One Street News

August 2014

Vol. 7, Issue 6

  1. Final Days to Pledge for Cures for Ailing Organizations!
  2. Bike Shift Lever and Backyard Aluminum Casting
  3. Kampala, Uganda Commits to Bicycle/Pedestrian Priority Project
  4. Resources – Commuting by Bike in the NY Times
  5. Hot Topics – Parking Craters

Final Days to Pledge for Cures for Ailing Organizations!

We need your help in these final days of our Kickstarter campaign to fund the worldwide publication of Cures for Ailing Organizations! This book is a first aid manual to guide nonprofits, including bicycle organizations, out of common struggles. Thanks to some of you, the campaign has raised most of the goal, but we only have days left to raise over $1,100: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/604592896/cures-for-ailing-organizations .

We can’t do it without your help! Please pledge soon if you haven’t already. If you know people who might like to help bring this book to organizations around the world, please send them the link and include an urgent request for them to pledge right away. Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing basis, so if we don’t reach our goal, we won’t receive any funding and won’t be able to publish the book.

With your pledge, you can choose to receive an early copy of the book. Other pledge rewards include consultations as well as multiple copies of the book to share with several cherished organizations.

Please pledge today and encourage others to help us reach the goal!

Bike Shift Lever and Backyard Aluminum Casting

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

After three years of unexpected twists and turns, our Bike Shift Levers are finally popping out of the first casting mold. It’s slow going because of all the thunderstorms that have hit Prescott this summer. With an outside furnace and the fact that molten aluminum explodes upon contact with water, even the slightest rain shuts my operation down. Still, the pile of shifter parts is slowly growing. These shifters from Mold #1 will all go to our fabulous donors who contributed to the success of our Bike Shift Lever Kickstarter campaign last October.

Find some fun photos from our testers of the very first cast shift levers on our Defying Poverty with Bicycles blog.

Mold #2 is under the CNC mill as I type and I hope to be casting with it by next week. If all goes well with that mold, those shifters will be our first production shifters, ready for sale, just in time for the Interbike Trade Show in Las Vegas the second week of September.

These Bike Shift Levers are designed for people who rely on their bike every day. With just six common parts, they can shift either the front or rear derailleur and are easy to repair.

Also just in time for Interbike, Backyard Aluminum Casting: for Bike Shift Levers (and Nearly Anything Else), will be hot off the press. This book was also funded through the campaign last October. I received the confirmation from the printer yesterday and with expedited shipping, the first box of books should arrive here by the end of next week!

Next week will also be the first opportunity to order your own copy of Backyard Aluminum Casting through your favorite local bookstore as well as all major online booksellers. Not only will you learn how to build your own furnace for casting scrap aluminum, you will find at the back of the book the design drawings for the Bike Shift Lever so you can make your own.

Kampala, Uganda Commits to Bicycle/Pedestrian Priority Project

An inspiring non-motorized transport (NMT) project for downtown Kampala has been in the works by the city’s bicycle and pedestrian advocates for many years. The project proposes closing some streets to cars and redesigning others to prioritize bicyclists and walkers in this car-dominated capital city. Earlier this month, we were thrilled to hear the news that the proposal has been accepted and will soon be underway. This news reached many media channels in Uganda, but this article was our favorite. The comments from people who oppose the project remind us that bike/ped opponents around the world share the same fears and, with enough care and respect, these opponents can be shown the value of redesigning their streets for all travelers.

Resources – Commuting by Bike in the NY Times

Articles encouraging commuting by bike are always great to see. But this New York Times article showing how commuting by bike is saving home owners and renters significant money is something to forward on to any public official who still thinks bikes are just toys.

Hot Topics – Parking Craters

We’ve often highlighted the Hot Topic of city regulations that lead to too much free car parking because it causes more driving, which is detrimental to bicycling. This video looks at this problem from a different angle, by presenting America’s vast parking lots as “parking craters.” The filmmakers show how cities looked before parking regulations forced the removal of historic buildings. When we look at the skylines, these parking lots do indeed look like dead craters. An interesting video for anyone who cares about their city.