Archive for February, 2008

reviews

We posted a message on the uni server “message of the day” thingy on Friday, and we’ve had over 270 visitors on the first day! – and all the bikes are out! (wow, ey?) this means we might become rather popular I guess.

And we got some nice feedback recently – in fact we do receive pretty nice and encouraging emails now and again from people around the world (Canada, Germany and Thailand among other places) who just happen to stumble upon our website – anyway, one really nice review was posted here by a fellow student: http://storyquine.blogspot.com/2008/02/id-like-to-borrow-bike-plz.html


We added a page we called “guideline” to the site – some things which I thought needed to be said. I hope you agree with that sort of statement. If not, or if you have any other ideas or comments on that, please share.

What else is happening at the moment?

  • Well, we are still doing our best to find a nice place to set up a proper workshop – we sent that email (see last post) around uni – but there wasn’t too much of a response to that. Although Robin Harper contacted us and it seems something is indeed happening! we’ll see – we might need to hand out the letter in person and could use some help to bring it to the right places.
  • We got more tools and spare parts recently and we’re kind of growing I guess.
  • A new truing stand should be there by Saturday.
  • We will hopefully get some money from the Student Association soon – we’ll be handing in the forms tomorrow.
  • We’ll get a couple of new bikes these days – and one of the bikes (speedyJenny) in the library was damaged.

So I hope to see you guys on Saturday to get those new bikes ready for the library – and there are still a couple of mountain bikes that would need some work!
Things are happening now! spread the word.

Becycally yours,

Dani

Comments (1)

Becycle’s latest enthusiastic attempt

This letter went out to various people in the University community yesterday. We are curiously waiting for a reaction….
Also: every bikeless person out there: We now have three bikes waiting for you to take on rides!!! Go to: www.becycle.wordpress.com/library – choose a bike- pick it up! It is that easy….

To whom it may concern

Subject:

In search of support and space (garage, basement or hut) from the University of Aberdeen for a student based free bicycle repair workshop and lending library.

In September 2007 a number of students started to develop a fully free bicycle repair workshop and bicycle lending library. The workshop supplies tools and know how to students to assist them in bicycle repair works. Additionally it has shown very successful to repair unused bicycles- gathered through sponsorships- to send them back onto Aberdeen’s roads in form of a lending library- again free of charge.

The workshop managed not only to circulate a number of bikes in the University community but also gained access to repair tools, spare parts and knowledgeable folks and runs a web page that has been having over 1250 visits since it went online in October 2007.

In only three months this project has proven very popular and could potentially grow to great things.

The aim of the workshop is to support sustainable transport, to encourage students to do simple repair works by themselves and to provide a space for exchange and skill development complementing the University’s sustainable transport policies.

Due to the success of this scheme and the ever-increasing demand of students wanting to use this service, we need a space better suited then the current location of our private back garden.

The current location limits our activity (e.g. due to weather and lighting), if we had a garage/shed this project could expand to help more students and make more bikes available to them.

Other Universities like Oxford, Birmingham or Evergreen show a working example of similar student initiatives – not to mention the numerous community-based workshops around the world (see below for a few examples). We believe that the University of Aberdeen is ready for such a space and will gain many positive benefits from it.

We are therefore asking the University for a garage, a basement or a hut in which this project will find its new home.

We look forward to meeting to discuss how we can work together.

Please contact us at the address below.

Yours faithfully,

the Becycle Team

-becycle8@gmail.com-

Becycle- for Tustainable Transport

Universities:

Evergreen University

http://academic.evergreen.edu/groups/bikeshop/

Birmingham University

http://www.cycling.bham.ac.uk/

Oxford University

http://www.oxfordcycleworkshop.org.uk/ocw/bike_doctor.php

Community-Projects:

http://www.thebikestation.org.uk/
The Bike Station is Edinburgh’s bicycle recycling and cycling promotion charity.

http://www.glasgowbikelibrary.co.uk/
a bicycle library in Glasgow

http://www.derailerbicyclecollective.org/
Derailer is a community-run, completely FREE bike shop with an all-volunteer staff.

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