Harvest Festival October 11, 12pm-5pm

I was talking with the organizers for the Harvest Festival and we thought that broke spoke should have a presence there. We could have bike repair demonstrations and also run a bicycle valet service to help encourage people to pedal down to the festival. Possibly even do tune-ups to help raise money. Any thoughts please comment.

open hours

The broke spoke workshop will be open Sundays from 12:00 to 4:00. Starting this Sunday , April, 27. Alita and Deb will be available for general information and questions.

We will plan on having volunteers available every Sunday this time for the next few months.



New member information questions and ideas can be directed to Deb @ brokespokecoop@gmail .com

Bike Powered Farm Equipment!

hello Broke Spokers. So sorry I missed Sunday's orientation. I got caught up in an auction, and completely spaced the meeting.

One idea that I wanted to bring up to this group: Those of you who know me may know me as a farmer. I am interested in experimenting with bicycle powered farm equipment: work bikes for transporting stuff around the farm, weeding machines (see photo), possibly light tillage, and more. I have lots of ideas, but absolutely no welding/frame building experience, and limited time. Is there anyone in this group that would be interested in playing with me on this type of experimental frame-building project?

A lot of the inspiration for "bike powered farming" came during long rides on Michelle and my tour of CSA farms in 2006, but I was recently re-inspired by discovering a similar bike/farm tour by 3 women from Wash., DC (http://womensgardencycles.wordpress.com/). They visited some farms (like the Arethusa Collective in Burlington, VT) that use bike power (see photo). Let's do it!

If you're interested, let me know:
hellerm[at]msu.edu
231-933-7256

ride on!
Marty Heller

MEETING ALERT! THIS SUNDAY

The Next Meeting of the Broke Spoke Coop wll be held this coming Sunday April 13th, from 3 - 4 PM at the Coop Shop and Higher Grounds Trading Company building.

It'll be a basic orientation and informational meeting.

WELCOME BROKE-SPOKERS!

Welcome to the new Broke Spoke Bike Coop blog. This is here to allow forward and back communication with the entire BrokeSpoke online community. Leave questions here, and respond too. Remember please, this is a public place, be nice, and no venting. We're all volunteers!

It's set up to allow only invited guests to participate. So that pretty much means that with a paid membership, you'll get a Blog invitation. Elsewise you and others anywhere can view the comments.

Take care and ride-on!

Meeting Minutes

January 19, 2008 Meeting Minutes - Find them under comments here, but you won't be able to add comments.

Other Bike Coops for Reference

Here's a quick list of very hip bike coops around the country and in Canada.  It's not an exhaustive list, just representative of some variety.  Find the list in the next set of comments...