AGM

I know I started with this last time but it is an important time for us and we now have a date! April 12th is the date to remember. We are still yet to have the board come to a decision on where it will be but we have a few places we are in contact with at the moment and will have it nailed down shortly.

The board has been busy as there is some crucial times up ahead looking at the current direction of the Co-op, future staff change (more on that further down), our help we’ve had with Joy our Co-op consultant so we will have some very exciting stuff to share with you guys at the AGM.

We would like to see as many of you there as possible. There’s a rumour going around that there will beverages of the beer kind available.

Member Interview.

Each month I’m going to bring to you details of the people that are heavily involved with the shop. We start off with Paul Bradley.

Name: Paul Bradley

Residence: Nanaimo

How long have you been involved with the Co-Op?

Over 2 years.

What Roles have you taken on under the Co-Op?

Currently a regular volunteer in the shop but was part of the Board of Directors for a year previously.

What could an average day in the Co-op involve for yourself?

Repairing bikes! Cleaning up the shop, be it sweeping or emptying the bins, taking out the rubber recycling, patching where thieves have tried to brake in in the past, building things for the shop like the workbench, the coatrack or the christmas tree esque bike coat rack, running errands like getting tools and supplies for the shop and general shop maintenance.

What is your favourite activity or accomplishment you have been involved with through Hub City?

“Turning a piece of s**t into a gleaming, beautiful, functional bike.” Likes building bikes that sell and give people joy, gets great satisfaction from that.

How did you get into cycling or where did it stem from? 

First cycling memory was riding to Inverness from Manchester and back at the age of 14 over 1000 miles staying in youth hostels along the way. One day they didn’t have any food because a rural village in Scotland had shut down for the day after riding 70 miles.

How long have you been involved with fixing/repairing or generally with bikes?

Since 14 on that first big trip and on and off while working at sea in the past. Some boats you could cycle from one end to the other on though to get your cycling fix..

Your biggest cycling achievement?

Graham (Paul’s son) had been living in Australia for a period of time and Paul was coming out to visit but Graham made sure he brought his bike out with him. Together they rode the east coast of Australia, Brisbane to Melbourne roughly 1500Km unsupported touring staying in hostels and hotels along the way back in 2005. Paul on his Norco hybrid bike and Graham on a Marin mountain bike customised to suit the road miles better. Part way through the trip Paul managed to poison himself after drinking gatorade constantly he had reused one of the bottles that had got super hot and mouldy to drink from. Still made it though.

What is your current fleet of bikes?

Norco Hybrid, the same bike from touring Australia.

Radwagon Electric bike in bright orange.

Trek 4100 Mountain Bike.

Your favourite bike ever? Your dream bike? Your possible future bike?

Trek 4100, very comfortable and fits well.

Would like to build his own hybrid road bike with flatbars which could be the future bike.

Future cycling plans?

Cycling North Korea with Graham (eyebrows raised), more realistically more cycling around the interior of BC.

Favourite ever trail/route?

Kettle Valley railway between Hope and CastleGar. An old converted rail track to gravel.

Favourite local trail/route?

Cowichan Valley trail. Parts like the Kinsol trestle and ending at Lake Cowichan.

Average weekly distance?

In summertime probably 80-100k a week on a normal weekly routine.

Most important cycling innovation?

Metallogy, improvement of components with better materials. Whether it be carbon or aluminium.

Best cycling related advice?

Keep pedalling, every little bit counts, keep at it. Even just short rides regular to keep going.

The Shop E-Bike is back!

The shop used to have an electric bike that got chopped at and parts pinched from to get other e bike people out on the road but then sat in the back gathering dust looking a bit sorry for itself.

In previous weeks though Duncan and Tyler gave it a new lease of life built around a frame purposely made as an E bike frame with disc brakes for much more dependable and powerful braking.

We don’t have a new battery though so we wouldn’t want to trust it for long rides but will function perfectly well to get an idea of how an e bike conversion rides if you’d like to give it a try. The battery was actually given to us by a good customer called Ralph from one of his many electrified bikes that he rides to the moon and back on a daily basis so it’s seen some use.

It is built with parts from Grin Technologies which is our supplier for E bike parts that we can retrofit to most bikes.

Coffee Outside Explained further

A format that has gained traction in major cycling hubs (Portland, Vancouver, Missoula), Coffee Outside is a fusion of two of the greatest things about cycling, according to our humble opinion: Outdoor Enjoyment and Community Engagement– Did we mention there’s coffee too?

The premise is simple: Ride bikes to a convenient location, fire up the camp-stove to boil a pot of water, make the best coffee (or tea!) we can with the tools we bring together, and enjoy the moment with like-minded pedal heads! We meet at 8am on Wednesdays at the Lion’s Pavilion in Maffeo Sutton Park and wrap up in time for everyone to make it to work on time. For shop staff this leaves a bit of a window for a quick ride around town, if anyone is keen to join in, though often there are pre-opening errands that must fit into this window as Wednesdays are our Mondays at Hub City Cycles.

Participants are required to bring a mug and a smile. As the popularity grows, participants will be encouraged to put their own camp coffee kits together so that we can brew more than a single french-press at a time. We’d be happy to share our experience with a wide range of on-the-go brewing options to all interested parties. Baked goods/treats are also encouraged.

Keep tuned to the HCCCC Instagram for further details/coverage of our foray into the wonderful world of #CoffeeOutside !

Hiring for Summer Mechanics

One of the biggest challenges in our cooperative is staffing. As many of you are aware, both of our current worker-members, Duncan and Julian, will be moving on to other adventures come June. In light of this, we are eager to bring new participants on board such that we can adequately train and prepare them for another successful summer of servicing the needs of the South Nanaimo Cycling Community.

Do you have a breadth of knowledge for bicycles covering Peugeot’s to Pinion Gear boxes? Is your ability to assemble a funky, functional ride out of a melange of pieces in a timely manner second to none? Do you live for the joy of providing pedal-powered solutions to the people of your community? Do you know any keen souls who exhibit some or all of these traits? Let us know, let your networks know, help us raise awareness so we have as large of a pool to draw from as possible!

The Hiring Committee will be launching a wider campaign in the coming weeks, but we’d rather bring on members who have some background engagement with the organization such that preparing them for service in our Cooperative might be a smooth and natural process.

Stay tuned for precise descriptions of the requirements and responsibilities involved with the positions we’re looking to fill in the coming weeks!

*Beards are not an essential requirement.*

Multi-tool March!

Carrying on with our monthly deals we will be running 25% off multi-tools for the whole of March.

We’ve got some air race nut free neat 9 pice tools, fix it sticks and some 11 in 1 or even 20 in 1 tools from Synpowell.

Shop Help and Donations

There’s no denying that these are testing times for the shop. Hence our outreach for help from our Co-op consultant Joy and our possible direction and plans we will bring forward at the AGM.

We have also been quite short in member and volunteer involvement. If there’s any role that you would be interested in taking on, using the shop or getting involved we would love to hear from you.

Also donations have dried up quite a lot recently, donations are pretty crucial for us and help us offer the services we can provide to you folks. The shop would greatly appreciate any kind of cycling related donations if at all possible.

After all we are a community co-op and need to all work together where possible.

Get your pre-ride stoke

I’m making this a thing, each month to sign off on some exciting riding video to get you pumped to get out there.

This month is comes courtesy of some small Scottish bloke called Danny MacAskill you may have heard of. I’ve been doing some painting recently and listening to biking podcast interviews that had him in and reminded me how good and creative his stuff is.