Monthly Archives: March 2012

April Fools! CW takes over the street with Park(ing) Day in Allston

example from BU's park(ing) day in 2009

CommonWheels is rolling out the bike stands and taking over the streets of Allston Village!

On April 1st (appropriately), CommonWheels is setting up shop right in the heart of Allston, literally at the corner of Harvard and Brighton — We’ve graciously asked the City of Boston to lend us a few of their precious onstreet parking spaces so that we can offer our fine services to the folks in Allston. Just for the day, we are taking over parking spots and replacing them with bike stands, tools, tables, chairs, a few potted plants, some board games, and perhaps a few April Fools jokes.

Starting at noon, we will be offering do-it-yourself bike repair, with a few Fix-A-Flat and Wipe-And-Lube workshops throughout the day. So you can even show up and learn a thing or two about keepin’ that chain lubed and changing that stubborn flat tire! How’s that for “better than a parked car”??

The point is, basically, to show what we can do with a few parking spaces if given the chance. If you haven’t heard of Park(ing) Day before, check out some images of what folks around the world have done: http://tinyurl.com/7mb5a2h
Typically, Park(ing) Day takes place in September every year, but we thought we’d jump the gun, and what better day than April 1st?!

So stop by, hang out for a bit, and give your bike a quick tune up, fools.

Happy Biking,
CW

March 31st, group ride: CommonWheels heads out to Lincoln to see Woolapalooza!

Come out and enjoy a fun group ride to Drumlin Farm — We’re going to check out a bunch of little baby sheep and see their moms get sheared at the WOOLAPALOOZA festival!

Woolapalooza: “It’s a sure sign of spring—time to shear the sheep! Come join the fun on March 31, 2012, from 10am to 4pm, at Woolapalooza. Bask in the beauty of Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm, the perfect setting to delight in all things sheep. Festival highlights include Drumlin Farm’s new spring babies, sheep shearing and sheepherding demonstrations, hands-on activities for all ages, and all natural, locally grown and harvested Drumlin Farm food. Local fiber artisans will offer demonstrations and sell their handmade products. Follow the “Sheep-to-Sweater Interpretive Trail” to learn how fleece on a sheep becomes the warm woolen sweater you wear.”

That sounds AWESOME! herding demos, “new spring babies”, wool artisans and farm fresh food!
here’s their site: http://tinyurl.com/d6suw9

And, even better, if you ride with us you can get the member rate for the day, at $9, saving just about 20% on the entrance fee — CommonWheels is signing up by the end of this week, so please let us know asap and we’ll put you on the list.
and of course traveling to the farm is FREE since we’re BIKING!

We’ll be meeting up around 11 am from Union Sq in Allston, right outside the Jackson Mann Center, and leaving promptly at 11:30ish.
Show up early to go over your bike for a quick tune-up. we’ll have the CommonWheels tools with us
(the ride goes a bit more than 10 miles each way, 1.5 hours of riding)

TO GET THERE
here’s a map of Union Sq in Allston:http://g.co/maps/d2ryc
here’s a map of Drumlin Farm: http://tinyurl.com/7o5vono

It’ll be a light and slow easy ride, following along the Charles River most of the way
we’ll have a ride map up shortly showing the exact route

so frickin cute

this is our first ride for the CommonWheels season.
**our next ride is April 9th — to Lanes & Games in Arlington for candlepin bowling.** keep an eye out for all sorts of fun trips and events all season.
your bike looks fun, are you into group rides?

Ride Good,
CW

We want to hear from you!

Hello CommonWheelers,

As we mentioned in our last entry, winter is fading away and we’re all chomping at the bit to begin an awesome season in less than a month.  But, before we hit the ground running pedaling, we want to hear your thoughts on the programs we’ll be offering this year.  Please allow us to present our 2012 user survey.

The survey won’t take more than 5 minutes of your time, and your answers will help us figure out how best to get as many folks as possible out and riding the streets of Boston safely.  We want to hear from you whether you were at every event last year, or never even made it down to Rugg Road (even though you really meant to).  And please, feel free to share this survey far and wide!  The URL is: http://bit.ly/CW2012Survey

Thanks for helping us out – we’ll see you soon,

CommonWheels

it’s March, time for an update

Hey Hey, an Update!

After a lovely off-season of mild winter weather, world travel, and many side projects, CommonWheels is now up and moving again, and are looking to gear up and hit the ground spinning come the first of April!

Changing our operations from last year, we are planning on a programs-based season; meaning we’ll have workshops twice a month, rides once a month, monthly youth programs and bike giveaways, and of course weekly CommonTools.  Yet as our grungy artsy space at Rugg Road is awaiting the reckoning of a wrecking ball, we are going to be bringing the tools and programs out into the neighborhood!  We have yet to iron out all the locations (looking into city parks and community centers, bike shops, and friendly cafe) and dates/times, but keep an eye to the blog for updates.  Coming soon: a calendar!  Possibly compatible with your google!

Also, we were pleased to partake in the 4th annual Boston Bikes Update, with so many fellow organizations that are working hard to make a better bicycling environment in our fair city.  If you missed the event, a great write up was provided by The Humble Cyclist .  The jist is, the City has done a lot last year, with a lot of help.  And we’re going to do so much more this year, with even more help!

At CommonWheels we do promise much more content and events in the weeks to come, but know we are still out there riding strong, and we want you to be there riding with us.

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Bicycle Collective, CommonWheels