We biked from our shop to Alberta Street where we were greeted by Brian and Gram from the CCC. We walked down to the lair beneath the shop and unearthed amazing kids bikes called ‘Bear Hug,’ ‘Darth Maul,’ and ‘Pearls & Jewels’ to name a few.

For the next two hours we gave them top-to-bottom inspections by making adjustments, greasing bearings; and making sure the bikes were safe and sound for the Bike Drive occurring on December 11th.

This is the second year Citybikes has come out to join in on the CCC’s volunteer program, and it’s certainly not the last!
Big thanks to Brian and Gram for facilitating the evening!

Pictured: Peter, Kathy, Tree, Lindsey, Leigh (not pictured Ashley, Brian and Gram)

Citybikes Cooperative has scheduled two Wheel Building classes for the Fall Season. The class is comprised of three sessions which are each 3 hours long.

For the class you’ll first choose your materials with guidance, complete a spoke calculation with your rim and hub and learn how to lace and build your wheel to completion.

All classes are hands on, experiential education style with 2 staff members.

Cost: $75 tuition + the cost of spokes, Citybikes will assist you with choosing your hub and rim (if needed)

Registration: Call the Annex at 503-239-6951 (limited space!)

Series 1: Wheel Building
October 16th, 23d, and 30th
3-6pm

Series 2: Wheel Building
November 6th, 13th, and 20th
3-6pm

I have used canvas bags on my bikes for close to twenty years. The cotton canvas material is strong, resists fraying and ripping far better than nylon, and stands up to the elements for a long time. Canvas ages well, too, lending your bike a classy, understated air of patina through years of use.

The most popular canvas bags are transverse saddlebags, made by Carradice, Acorn, Berthoud and other companies. Once standard equipment on most British bikes (including those imported to the USA) from the 1920′s through the 1970′s, they are now enjoying a marked rennaissance as more people discover (or rediscover) their good looks and versatility. Transverse saddlebags come in several sizes and can hold a shocking amount of stuff! Carradice’s Camper Longflap model is so large that I’ve been able to squeeze ten Brooks saddles inside and still have room for a sweater on top. Smaller sizes, such as the Nelson and Pendle, are better suited for daily commuting and short errands.

A variation of the transverse saddlebag is the smaller “paisley” model, made by various manufacturers (Citybikes sells the Velo Orange model, pictured). These are ideal for carrying a spare tube, patch kit and a few small tools along with your keys. The waxed cotton holds up nicely through our rainy Oregon winters, and the contrasting leather trim adds a nice touch.

Canvas panniers, while not as popular as the newer rubberized fabric models, remain popular with cyclists who want a durable bag that also looks stylish. Carradice’s Super C touring panniers offer lots of carrying capacity for cross-country cyclotourists, while their smaller Kendall panniers make a nice set for commuting and errands.

Canvas handlebar bags are very classy and elegant, and are popular with cyclotourists. However, they usually require a more elaborate attachment system to make them practical. Some models utilize the more modern “KlickFix” style that simply allows the bag to “click” onto a bracket on the handlebar; the drawback of this style is that you cannot carry very much in the bag before it begins to tilt down on the bar, or adversely affects steering. An alternative is to mount a front rack and decaleur to the bike, which allows the handlebar bag to be mounted lower and sit closer to the top of the fork crown. This version, which is significantly more expensive with all the fittings, allows for heavier loads up front and offers slightly more stable front-end handling of the bike under load. (As with all handlebar bags, avoid overstuffing them with too much weight. If you need to carry that much, consider using front panniers and carrying the load lower on the bike.)

Most canvas bags today are made of waxed cotton. The wax adds waterproofing qualities to the fabric and lengthens the life of the bag, but these bags need to be re-proofed every so often to maintain their water repellency. Carradice and others offer a re-proofing wax that can be applied like a paste, rubbed into the fabric and then heated with a hair dryer to help the wax seep into the fibers. For daily use, I recommend that you re-proof your canvas bags every 2 to 4 years, depending on how hard you are on your things.
In addition, if your canvas bag includes any leather fittings, you’ll want to treat these as well – but NOT with the cotton proofing paste! Instead, use Brooks Proofide or any other leather-specific restorative on leather trim and straps.

Because canvas bags are so stylish, they can unfortunately attract a certain sub-class of bike thief. For this reason it’s a good idea to take the bag inside with you when you lock up your bike. Various “hacks” can be created, modifying the bags to make it easy to remove them when going inside. A couple of commercially-made brackets (from Carradice and Nitto, respectively) now exist for this purpose as well.

Happy riding!
Beth Hamon

but you’re on a budget. And perhaps your bike has added challenges, such as “vertical” dropouts, and needs a Singulator to create chain tension. Why you ask? Since the wheel can’t slide back to make the chain taut (so it doesn’t fall off!), it needs this added mechanism to tighten the chain for you. Really it’s a magical invention, helping unsuspecting bike owners with these frames to not cry tears of sadness when they learn they can’t just take the rear dérailleur off and go.

Yes, you can buy this singulator from your local shop, and viola! you’re all set – or you can give this a whirl:

(Apologies for the blurriness) Some fantastic person created this DIY beauty, but we’ll never know the original source. It’s called a ‘Dingleberry’ which seems mildly crass to me, but who am I to say.

A 6-inch piece of cable is attached only through the dérailleur- at the barrel adjuster and at the pinch bolt. Since the barrel adjuster has no way to hold the cable, a spare pinch bolt is attached the end of the cable, and with that in place the cable can be tensioned so that the dérailleur sits in line with the single cog.

Amazing. Fond thanks to Huck for letting me (poorly) phone photograph his bicycle.

How does it work? Bring you and your bike, and we’ll show you the rest! If you need to fix something, or just want to expand your skills, we’ll show you how. You do the work!

This free of charge event is something we do purely for you, as a way to give back to our cycling community.

Wheels get rounder at Wrench Night.

Huge thanks to Roger Peet, a muralist and member of Just Seeds Collective! He was awarded a $5,500 grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council after working with Citybikes on a new design for the Annex. Citybikes is now in its 21st season as a bicycle cooperative in Portland and we thought it was time to begin reintroducing ourselves to the community as we continue to change, evolve, and grow as a cooperative. We’ll keep you posted as the mural progresses!

Just how old is Citybikes?
Citybikes, for all its years, came about from the hard efforts of one Roger Noehren, who founded Citybikes in the 1914 space 25 years ago. 4 years after its creation, the cooperative was formed with $58,000 and 5 people, one of whom – Tim Calvert – continues as an owner today. And so we celebrated our 21st season as a Cooperative.

Roger, a continuing contributor to the coop and the Citybikes crew, enjoys his visits to each location. Today, Citybikes owns the “Mother Shop” (repair shop) and the Annex, located on 8th and Ankeny. There are 13 owners, over half of which are women.

To celebrate our continued presence in the community, we plan to paint an awesome mural on the face of the Annex this summer. We received a $5,500 grant from RACC thanks to Roger Peet, a muralist and member of the Just Seeds Collective. The celebration on July 9th was the opening ceremony, and cooperators began work on the east side of the Annex space as plans were set for work on Peet’s mural.

Citybikes would like to thank everyone who attended the event and helped make it a success. They are…

All the volunteers and Staff who worked the event!
Jeff, Teressa, Rachel, Roger Noehren, Jackie, Mia, Noel, Tree, Kathy, Roger Peet, Jon, Erin S., Ashley, Nate, Steven Kung, Lindsey, Michelle, Trey, Gian, Colin, Kate…oh the list goes on!

Migration Brewery
Los Gorditos
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance
4 on the Floor
Tim Calvert and Friends
Loretta Jean’s
Grendel’s Coffee
Little Dripper Kombucha by Bikes
DJ’s RyRy and Ashley
The Sexbots
Walnut.
Rhythmic Metal
Blaq Bags