re-cycling box

The recycling box is an open space where we will be sharing ideas related with the subject we come across during our journey.

For those of you that don't know about our project, recycling is a big part of it. The bicycle we are using are recycled and we try to re-use or use recycled equipment as much as we can. 

• places (click at the name to go to their website)
• recycling brain storm
• re-art

Places

Pedal Power  Vancouver, Canada

Located in the heart of downtown Vancouver BC, this community is trying to promote biking in Vancouver through educational programs, hands-on learning facilities and redistribution of recycled/refurbished bikes.

To explain what Pedal Power looks like I need to named and compare in certain grade with what I know with my experience and that is based on my experience at TheBike Stationin Edinburgh volunteering for them and building the bikes using The Bike Station facilities and resources. So based on this Pedal Power follows the same idea of providing a place where the public can come to fix their own bikes and the price you will pay depends if you just use an stand and you do your business without asking to any of the mechanics or an other price higher if you required help from the staff although I see the point of why the do that but  I like more the way that The Bike Station does where the price is fix and you have a couple of mechanics that go from one stand to an other asking people how are they getting on and guiding you and they try to be equal spending more and less the same amount of time with everybody who is needed, sometime is not that equal but that is what they try.

In Pedal Power you can find few stands 4 or 5 where you can work for the space the have I think is a bit to much when it got busy I felt a bit uncomfortable, next to the stands you have boxes and shelves with used parts in good shape that you can used to fix or upgrade your bike and pay a very small price for it. Good bargain!!

Recyclistas  Victoria, Canada

Located in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Canada.

Recyclistas is a collective that works promoting encouraging folk to fix their own bikes providing an space where the public has accessed to tools, stands and mechanics to help you building your own skills fixing your bicycle Recyclistas also a place where you can dropped your unwanted old bike and they will reused whatever can still be used.

Because I checked few days before in Vancouver the bikes I didn't need to used the Recyclistas shop but I went to talk with them and see the place and is very much following the some idea promoting biking and reusing as the best form of recycling. Something I really like is that the have a good chunk of hours in which the public can go and fix their own bikes that is something I missed all the time when I was building the bikes at the Bike Station, they have very limited timetable for this activity.

Citybikes Portland, OR, US

It is a work owned coop bike shop. I was looking for a place in Portland to check the chains and see if it was time to put a new one on. Few of the cyclist We met in Portland told us about Citybikes as a good place to check out and with good used bike parts so We went to see it. Citybikes basically is a shop where you can buy new or used full bikes and bike parts, also the run workshops to teach mechanic such as "building your own wheels". Also is a place where you can sell your old bike and Citybikes will service it and sell it back giving 6 months of warranty to their used bikes(the Bike Station gives the same warranty).  Unless that I missed I did not see a section where the public could fix their own. If you want to fix your bike I think that fortunately you have to give it to them and They will do it for you for many people that works better that you fixing it so that is an option for those ones who does not like to get greasy hands :) We had a great experience with them, Marta and me went with the idea of checking the chains and working on the bikes in the case I have to change the chains, after  checking it with one of the Citybike's mechanic. The shop was still close but I found an other guy waiting outside too, so I started to talk to him and magically he was one of the cityubike's mechanic  this great guy got very interested with our project and he was helping me out and advising me what to do best with few doubts I went with, and also with hands on helping me with some bits and bobs more than 1/2 easily and He didn't want us paying at all. 

Thanks mate!

The Bikechurch Santa Cruz, CA, US

We needed badly to have a proper look at the bikes, after over 8000km/5000miles was high time. We were postponing replacing the chain and cassette as much as we could but that was it, before Mexico sounds quite sensible because we don’t know how easy it will be to find bike shops and gears so (belt and braces). Someone told us about a place called Bike Church in Santa Cruz as the right place for this job. The Bike Church has very much the same philosophy as the Bike Station, also another common future is that you have an space where people go to fix their own bikes where you can use an stand and all the tools you may need for your job in case you need to replace something on your bike there are hundreds of used bike parts to chose from.

We went at 3pm that is the time the open until 7pm to work on the bikes I did already buy the new chains and cassette (exactly the same ones as We have been using due to the good results We had with them 9 speed chain and cassette SRAM) plus few cable and housing to replace the rear brake also some of our brake pads were wore off so I exchanged for new ones.

The working atmosphere was great the staff is extremely helpful more than any other place I have been fixing my bike before those guys (volunteers) they really focus on helping and teaching the folk how to do it!  I was having problems with one of the cassette and this guy came and between the two of us We did the cassette, plus brakes, plus Marta’s headset that turn out that need it to be tighten like a mechanic team He was for over an hour 1/2 helping me out giving me tips. With the headset we had very tough time if We tighten was very hard to turn the direction and as soon as was easy to turn it the fork was having play, We were trying and looking for this fine moment where you get no play at the headset but easy and loose the direction and it did not happen almost to the point that we were about to give up We decided to open the headset and check the cartridge and here we go! That it where the problem was one of the bearing wasn’t in place, we put it back and headset working againJ .

But the whole joy of being at the Bike Church doesn’t finish here when I went to pay (you pay for the time you have been using the tools and the stand) they asked me after 4 hours working there and this mechanic helping me all the time for 5$, seriously just 5 dollars that is the price for an hour at the Bike Station without anyone helping you around.

If you are cycling the Pacific Coast and looking for a place to have a look at your bike that is the one.

Chocosolar Mexico, Oaxaca City

When we crossed Mexican border, we’ve entered land of human creativity in terms of transforming bikes and using pedal power. Bikes here are not any longer just for recreation, nearly each street vender moves their stand by pedaling and places creating bike machines are becoming more and more popular. 
In Oaxaca de Juarez we heard about a guy making chocolate using one of those, so we got in touch and managed to visit his workshop. Carlos and his partner Sonia specialize now in making chocolate products using 100% renewable energy, but they started by creating bike machines (and they still do so; they can teach you how to make a bike-machine or make one for you); when we came Sonia was just doing laundry in their bike-washing-machine and so Raul helped a little bit 
To make their chocolate they get the beans from local farmers, then roast them using solar energy (sort of solar panel that collects the heat and direct it onto the beans) and grind with bike-grinder. We tried some of their pralines and are delicious! A! And if they add dry fruit to the chocolate, they dry them it solar dehydrator. 

for their YouTube video click here. 

C.A.C.I.T.A. Mexico, Oaxaca City

We haven’t managed to see them, but we heard about them and we like what they do, so here is a small info. 

They are based in Oaxaca as well and they specialize in bike-machines that can be used to help people with low incomes and leaving in remote areas with their farming tasks or with home tasks. C.A.C.I.T.A. runs workshops in those communities to teach people how to build a bike-machine that can make their work more efficient. They make machinery to grind coffee or cacao, remove the grains from the corn, or a blender, a washing machine, or anything that can use the human power through a bike-machine. What’ beautiful about their project is that, as they say in one of their videos, they don’t have any patent for those machines, they mission is to show, teach and encourage creativity and imagination, so that when the workshop is finished people can go to their homes and find a way to transform their old bike into something that will help them with their daily tasks, and hopefully share the idea with a neighbor, pass it on…

Here you can find out more. 

MayaPedal Guatemala, San Andres Itzapa
This a a very unique bicycle-related project. Maya Pedal is a charity that specializes in designing and constructing Bicimaquinas, which are pedal-powered machines. The ideas was born in rural and poor highlands of Guatemala, where most of the jobs are done by hand and so simple in construction and maintenance machines can make the day-to-day work more efficient. Pedal power can be harnessed for countless applications which would otherwise require electricity (which may not be available) or hand power (which is far more effort) and thanks to bicimaquinas is successfully applied to pumping water degrinding corn, depulping coffee, milling and other house and harm jobs.
 

recycling brain storm

the best waterproof panniers - old buckets!

at the Bike Manifest, Portland October 2011

straps made out of old inner tube

Spotted in Portland, perhaps the most bicycle friendly city in US

natural simplicity - bike parking made out of old log

Elk Prairie Campground in Northern California, US

handbag/pouch/wallet made out of old inner tubes 

Bike Shop in Santa Cruz, California, US

hand-powered bici wheelchair

Hwy 15 on the way to Tala, Jalisco, Mexico

pannier bags made out of plascicontainers

spotted on other cyclist bike in Casa del Cyclista, Medellin, Colombia

car tire recycling - hanging flower pot

various places in South America

   
car tire recycling - hammock

various places in Southern Colombia  











re-art
Washed Ashore 

 

That was a place we found while cycling down the 101 highway in Oregon.

The sculptures were made using trash that they found while cleaning the local beaches.

Patric Amiot's ReUse ReClaim ReImagine

Florence Avenue, Sebastopol, CA

That is a very peculiar fun Avenue full of sculptures made out of recycling material by an local artist, Patric Amiot. Almost each house has one in the front yard. 

Walking down the street is like being in a Jean-Pierre Jeounet movie.