ANNOUNCING

DESIGN CONTEST for MOBO’S

2010 T-Shirts and Posters

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION:

Poster:
3 colors maximum
11″ x 14″
300 dpi (minimum) resolution if digital file

Poster must clearly and prominantly contain the text:

“Mobo Fourth Annual Fundraiser”

March 10th, 11 pm.

Submissions and questions may be referred to

PRforMobo[at]gmail.com

MoBo got a second heater for the duration of the winter!  Maybe the shop will get up to 50 degrees?  And yes, we’ll turn it off in the summer.  This will make all those hours toiling over cold parts so much better!

Contribute to the heat fund with your 98.6 degrees!  We also have a trainer, so if you want to keep some poor mechanics warm or want some company for your winter training, roll down to Knowlton and set up during open shop.  You’ll get your work-out, and the members will keep their fingers!

Come to open shop:
Sundays 2pm-5pm
Tuesdays 6pm-9pm
Wednesdays 6pm-9pm

3E Workshop

6pm — 8pm, Wednesday Feb 3

City Hall, Room 115

Please join us for this important meeting to help write the Enforcement, Education,and Encouragement components of the Cincinnati Bike Plan.

During the workshop we will learn about best practices from other cities, determine what is currently being done in Cincinnati, and identify gaps.  We’ll finish up by developing specific action strategies to implement the programs that we as a group deem most important.

Below are some of the suggestions collected at the Bike Plan Open House last October:

• Motorist education campaign — billboards, public service announcements on radio/tv, literature in water bills etc
• Develop bicycle safety curricula for schools
• Offer small group classes on how to ride in traffic, with groceries, with children, etc
• Establish more bike coops citywide
• Organize more mass rides across all skill levels, especially for inexperienced cyclists
• Promote more bike parking and changing facilities at worksites and other destinations
• Promote biking to large events (riverfront/university), organize routes, offer valet bike parking
• Limit motor vehicle use on select streets during select time periods, to allow for full use by cyclists (ciclovia street festivals)
• Bicycle registration
• Incident reporting systems

I hope to see you on the 3^rd. If you plan on attending, please RSVP to melissa.mcvay[at]cincinnati-oh.gov. Free parking (for cars) is available in the lot across the street from City Hall, at the NW corner of 9^th and Plum. Bikes may be locked up in the courtyard, or brought inside the building.

Two weeks down of winter seminars, and classes are picking up steam!  Attendees rode away from the first two workshops feeling warmer and more confident while out on rides after learning about layering and winter maintenance from Ben Nava and roadside repair from Nate Kemphues.  The shop even stayed a little warmer, with more people inside!

Be sure to make it down to MoBo next Monday for the workshop on Safety to learn tips for staying in one piece out there in the jungle.  Speaking the language of cars can get you further than it may seem… and may increase your life span as it reduces your stress (and that of your four wheeled neighbors).

Stay warm out there!

It’s cold outside!  There’s nothing to do but go home and crawl under a blanket for three more months, right?  NO!  Come to MoBo on Monday nights this winter season for riveting seminars and workshops!  The more bodies we can fit in the shop, the higher the temperature reads on the space heater!

Here’s the schedule:  Hope to see you there!!!

January 11th, 6-9pm:  Winter Cycling

January 18th, 6-9pm:  Roadside Repair

January 25th, 6-9pm:  Safety

February 1st and 8th, 6-9pm:  Wheel Building and Truing (please reserve spot!)

February 15th, 6-9pm:  Derailleurs

February 22th, 6-9pm:  Bicycle Fit

March 1st, 6-9pm:  Bottom Brackets

March 8th, 6-9pm:  Brakes

Donations are encouraged, but not required.  Spaces are limited.  Reserve your space at PRforMoBo@gmail.com or in open shop.

The co-op will be closed Tuesday, December 22nd through Sunday, January 3rd. We will open for the new year on Tuesday, January 5th. Happy Holidays! Ride safe!!! See you in 2010!

From January through March, a Winter Workshop Series will be held every Thursday night (except Women’s Nights) at 7pm at MoBo.

Topics to be covered include:
Winter Bicycling with Ben Nava
Derailleurs with Scott Pardi
Roadside Repair with Nate Kemphues
Bicycle Fit with Jess Linz
Bottom Brackets with Jay McKillop
Brakes of all Kinds with Gabe Freeman
Wheel Truing with John Wood
Wheel Building (two part series) with John Wood
Road Safety with Katie Vogel

Spaces are limited. Reserve your spot at open shop or via email to PRforMoBo[AT]gmail.com. The suggested donation is $5.

*WE ARE HOLDING A POSTER CONTEST FOR THE WINTER SEMINAR SERIES*

Send your design using the preceding information to PRforMoBo[AT]gmail.com or bring a copy by open shop. Entries should be for paper size 11″x17″ and are due by December 1st.

MoBo has a lot of small friends who like to hang around the shop.  They come by to ask us for new inner tubes, new chains, and occasionally a muffin when we get gifts from the Hostess outlet.  We let them come in, we have to yell at them some times for riding their bikes in the yard, but it’s obvious that we have a soft spot for them.

So we better be out with our porch light ON for Halloween.  Members, come on down!   Be at MoBo to help hand out treats to the next generation of Northside!  Bring a bag of candy if you can to help give out, or bring your kids by to trick-or-treat with us 6-8pm, Saturday October 31st. Wear your costumes!

We will be taking candy  donations in the next two weeks during open shop!

Put on a sweater or two and join us at the Village Green this Sunday for a Fall potluck feast and picnic.  Live music by Moonshine Drive starts at 5pm sharp.  Take a bicycle hayride around the block, courtesy of a sexy MoBo volunteer*.  Create a mask with the friendly folks from Happen, Inc. and decorate a canvas bag with vegetable prints for grocery style that lasts all year.  Learn about vermiculture from Bobby the Worm Queen, or just hang out with friends and neighbors and enjoy the season.

Bring a dish, a hand, or a friend!  This event is FREE.  EVERYONE is welcome.

*It’s not to late to be the sexy MoBo volunteer gallantly powering the hay-lined pedi-truck. Contact volunteersformobo[at]gmail.com to reserve your spot in history.

If you know the parts room, maybe you know that it sometimes looks like the day after a party, or the kitchen after Thanksgiving, or maybe the inside of a whale.  Well, this month, the guts of the coop are growing up.  No more chaos.

The plan: reorganize and clean up;  rethink and rebuild.

Here’s where we are in that process:  Sunday morning hit the coop hard with a group of volunteers who came with a mission.  They descended on the back room and wiped it clean, leaving not a dust bunny in their wake.  They threw out the bad parts, and split the good ones into their respective genera.  They drank all the coffee, and played on the scooch.  It was great.  Much progress was made.

This was the first of three Parts Room Rehab days this October.  Plans are made for deconstruction and building next Sunday, October 11th from 10am to 2pm… and a work overflow day on October 24th from 12pm to 3pm.

Make sure to be in on the action!  Come to the coop 10am – 2pm next Sunday for a good time and the chance to own your handprint on the coop.  We need help thinking of ways to organize better!  We also need materials!

Please send an email to PRforMoBo[at]gmail[dot]com if you think you can help in strategizing this week.  Thanks, volunteers!