October 2020 - Bicycles Create Change

30/10/202015/01/2021

Halloween Bikes 2020

We don’t have a strong culture of celebrating Halloween in Australia. But given many readers of this blog are in countries that do celebrate Halloween – this post is for you!

Previously I have shared Halloween-themed posts – like the super-fun Homewood Witch’s Ride (Alabama, USA) where everyone dresses up in awesome outfits and go for a ride around town.

Also, the Mala Bruja Alleycat (New York City, USA), which is held the night before Halloween, on Witch’s Eve which is an all-women’s courier-inspired alleycat fun-but-serious race-ride where you tick off checkpoints along the way. (More events like this please!)

Halloween Bikes 2020: Ideas for events & costumes

So for a fun bike-themed Halloween 2020, you will need a bike-and-costume and a kick-ass bike event to go to….so here two ideas to encourage you to get your ‘spooky self’ (and family + friends) on bikes and riding your local neighbourhood for Halloween 2020.

Halloween Bikes 2020. Bicycles Create Change.com 31st October 2020.

2020 Zombie Bike Parade

The 2020 Zombie Bike Parade (what a wicked idea!) was a collaboration between local bike shop Davis Cyclery and BIKE City Theatre Company (Bike City USA). This event invited the local community to dress up and join in for an afternoon ride around the Davis Bike Loop for a massive Zombie Bike extravaganza.

As well as mixing with locals, the Bike City Theatre Company and their team of sketch writers, directors and actors provided entertainment and an event like no other! The dancers did a great job of zombifying dance moves that keep everyone humming along. They had fun, laughs, socially distanced photo ops and an unforgettable community bike-themed Halloween experience. Here are a few snaps from the event and you can see more here.

Bike-Themed Characters & Costumes

If you are just cruising around your neighbourhood for general spookiness (and not a themed event – like the Zombie Ride above) then you can diversify your costume – and anything goes!

Online, you can find heaps of websites, pictures and DIY videos of creative and fun bike-themed costumes. Some websites have links to buy the products featured – but like most people, I will ALWAYS opt to make my own version out of recycled materials.

Any mum’s DIY YouTube video is great for tutorials on how to make costumes at home. More sustainable, more personal! Here are a few of my favs from Bikes Reviewed.

Headless Horse (Biker) Man
Pac Man Pair
ET & Elliot (a classic!)
Evel Knievel
Pee Wee Herman

So what ever you do for Halloween 2020 – have heaps of fun doing it on ya bike!

26/10/202007/06/2021

New Materialisms SIG: October Writing Party!

As many readers know, October is my birthday month. It is also a busy time for most universities. So for this month’s New Materialisms Special Intrest Group (SIG), I floated the idea of having a writing party. Instead of adding pressure to read and discuss, I thought it’d be a good time to pause, take stock, and to put into playful practice some of the NM ideas and approaches we’ve been discussing thoughout the year in our SIG.

It might seem a little weird to have a Writing Party for your birthday and not a bike-themed party but seeing as though my PhD research is on bikes – it was a win-win for me!

Woohoo! Writing Party!!!

New Materialisms SIG: October Writing Party! Bicycles Create Change.com 26th October 2020.

Writing Party Invite

Here is the NM SIG Writing Party invite I sent out to NM SIG members:

Are you feeling overworked and lonely? Has your enthusiasm for writing taken a hit lately?

Are you struggling to get those paragraphs perfect and on the page?

Then it’s time to PARTY!

At our next NM SIG, we shift the focus from reading to writing and you are invited to join our 2-hour Writing Party (details and link included here – it was a closed event, so no details here on the blog – sorry!).

With a continuing focus on the feminist New Materialists, we welcome your ideas/musings/partially formed paragraphs and feedback for others in our group.

Bring along a partially formed paragraph for sharing and feedback.

This Writing Party will also include guided writing warm-ups and research-focused timed writings as well as some time to chat, reflect and share as much or as little as you want.

The aim is to help you get over the writing hump and back into the flow…

No matter what your current research project is, this session will help reinvigorate your writing passion!

We look forward to seeing you there!

So what did we do?

We had a great time!…..And we wrote heaps!

It was a small, but dedicated crowd who were up for writing and sharing NM ideas and practices.

We had 2 hours and I wanted to make sure we had time to write some new material, share some writing we had already done and have time to discuss and process writing styles and production.

I opened with each person saying why there were here for the sessions and what they hoped to achieve,

Then we did a 10 min writing warm-up activity I call Embodied writers in the here and now. I developed this as a warm up task for my own working days a while back and have been using it with others, colleagues, study groups and writing retreats since. It is a generative and useful warm up that gets the juices flowing and there is always something interesting to talk about that comes out of it.

We then shared a piece of our own writing that we were proud of. this is a great activity to do to boost confidence and be exposed to different types of writing and processing. I enjoyed hearing other people’s ideas on why it was meaningful to them and what they learnt from/while writing it.

Then, we did a word sprint activity looking at Research Tentacles to get thinking about vocab, fluency, collocations and expression.

A 15 mins Rolling Research Activity followed the vocab discussion up nicely. Here we wrote down our answer to the question; What is a current research-writing-tension for you? We then took time to read other people’s answers and add some suggestions and ideas on how to shift or move forward with these. This was a great way to pool our experiences and resources and get some great ideas we would not have thought of by ourselves.

We then did a Matter Matters sprint. Using a piece of our own writing, we discussed , provoked, challenged and layered how matter matters in our research. We then did a quiet 10 mins written reflection to excavate if anything had shifted or moved as a result of dong the activity-discussion-writing.

For our last activity, we opened the floor to a Partial Writing discussion. This is where you share piece of unfinished writing you are currently working (selection or except) for those who want to get some feedback or ideas on what and how to move forward.

I had a ball! It was so great to have designated time to write, share, discuss, laugh and learn -we so rarely create opportunities like this – where there is no pressure or expectation, yet you can still experiment with writing ideas and prose.

I think it is very important to celebrate ALL types of writing and to keep writing fun. After all, sitting at a desk for years writing up formal academic research would be a challenge for any one – so it was nice to stop for a breather and to play and have some fun with writing.

21/10/202001/12/2020

Grace Foundation Gambia

Recently, Nelson Aigbe, (the Founder/Director of Grace Foundation, Gambia) got in contact with me. He had seen news of my research in Sierra Leone and he reached out to share the important work he is doing feeding and educating street kids. I wanted to do a post for Grace Foundation to support their incredible work, spread the work and give readers the opportunity to donate and help Grace Foundation continue their work. In a time when many of us are house-bound and the world seems to have shrunk, it is even more important to keep our eyes and hearts open to needs of others. This post is written by Nelson and outlines what Grace Foundation is and how they help local street kids. Please give generously. Thanks, NG.

Grace Foundation Gambia

Grace Foundation is a registered nonprofit organization in the Gambia that provides education and food for 400 street kids.. Many Gambian children turn up at schools daily on hungry stomach and return home hungry.

Their families are living in extreme poverty and do not have enough income to provide the barest minimum of food.

As a result of the poverty faced daily by these children, many are withdrawn from schools and are forced to engage in street trading in order to get food for their families at home, thus exposing these mainly children girl to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to 400 kids, most of them are girl s as a way to help stop sex abuse, encourage school attendance and stop hunger at schools.

A message from the Founder/Director

I write to you on behalf of Grace Foundation Gambia.

Grace Foundation provides free school meals and education to mainly girl street children sent to trade in the streets in order to help feed at home thus exposing these mainly girl street children to sex abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

Since the closure of schools these children can no longer assess the free school meals programme we provide daily, and most of these children are back in the streets, trading and hawking in order to be fed at home.

This street trading has once again exposed these mainly girl children to sex abuse, child trafficking and labour.

I pray for your attention in helping me with the continuation of the feeding and probably education of these very vulnerable poor Children.

My organization is a small one that depends on the magnanimous donations of good people like you to help keep these children safe from the streets.

Please feel free to ask any questions that may be useful to you.

Kind regards,

Nelson Aigbe – Founder/Director, Grace Foundation, The Gambia

You can make a difference

Your contributions can help educate a child because your
$15 will buy stationery for a child
$25 will provide school bag for a child

$50 will provide Uniforms
$100 will provide lunch for 2000 pupils

$150 will provide seedlings for school gardens
$700 will buy 2000 acres of land

Grace Foundation Newsletter Download

Support Grace Foundation

To support kindly send donations to: Trust Bank Limited (Gambia)
Account Name: Grace Foundation (GF) Account Number: 110-243272-01
Swift Code: TBLTGMGM

For further inquiries please contact: gracefoundation.gm@gmail.com

Telephone: (00220) 994 88 46 998 18 60

LinkedIn: Grace Foundation GF Gambia

Facebook: https://fb.me/GraceFoundation1968

Twitter: @GraceFoundatio7

All images courtesy of Grace Foundation Gambia.

16/10/202028/11/2020

Bicycle Queensland – Road Safety Quiz

Each state (and country) have their own road safety rules and laws. Regardless of what mode of travel you use, it is always good to check your knowledge and keep updated – for your own safety and for others.

Heaven forbid someone challenges you doing something which you think is okay – only to find out later that you were in the wrong and the whole thing could have been avoided.

Recently Bicycle Queensland (BQ) launched a 24 questions quiz so people could test their bicycle road rules knowledge. It is a simple and clear quiz and there will be a few questions that might surprise you.

Take the Quiz here

I did this quiz and did not get full marks. I learnt the term ‘bicycle storage’ in reference to a painted box at traffic lights for bicycles to congregate to wait for lights to change (I only knew that term in relation to ACTUAL bike storage -not as a road user/traffic light reference …so there you go!).

If you live in Queensland give it a go! Even if you don’t give it a go anyway to see how it gels with what you know and check to see what is similar/different to where you live.

Can’t hurt to brush up on your road rules!

You get immediate feedback on correct answers as you proceed as well as a final result.

At the end of this post are some examples of questions to expect.

Get more info on Queensland Road Safety here.

Think you know all the bicycle-related road rules in Queensland? Put your knowledge to the test in the latest educational quiz on road safety skills. There are 24 Questions in this Quiz and they are on a range of bicycle and road safety topics.

Bicycle Queensland Road Safety Quiz Learning Goals:

To recognise and understand the Queensland Road Rules relevant to bicycle riders.
Consider methods to improve road safety for bicycle riders and identify the safety benefits.

The information in this quiz is developed from the Queensland Government’s bicycle road rules and safety page. This information is easily accessible online, and Bicycle Queensland encourages you to review the road rules regularly to keep up with the changes occurring in a dynamic transport network.

Remember that knowing the road rules does not necessarily make it safer for you to be on the road and this content has been created to help raise awareness of the road rules that are important for bicycle riders.

Revisit the Queensland road rules if you need to check a few things.

The goal is to repeat the quiz until you get over 80% correct and you can receive your Bicycle Queensland Road Safety certification.

11/10/202028/11/2020

ECO-Cycle: Automated bike parking in Japan

A long time ago I read an article on Design Boom by Juliana Neira detailing an incredible underground automated bicycle parking system in Japan. The first installation was in 2013 and since then, many of these systems have installed around Japan. The ECO cycle system is a remarkable technological design and as our cities become more and more crowded, solutions such as these that are not common in Western countries (but are elsewhere) might offer some ideas for how innovative technological designs could help address issues of urbanization and contested spaces. Enjoy. NG.

Watch the video above for a great demo of how ECO cycle works.

Created by Giken, ECO Cycle was launched in 2013. It is as an automated mechanical underground parking lot for bicycles and today there are over 50 parking stations in Japan (with plans for global expansion on the way).

ECO Cycle is an automated bicycle parking facility developed with the concept of ”Culture Aboveground, Function Underground”. With a compact entrance booth, it requires minimal space above ground and provides more than 200 parking spaces underground.

The entry to ECO Cycle is compact and unobtrusive. It has a unique press-in technology, making it a powerful option in urban districts where it is difficult to acquire land. The entrance/exit booths are above ground (at street level), while the rest of the ECO cycle structure is underground and it is completely computer-controlled automated. Surveillance sensors make sure the bikes are safe, eliminating theft through the use of a personal tag or card, making it easy for anyone to use.

ECO-Cycle Development Download

Average storage and retrieval time is 13 seconds. (I know right….WHATTTTT!!!??) . To dock your bike, you push the bicycle forward to the front of the entrance door. The front wheel shutter opens, activated by the IC tag attached to the bike. When ready, you push your bike forward and insert the front wheel into the slot. After it has been inserted, it is clamped and fixed. You then step off the sensor map and press the ‘drop-off start’ button and the rest of the operation is completed by the machines which take your bike underground to storage.

You retrieve your bike by using your storage card and your bike is automatically retrieved for you. Amazing!!!

Gilken also says that ECO Cycle is earthquake resistant – a big plus in places like Japan where earthquakes are an ongoing issue.

ECO-Cycle: Automated bike parking in Japan. Bicycles Create Change.com 11th October 2020. — Image: Design Boom

I can see there are many benefits of ECO cycle not least of all because it saves (above ground) public space and offers great protection for bikes from theft, weather and damage.

From a sustainability perspective, I am concerned about the amount and source of power needed to operate the whole venture – it seems ironic to ride a bike to support the environment, only to have your storage methods produce a bigger carbon footprint than you just saved by riding.

As we move towards a more contested and complex future where riding bikes is going to play a critical role, it will be imperative to be open to experimenting with new designs that encourage biking, active transport and more sustainable practices. In highly populated cities (like in Japan) have accessible, cheap and reliable bike parking is a great way to encourage more people to cycle.

Although not 100% perfect, the ECO cycle provides an innovative example for considering new ways in which technology, space, people and bicycles might be better accounted for in large cities.

ECO-Cycle: Automated bike parking in Japan. Bicycles Create Change.com 11th October 2020.Iamge: — Image: Gilken

Some content for this post was sources from Design Boom.

06/10/202024/11/2020

Worlding: Everything with(in) a twist

Doing a PhD is usually seen as a good thing. But sometimes it can cause perceived or actual tension for yourself or others. Recently, this happened to me and it served as a great reminder that often (as with most things in life), things are not always what they seem and that everything is always-already with(in) a twist. Here’s what happened in 100 words. Enjoy, NG.

Well-meaning advice for my first-time BBQ: ‘Maybe don’t mention your PhD’. Gloomy backyard introductions and I only remember Mouse and Skipper. I stand awkwardly. Drinking. Tattoos pour down legs and arms, scraggly beer strained beards and black heavy metal T-shirts. Smoking. My trendy hat feels too tight. Disappearings. A huge brown mastiff watches half-naked kids fight. Reappearings. I make a joke that falls flat. Eating. Jonno tells me his secret fishing spots. Teasing. Raucous stories of youthful antics. Laughing. On departure: sweaty hugs and a take-home food pack. Over the balcony, Big Dan yells ‘Best of luck with ya research!’

01/10/202028/11/2020

Bike Birthdays

October is the month of my birthday (hooray!) and it got me to thinking about how bikes might feature in birthday celebrations.

So in honour of my own – and all the other people-rider-birthdayers – this post looks at some creative, kooky and conventional ways bikes can be used for an awesome birthday celebration via the 3 main elements of invitations, food and cakes.

For any other bike-related ideas like locations, games, decorations and activities, there are heaps of websites and ideas on Pinterest. The ideas here are just an entry point to get the inspiration flowing for you next bike-themed birthday party.

For whenever your birthday is….Happy bikey birthday!

Bike Birthday Invite Cards

Of course, you need to let people know it’s your birthday and invites are key. Invitations are a very personal choice and show your particular personality and passion. As well as confirming key birthday event information, invites can also visually set the tone and expectation for the party.

As someone who cares deeply for the environment, I would go for an e-card. But for those who still like print-based outputs, you can’t go past a custom-designed birthday card.

Of course, you can make your own, or use a photo for Canva or print services at places like Officeworks or Kmart, but if you want to minimize the hassle or you can’t be bothered with the design and effort – try Zazzle for bike inspired birthday cards. (This is an Australian service, I’m sure there will be an equivalent if you are living elsewhere).

Zazzl e is a community of researchers, professional artists, manufacturing gurus, patent holders, inventors, musicians and more, who are united by a passion to re-define commerce. They apply technology, design and skills to help customers produce their own products and designs – it is pretty impressive.

As an example, I typed in ‘bicycle birthday invites’ into their search and HEAPS came up. You can use stock designs or create your own. The images below are from Zazzle and are just a few you can get from the initial search:

Bike Themed Party Food

Of course you are going to need some party themed bike food. The below list is more geared towards kids parties, but lets face it, kids party’s often have best snack food.

I’ve also included a few images of more adult, savory and ‘technical’ food (at least in construction) to offset the usual sugary-laden snack food and bike cake to follow.

Here are some bike party food suggestions from the Mighty Mom’s Club:

If you’re feeling ambitious, follow this lead and make chocolate gears as cupcake toppers.
Increase the bling and glitz things up with this gold cake topper.
Why not ditch the classic birthday cake for more portable cupcakes with a bicycle topper? If those are a bit over budget, here’s another adorable option.
This bicycle fruit tray is both healthy and a work of art.
Race your way to a piece of this delicious bundt cake complete with bike lanes and cake toppers.
These super-simple rainbow pinwheels will have all your riders refueling with glee.
Aren’t these chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels adorable? Put them on display as “kickstands!”
The rules of the road apply to cyclists, too. Lighten up your table with these fruity traffic light skewers.
It’s always a bonus when there’s more than sugar, sugar, and more sugar at a birthday party. This wheels-and-cheese recipe is sure to please everyone especially when you serve it on these trendy plates.

Bike Birthday Cakes

A while ago I wrote about bike cakes (read about bike cakes here), so I will not go over it all again here.

But it does need to be said that bike-themed cakes are AWESOME!

Personally, I prefer home-made bike cakes to store-bought, just because of the diversity, personalisation and effort it takes to make it – but saying that, I won’t be turning down a slice from ANY creative bike cake on a riders birthday.

Bike cakes are only limited by your imagination, time, skill and finances.

In my book, the weirder and more fun the bike cake – the better!

Here are a few examples of bike cakes:

*Just as a side note – I am frustrated by how bike cakes are pretty much solely focused on male riders and perpetuate very traditional ‘masculine’ conventions/performatives in the theming, naming and decorating. One of the only female-rider bike cakes that did not have (all) pink, flowers, balloons, a step-through bike or something hyper-girly was a cake (first one below), from Dubai. More bike cakes that have female-riders who are equally portrayed as diverse, champions, fast, risk-takers, active and adventurous riders, please!