Bike WASHington
June 14, 2010 
4 Comments
Now is the balmy time of year when volley ball teams and church youth groups start to get their car wash on. But what about a bike wash? After a rainy winter and spring my bike looks like a work horse that has been ridden hard and put away wet. My spokes are covered in soot and my chain is starting to look like the bumper of the rusty old Volvo I drove around in high school. Yikes!
Now that Bike to Work week is through and SpokeFest isn’t until September, the Spokane biking community could pull together an early season blowout in preparation for the new Summer Parkways festivals that will be taking place in July and August. If it is too late to pull off such a biking fete in June this year, we should definitely think ahead for 2011.
It would be a benefit event for local grassroots groups on wheels, like Pedals2People and the Lilac City Rollergirls. And lets also throw in The FBC since *someone* has to pay to print all the rad spoke cards Jeff painstakingly puts together, and Board of Spokane, since they promote skateboarding, and maybe Meals on Wheels could be sponsored to cater lunch, and so forth.
Core volunteers at P2P.
Lilac City Rollergirls, photo by Josh Smith.
Clearly there is enough critical community mass to make this thing a smashing hit. And clearly this would represent a great way to cross-promote cycling readiness among people in Spokane who are already athletically predisposed to get off their duffs and bike around, but may not be a part of the family/office-going demographic that Bike To Work week appeals to.
I would pay for a bike wash, or donate to be shown (again) how to clean my chain. I could pay to get into the beer garden at the event. I could pay for Pop-Up Spokane lunch, and pay for some sweet P2P and LCRG merch. I think this thing would definitely be worth everyone’s while. We could do it in a church parking lot to avoid the bureaucracy of Spokane Parks and cut down on overhead.
I suggest the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane, for example, and volunteer to be the church liaison should someone miraculously appear to organize this event and should the church be able to partner on the project. It is a nice little ride outside the city center and is close to wonderful rides around Riverside State Park. Finding a parking lot in Spokane to host the event will not be a problem.
After we emerge victorious from all the scrubbing and spraying, the event concept will go viral and people in Bellingham and Tacoma will do bike washes in a similar fashion. Just another idea floating around in the cauldron of community innovation that is Spokane.
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Sounds cool Mariah.
Note that you can always take a basic maintenance or a Ladie’s class at P2P.
http://pedals2people.org/classes.aspx
Or just bring your bike to the shop and rent a stand: John, Ryan, or some righteous volunteer will help you clean up your bike and get it going.
Nice half-step + granny btw.
Thanks John,
I was an idiot for not linking to your blog on the words “Spokane biking community” before hitting the publish button. I’ve now fixed this problem, my apologies!
For those of you who, like me, had no idea what a half-granny is:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gear-theory.html#halfgranny
Hey, I was in Denver over the weekend and had one of those aha moments. I grew up there, watching the smog roll up the South Platte River every morning until the city was immersed in a brown veil. There is still smog, but not as thick and we decided to take a tour of Denver with their b-cycle system.
You slide your credit card into the slot and five dollars gets you 30 minutes of riding on a three speed, kind of clunky, commuter bike. The cool part is that you can ride it to any of the 20 some b-cycle places downtown. You check your bike in, shop or imbibe, then check it out again for the next 30 minutes with no additional cost.
As if trying to imitate a European city, our first hundred yards had us stopping as a light-rail train cruised by in front of us! We did several stops, including Denver’s huge Gay Pride parade, rode along Cherry Creek on a great bike path, and finally ended up back where we started.
We will get there in Spokane, but it will be important to keep uberhuman here to help…
As you may know, I’ve been volunteering on the steering committee of Summer Parkways, a new event coming to Spokane this summer. We are quickly approaching our first event on July 11th, and are still in need of volunteer support.
Summer Parkways is a ciclovia inspired event presented by the Spokefest Association and Spokane Parks and Recreation celebrating human powered movement by closing Howard St from Riverfront Park north to Corbin Park to cars and opening the street up for cyclists, skaters, walkers and more to participate in this huge party.
There will be free physical activity demonstrations and participatory sessions (think yoga, martial arts, hula hooping) along the course as well as healthy snacks and equipment demonstrations.
This is a family friendly event, and there are many opportunities to participate and volunteer. Let me know if you have any questions and please consider passing on this volunteer opportunity to your networks.
Information available at http://www.summerparkways.com or on Facebook. Thanks!