A relatively new project; the Bike Farm in Portland Oregon, a welcoming space to learn about building, maintaining and riding bicycles. The People here were really really nice and welcoming. The space is small but the y are working hard to make this project work sustain itself. I Highly recommend visiting and supporting the folks.

Been thinking about the different collectives I have been to and how well they represent the neighborhoods that they are in. While I was in LA it was interesting to see how the demographic of those being served changed between the Shops in the area. Just about to leave San Fran now. The Bike Kitchen here has an amazing space. The location is a little strange but there were definitely plenty of people wrenching and visiting the space.

Been hangin' out in Santa Cruz a bit and checking out the Bike Church. The space is really great and shares a courtyard with a great infoshop/cafe and a couple other very progressive organizations.

Well L.A. is behind me now and I am in Santa Cruz now sitting in a coffee shop. My brain is buzzing from the triple shot mocha that I have just imbibed. The above pictures are from the Bike Oven in LA and the Bike-ro-wave in Santa Monica . Two great places. In the days to come I will be visiting the bike church here in Santa Cruz and then bouncing off to the bay.

Been in LA for two days now. I Tagged along with all the folks from the Bicycle Kitchen yesterday and observed there meeting. These guys really have their act together. It was good to see a decision making process working so well. It is also good to know that slow and sometimes arduous mettings are something that other bicycle collectives must wade trough. I am going to be contacting the Bike Oven as well as a the Bike-ro-wave today to try and do some documenting tomorrow.

Just got back from "TRIKE!TRIKE!" in Phoenix. "TRIKE!TRIKE", is an Arizona state Bicycle collective convergence. We took part in some productive workshops dealing with oppression awareness, community building and consensus decision making. We also got to go on an amazing scavenger hunt that took us around Tempe. Here are some pics.

I finished a frame of my own, it is based on a 1898 Lamplighter. I filleted all the joints and made the dropouts myself. I have ridden it a handful of times and it is really fun. The bike stands a little shorter than 1898 model, but it is still taller than any other tall bicycles I have built.

Here is the giraffe, my buddy ed made it, I got to ride it. He makes many many great things and you should check out his art. Chosen medium ------> the bicycle

Another quick note. . . .

Awhile ago when I was deciding I wanted to do this I was up in Seattle and was lucky enough to check out the Bikery, if you have the chance pop in and see this great project.

http://www.thebikery.org/

OK, so this is the first little note that I am writing on my new blog. At the moment I am still here in Tucson Arizona, I am spending a lot of my time at BICAS (http://www.bicas.org/) and getting geared up for this book project. At first I was only going to be driving to locations to take pictures. I then realized how lame it was to be documenting a culture that is trying to counteract the dominance of the automobile from my truck. Then I was thinking how it also would be difficult to be carrying around Expensive digital equipment and sleeping by the roadside. So I came to a compromise. I will bring my bike with me on my truck. I will go to a location set up camp and use that location as a hub to travel out from for a small group of mini bicycle tours. If a location is incredibly far I will drive to it and set up camp there.