From http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-11-15-voa9.cfm – great use for your old bike.

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Americans bought an estimated eighteen and a half million bicycles last year. Some bikes never get much riding. Mostly they gather dust. But a project based in Washington is putting unwanted bikes from the United States to good use in developing countries.

Keith Oberg is the director of Bikes for the World.

KEITH OBERG: “Everybody has an old bicycle, and it is usually not ridden. It sits there in the garage, or basement or shed, going to waste.”

Stephen Popick recently had two bikes to donate.

STEPHEN POPICK: “I brought in two mountain bikes that my wife and I have ridden for the past ten years. My bikes wouldn’t fetch a nice price and wouldn’t be worth trying to sell, but they could be useful to somebody else.”

Bikes for the World collects bicycles and delivers them at low cost to community programs in developing countries. It shipped more than five thousand bikes during the first eight months of this year. Last year it shipped about ten thousand three hundred.

The bicycle recycling program is one of the largest in the United States. It is a sponsored project of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Bikes for the World began in two thousand five. Since then it has shipped more than forty thousand bikes to communities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, says director Keith Oberg.

KEITH OBERG: “We work currently with partners in seven countries actively — in Uganda, Ghana. We’re talking to an organization that we would like to ship to in Liberia. We have shipped to Namibia and the Gambia in the past. And in Central America we ship to Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and we are talking to two organizations in El Salvador.”

Bikes for the World partners with nonprofit groups in the United States to collect unwanted bikes. Then it works with nonprofits in the other countries to get the bikes to organizations and individuals that need them the most.

For example, the Bicycle Empowerment Network Namibia uses the bikes to provide transportation for health workers. That makes it possible for them to visit more patients each day. The organization also has bicycle ambulance services to transport the sick.

The Bicycle Empowerment Network also provides training and support to help local organizations and individuals open bike shops of their own. The businesses sell the recycled bikes at low cost and provide repair services. Many of the organizations use the money they earn to help pay for other community projects.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms with additional reporting by Susan Logue. You can learn about other organizations working in the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can also find us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

From philstar; http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=521682&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines – The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has opened the trains of LRT Lines 1 and 2 to bikers with “folding bikes” to promote bimodal transport involving the use of bicycles and trains among people going around Metro Manila.

With the “Bike O2” or Bike-On, Bike-Off project, Melquiades Robles, LRTA administrator, said the Philippines was following the example of more developed countries in the promotion of cleaner and cheaper modes of transportation.

“With all the concerns over the rising price of gas and climate change, we believe that undertaking this project is not only timely but necessary,” Robles told The STAR in an interview yesterday at the launching of the project at the LRT 2’s Cubao-Araneta station.

“We want the motorists of Metro Manila to leave their vehicles at home, grab a foldable bike and ride it to their nearest LRT Line 1 or Line 2 station, and ride our trains to work,” Robles said.

Under their BO2 project, LRTA will allow commuters with folding bikes to bring their units into trains.

With the strategic locations of the stations of both LRT Line 1, which runs from Baclaran in Parañaque City to Monumento in Caloocan City; and LRT Line 2, which runs from Santolan in Pasig City to C.M. Recto Avenue in Manila, Robles said a cyclist with a folding bike only has to ride a shorter route going to his destination.

“They have a faster and cheaper means of going to work or wherever they are going and they also get a healthy exercise,” he said.

Robles added that they have set up “green zones” in each train –the last coach of every train –to accommodate the cyclist-commuter and foldable bike.

He said they will monitor the demand for space in the “green zones” in the next few weeks to determine future expansion of these areas to accommodate more commuters with folding bikes.

Robles said they are also looking into expanding the project by setting up bike parking spaces in certain stations, depending on the success of the initial phase of the BO2 project.

He said he was excited with the project’s implementation, noting that bike and environmentalist groups have rallied behind the LRTA for the project, and have come in as partners.

Enrique Pineda, president of the Firefly Brigade, a group of bikers encouraging other people to take up biking as a means of traveling, expressed total support for the BO2 project.

Bikers and members of the Firefly Brigade, the UP Mountaineers, the Padyak Project Foundation and the Tiklop Society joined Robles and Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday on a bike-on, bike-off ride with foldable bikes to showcase the BO2 ride concept.

Pineda said that a folding bike costs as low as P3,000 to as high as P50,000 depending on the model and brand.

“You can get one brand-new for as low as P3,000 to P3,500. There are really expensive ones,” he said, adding that one can also get a second-hand folding bike for P1,900 in certain bike shops.

“Bi-modal transportation, riding our bicycles to the LRT, is a simple way of lessening our carbon footprint. Hopefully, with eventual introduction of safe bicycle parking and access of regular bicycles, this project will take off and be an instrumental climate change mitigation tool,” Pineda said.

Robles said he thought of starting the project after observing the rail transport systems in the Philippines’ neighboring developed countries in Asia such as Japan and Singapore and in many countries in Europe where bikes, folding and even regular ones, and their cyclists are allowed by train authorities.

Pineda, for his part, saw the launch as a first step in a laudable project launched by government.

“It is a very important first step. And we’re thankful to the LRTA and administrator Mel Robles for making it,” he said.

Montreal doing a bicycle collection of your old bikes! http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-388898-Bicycle-collection-drive-in-the-West-Island.html

On Saturday, November 7th, between 10 am and 1 pm, the residents of the Dollard-des-Ormeaux area are invited to bring out their used bikes to the West Island College. In collaboration with Cycle North-South, the Interact Club will put your old bikes to good use by shipping them off to community organisations in Africa and Latin America.

Your unused bicycle could help a whole family roll out of poverty ! In order to help cover transportation fees, Cycle North-South requests a donation of $12, (or more according to your means) per bicycle donated. In exchange, you will receive an income tax receipt equal to the value of the bicycle plus the cash donation.

All bicycles with 20-inch wheels and up in a reparable state are accepted. Even if you do not have a bicycle to donate, come and visit our stand during the collection ! We will also be selling fair trade products (chocolate, coffee, tea and hot chocolate), reusable tote bags and other cool things. You can also browse through our beautiful photographs of all the extraordinary ways in which the bicycles are used in the South.

Bicycles are a very useful, economical and ecological mode of transportation whether it is used by a peasant in Cuba to get to bamboo fields, by a widow in Burkina Faso to take literacy classes or by a little Togolese girl to transport water to her parents. An original and sustainable way to change someone’s life.

WHAT? Bicycle Collection Drive with Cycle North-South

WHEN? Saturday, November 7th 2009

Between 10 am and 1 pm

WHERE? West Island College

851, Tecumseh, Dollard-des-Ormeaux

WHO? Interact Club

Jamie Henderson, 514 683-4660

Cycle 2009, from road.cc. http://road.cc/content/news/10062-cycle-show-2009-enigma-basso-swobo-garmin-kcnc-and-more

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Well we’re back from the show now – thanks to everyone that came and said hello, it was great to put a few faces to names. And sell some T shirts. When we weren’t sitting on our inflatable sofas drinking the wine that the Belveder girls had brought to the party there was plenty of time to have a snoop round the stands, and there was plenty to see.

Normally after Eurobike we’re a bit showed out but This year’s Cycle Show had plenty of stuff we hadn’t seen in Germany, and seemed a lot busier than last year. Just goes to show that recsession or no, we all still love our bikes. Here’s another quick run through some of the new, or interesting, or both, stuff that we stumbled across.

Enigma

Enigma have built up a big following for their top-end Titanium over the past few years but last year’s Cycle Show marked a turning point for the company when they unveiled their first steel frame, handmade in the UK like the Ti units. Since then the company has seen unprecedented demand for steel, and now half the bikes the Sussex-based outfit produce are made from Cromoly or stainless tubesets. The star of the steel range is the Elite XCR, a £1500 stainless-tubed road beauty that’s superbly finished. Enigma head honcho Jim Walker is passionate about reviving the UK as a producer of bikes and there’s no better advert for British craftmanship than one of his immaculate frames; we try not to spend too long on the Enigma stand because we’re afraid we’ll end up buying one. Or another one, in Jo’s case…

Garmin Edge 500

Garmin were showing off their new Edge, the 500, which is a much more compact unit aimed at riders who don’t need a whole host of complicated mapping functions. It still uses GPS location to get your ride stats, and you can still upload your ride data to Garmin Connect, but most of the time it looks like a fairly standard, well-featured bike computer. You get a fully customisable interface so you can look at the data you want, and it’s pretty straightfoward to use: something that can’t really be said of the more expensive edge units. You can upload a route to the 500 and follow it but there’s no real mapping capabaility, you just have to follow a crumbtrail on the screen. The retail price is around £200, expect to see a review on road.cc soon.

KCNC

There’s plenty of shiny things to look at when you visit a cycle show, but among the shiniest at Earl’s Court were on the KCNC stand. KCNC are a Taiwanese engineering firm that specialise in lightweight Aluminium and Titanium accessories, and when we say lightweight we really mean it. A single bar end that weighs less than a packet of crisps? Now that’s light. They were also showing off their tiny knife pedals aimed at road riders who don’t want to go clipless. At 150g a pair they’re absurdly light too, as was pretty much everything else in their cabinet. Standout products for us were the brakes, both the dual pivot callipers and the skeletal V-brakes. They’re not cheap, but they’re a lot cheaper than most stuff you’ll find that’s as light.

Swobo bikes

Not a name you might associate with bikes but Swobo had some interesting machines on display at Cycle 2009. Best of the bunch was the Crosby, a singlespeed ‘cross bike with a SRAM Torpedo rear hub – free to fixed in just a few turns of a screwdriver. Fixed cyclocross, anyone? The bike’s much more versatile than just a ‘cross iron though, it’d look the part about town too with its semi-deep orange rims and muted blue-grey paintjob. The Baxter was an interesting bike too, with an Alfine drivetrain and swept back bars for less extreme urban adventuring.

Corima Wheels

Corima were showing off their MCC wheelset at the show, and a very nice looking set of hoops it is too. We didn’t get to speak to anyone technical at Corima (they were hiding) so we’re still in the dark about quite how the rear wheel works. Normally on a rear wheel you’ll get crossed spokes on the drive side, the forward facing ones transmitting the torque from the hub and the backward-facing ones dealing with the braking forces which twist the wheel in the opposite direction. The MCC real wheel has the torque spokes but no opposing spokes, so won’t it just fold up under braking? We’re assuming it doesn’t, but can’t work out why. any ideas? Answers on a postcard…

Basso

Basso were showing off their road range as it is in the UK, which is a fraction of their total output. They are bringing over the range-topping Diamante though, a very purposeful looking Carbon road machine. Basso make all their bikes by hand in Italy, so you really are getting European chic for your (significant) outlay. Basso have, like Trek, gone along the integrated bottom bracket route which allows them to use a much wider BB moulding, 86mm in Basso’s case, for a stiffer pedalling platform. It certainly works on the Madones so we’d expect it to on the Basso too, though we haven’t ridden it. They were also showing the new Astra which is a good looking machine too. Mr Basso is very passionate about his bikes: “He calls me every other day and he’s usually shouting”, Adam at UK distributors Moore Large told us. The original Diamante prototype frame was nicked from its box on the way over to Britain; “When I told him”, say Adam, “I’m pretty sure he was crying”

Paper Bicycle

We reported on the Paper Bicycle last year, a very classy step through machine that’s designed for fuss-free daily use. Well, now it’s nearly in production and it’s still a great looking utility machine. There’s a clever new kick stand that extends from the rear of the frame (it looks a bit like an exhaust when it’s raised!) and a few refinements to the design. Orders have already been taken for hire fleets in other European countries and UK production is just a case of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s. Oh, and clearing up the warehouse…

What a great use for an old car dealership! http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=21343

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After standing vacant for two years, the former home of the Huling (then briefly Gee) Chrysler dealership is getting a new tenant. And this time, it’s all about the bikes. Cycle University will hold its first class this Saturday in the space at 4550 Fauntleroy (map). And according to founder Craig Undem, cycling coach Ed Ewing, and manager Brad Loetel, a former car dealership is the perfect place for bicycle training classes, sales, and repair.

Cycle U’s signature blue and orange now adorn the walls, but the building’s giant windows, offices, and a partial wall down the middle of the main floor all are all intact. In a humorous nod to the former occupants, a sign reading “We Want You Very Satisfied!” has been left above one of the offices – after all, Undem says, Cycle U wants to satisfy their customers, too.

“We’re bicycle coaches first,” says Undem, a professional coach who has raced in the World Championships of Cyclocross, won a World Cup medal in Mountain Bike Racing, and placed second in the US in Elite Criterium Championships. “I think that the advice that people get will set us apart.”

The first phase of West Seattle’s Cycle U will be their trademarked InCycle classes.

They’re somewhat similar to the stationary bike classes that Ewing teaches at Allstar Fitness, but during InCycle, participants use their own bicycles indoors with a device that tracks their performance. InCycle riders are also a bit more serious about their cycling performance.

“It’s a structured training program,” Ewing explains. “The fitness assessment is based on wattage – the actual power that you generate. Everyone has a sustainable wattage output for a certain amount of time. Training above and below that level is how we build your fitness.”

Unlike relying on a heart rate, which can be high even when a person is fatigued, Ewing says, “Wattage doesn’t lie.”

InCycle classes will be held at the facility in groups of 25, down from the 30-person classes at Cycle U’s Sand Point location. Ewing says that this will help coaches get more of an individual feel for the performance of the riders in the class, who include general cycling enthusiasts, triathletes, bicycle racers, or simply “somebody who just wants to get really, really fit.” Coaches make the rounds during classes to offer tips on riding posture, music plays, and a projection system provides constant footage of bike races.

“It’s very motivational,” says Ewing. “We push you, challenge you, and make sure you achieve your goals. There really is no faking.” Even if a rider puts in minimal effort throughout the course, “If you are assessed coming in at 180 watts, you’ll leave at 200-250 watts,” he says.

As for bicycle sales and repair, that part of Cycle U will be up to speed in mid-November. The store’s primary bike line will be Specialized – Loetel was placing an order with them while we were there – and Undem eventually plans to stock demo bikes for students to try out in class.

Ewing and Loetel are enthusiastic about the new location as much for the actual street address as for the physical space. They point out the cyclists riding by, heading home from a commute via the bike lanes below the West Seattle Bridge. They’re excited to be serving riders in the community where both Ewing and Loetel live.

“People don’t have a lot of time to go out on a three-hour ride after work or in the dark or in the rain – especially in winter in Seattle,” Ewing says. He welcomes riders who want to improve “no matter how old you are or what your goals are. We’ve had students as young as 18 and as old as 71.”

So if you want in on that Saturday InCycle class, he wants you to know: registration is still open at cycleu.com.

Article on telegraph.co.uk — I think James is a bit paranoid. The bicycle is a very old, safe, classic technology.. the law can’t squash it!

By James May
Published: 1:55PM BST 05 Oct 2009
Comments 11 | Comment on this article
Now then: about this idea that the motorist will always be responsible in any accident involving a bicycle. I’ve had a think about it and what I think is this: everyone is assuming that it’s bad news for the driver, but in fact it’s bad news for bikes.
I like a bicycle. I haven’t been without a bike since I was three (though it’s not the same one) and I like to point this out to people who bought one last week and imagine they’ve stumbled upon a miracle cure for all the world’s ills.

The militant cyclists are actually very few in number. They are the miserable ones with the bad clothes, the smelly pits and the faces furrowed with the cast of deep resentment. Everyone else is simply riding a bicycle to the office or the shops in proper shoes and not making a fuss. The small group is the noisy one.

But I agree with them that, when I’m driving, I have a duty of care to look out for the other version of me on the bike. If I’m in a big Benz, drawing on its hospital-sized delivery of torque, and arriving at a left turn at the same time as the bloke on the Raleigh Roustabout with his knees sticking out like teacher from The Bash Street Kids, who may want to go straight ahead, then I should make sure he can.
Looking out for the vulnerable and those less fortunate than ourselves is what distinguishes us from a pack of dogs. And those of us with more than an ounce of decency in our bones, which is most people, do it. We must be doing it, otherwise we’d be living in Lord of the Flies, and on the whole we’re not. The majority do not need to be burdened with a fatuous and unworkable piece of legislation just because a handful are not very nice.
Let’s take the example of my mate Bob, though that’s not his real name*. A while back he lost his licence for three months for serial speeding offences in built-up areas. He now says that he approves of speed humps and traffic calming measures, because he needs them to stay within the law and protect him from himself.
But this is simply making life annoying for you and me, who are intelligent enough to recognise when it’s all right to give it the berries and when it’s not. I would say that if he can’t be trusted to work this out like an adult then he should give up driving altogether and leave it to those who can be bothered to take an interest. Our friendship is at an end.
So back to this effort to regulate the relationship between the car driver and the cyclist. The great pity of it all is, I believe, that it will end with the regulation of the bicycle itself. If the condition of riding a bicycle is to be recognised in law, then it will have to be framed in it. If the cyclist is to enjoy the seemingly unilateral protection this proposal offers, then the car or truck or taxi lobby will demand that bicycles are registered, insured and tested for roadworthiness.
And that will be the end of the bicycle as most of us know and like it. The whole point of a bike is that it is effectively free at the point of use. Obviously the tyres gradually wear out and you will need to eat more bananas, but there are no real running costs or administrative pains in the rear. That’s as it should be.
Let’s not forget, too, that the bicycle is merely first base on the great personal transport merry-go-round, and leads naturally enough to a car or a motorcycle. When that great day comes, then it comes with tiresome paperwork, but until then the bicycle offers the essence of the liberty we crave without having to fill anything in or up. It’s also quite good for picking up groceries and riding to and from a riverside puborama experience.
So we are now in a position where a small group of sour-faced miserablists could ruin one of life’s simple pleasures and one of man’s greatest inventions for the rest of us. And if that happens, all of you who simply own a bicycle or buy them for your children must be ready to rise up as one and march on Whitehall. I’ll be there.

From baxterbulletin.com — this is such a touching story and a great use of older bikes…

BULL SHOALS — As a child, Niel Eskildsen never had a bicycle.

Now he’s on a mission to provide area children with bicycles for Christmas, buying parts and repairing donated bicycles to give to The Baxter Bulletin Christmas Wish program.

“It makes kids happy,” said Eskildsen, 84, of Bull Shoals. “Everybody wants a bike. Right now, with so many people out of work, they need it more than ever.”

Last year, Eskildsen and his wife, Betty, saw that many children requested bicycles through the Christmas Wish program. The program provides Christmas gifts for needy children in the area.

The couple decided they would forgo Christmas presents to each other this year and instead spend the money on repairing bicycles.

“We’ve been married 63 years,” Eskildsen said, standing in his crowded workshop, ready to put a refurbished wheel on a girl’s bicycle. “We agree pretty much without any arguments.”

Those in the community quickly heard about his project and donated about 20 bicycles in all shapes and sizes — so many that he doesn’t need any more donations.

Eskildsen buys new tires and other needed parts to make the bicycles safe. A bicycle shop in Mountain Home found out about the project when Eskildsen was in the store buying parts and offered to charge him only cost for parts, he said. Eskildsen estimates he’s spent about $700 so far on the project.

Despite his hours of devotion on the project, Eskildsen has never owned or ridden a bicycle.

He grew up during the Great Depression, living in a rural northeast area of Illinois. When he was 7, he was working 60 hour weeks on a farm and his 50 cents weekly pay was given to his father, who used it to buy groceries. Later, he served in World War II as a tail gunner with the U.S. Air Force.

Eskildsen finally retired at age 83, he said.

Now he can be found in his workshop, replacing tires and checking wheel and pedal bearings. He’s finished about 10 of the bicycles and hopes to have the rest finished by the beginning of December.

Eskildsen has plans to refurbish bicycles for children again next year.

“As long as the good Lord keeps me here,” he said with a smile.

jobratton@baxterbulletin.com

They call him ‘Little Tyrant’ (from Asiaone.com, The New Paper)

FOR the past six months, Mr Ng Eng Gee, 46, has been taking pictures of vehicles parked illegally at a coffee shop located at Upper Aljunied Road.

Not because he’s a police officer looking out for errant motorists, but simply because he’s looking to get back at these motorists.

Here’s why: By parking illegally, they are blocking a ramp that allows the wheelchair-bound man from getting onto the road.

So intent is he on his task that he appears up to three times a day at the coffee shop, mostly in the evening, snapping pictures.

Once he gets them, he calls the traffic police.

Said Mr Ng: ‘Some of these cars even park on the pavement leading to the bus stop. They are very inconsiderate.’

Not everyone is supportive of Mr Ng’s actions. Some residents in the area told The New Paper that Mr Ng should not be contacting the police each time he finds someone parked illegally.

They are so unhappy with him that they are starting to call him names, like ‘little tyrant’, and ‘public nuisance’.

One resident, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tai, said: ‘If he wasn’t handicapped, he would have been beaten up by now.’

The stallholders at the coffee shop are not happy either.

Businesses affected

Ever since Mr Ng began his ‘mission’ in February, they claim that business has gone down by 20 to 30 per cent.Other businesses in the area claim they too have been affected.

‘Nobody will want to stop here for dinner when they run the risk of having to pay $70 in fines for a single meal,’ said a stallholder who wanted to be known only as Mr Neo. He sells fishball noodles at the coffee shop.

Some coffee shop patrons park illegally because the nearest car park is a few blocks away.

Deliverymen, who use the stretch of road to unload their supplies, are also unhappy.

One, Mr Seah Lak Tee, 50, alleged: ‘We stop our vehicles for 15 minutes at most to unload our supplies, but he still calls the traffic police and gets us into trouble. It’s unreasonable.

‘We are a civil society. He needs to spare a thought for those of us trying to make a living.’

But Mr Ng insists he’s doing nothing wrong.

‘People shouldn’t park illegally. Even if it’s only for 15 minutes, they still obstruct the way,’ he said.

The stallholders and residents alleged that Mr Ng often knocks into people and tables with his wheelchair.

‘He used to cause scenes at the coffee shop. It only stopped when the lady boss befriended him and started to give him free food, ‘ claimed Mr Stephen Loo, 51, a businessman.

Student Wong Ren Khang, 15, who lives in the area, claimed he had been knocked into before.

‘He hit my leg from behind, then went off without even apologising,’ he said.

Mr Ng, however, vehemently denied the allegations, arguing that no such incidents ever occurred.

He said: ‘If I knocked into them, I would have been sued already.’

Instead, he said he had been a victim himself on several occasions. Once, his wheelchair was locked with a bicycle chain, he claimed.

‘I was waiting behind the bushes at the other side of the road to see if any cars would park illegally when I felt someone behind me.

‘I tried to turn but couldn’t and discovered that my wheels had been locked,’ he claimed.

He then had to wait a few hours for the police to cut the bicycle chain before he could move, he said.

Mr Ng added that he had requested the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to build a walkway ramp from the coffee shop to the traffic light.

He said he had also requested bollards to be built to prevent illegal parking.

The New Paper contacted the LTA on Thursday, but it had not responded by press time.

Samuel Wee, newsroom intern