be favourably compared to Totnes in England as it too is renown for organic agriculture and forward thinking: the Gulf Islands - Saanich district recently elected Canada's first Green Member of Parliament Elizabeth May.

While at Salt Spring's Fall Fair, Nat met with John Rowlandson, coordinator of the 2012 Velo Village, a forthcoming three-day celebration of rural mobility solutions. Next June thousands of cyclists will go to Salt Spring to experience bicycle heaven-on-earth with fun and competitive rides, kinetic sculptures, bicycle cinema and musical performers bookending a one-day rural mobility solutions workshop on June 22nd. Participants will see and hear how people are addressing the challenges of rural riding and set an agenda around key themes of families, safety and connectivity between city cyclists and their country cousins.

John wrote: "I love the whole bike aid kit idea. It's an awesome way to anticipate the 'what if' problem for entire populations of new and experienced cyclists." He added: "the BikeAid program gives a hint at what rural communities are doing to improve the quality and pleasure of rural riding."

Suffolk Bike Aid is offering a presentation to Velo Village as either a paper or a short film and there is a link to Bike Aid on their website. Velo Village extends an invitation to the cycling community in England (and the rest of the World) to come along and for delegates from outside BC who can't bring their own, Velo Village will provide cycles to use on Salt Spring.

Salt Spring Island bus with a passenger-operated double bike rack

British Columbia is an outdoor pursuits paradise and commute and recreational cycling is well catered-for on Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands. The island has a Bicycle Working Group putting together joined-up thinking such as bike racks on BC Transit buses (a facility as yet unheard of in the UK). Travel to Salt Spring from the UK is much easier than you might think; besides the three scenic ferry routes, there are usually 12 float plane flights a day from Vancouver to Ganges Harbour.

www.velo-village2012.blogspot.com