It has been a year now since 1304bikes has had to close its doors. We have received much encouragement from the community, and many people have told us that they are anxious for us to re-open. There has also been a lot generosity on the part of the community, and we are grateful. I don’t know if anyone misses 1304bikes more than those of us who spent a portion of every week helping out at the shop. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a new space we can afford or find a way to increase our revenue so that we can afford a more expensive space. As a group of people whose primary contributions have been helping people repair, build, and maintain their bicycles, we find ourselves ill-equipped to deal with matters of real estate and fundraising. In addition, our long inactivity has meant that we have failed to attract new members while some existing members have left the area or found that they have less time/energy to donate to 1304.

As result, we are opening up our quarterly board member meeting to the public. We feel that 1304bikes has been and should be a community institution, and we want to give it every chance to succeed and to give the community an opportunity to help it succeed. We will meet Tuesday, July 27th at Cameron Village Library (http://www.wakegov.com/libraries/locations/cameronvillage/default.htm) from 6:30-8:30pm in room 202A. Everyone is welcome to come and participate. What we really hope from this meeting is to bring new people and new skills into the organization so that we can resurrect the community bike shop and make it a bigger and better part of Raleigh’s bicycling community than ever.

We are looking for people who …

…have skill, knowledge, and/or desire to learn about fundraising and lead 1304’s fundraising efforts.

…have accounting skills, assuming our fundraising is successful.

…have knowledge, connections, and/or desire to pursue suitable property for the shop.

…have new ideas on how to move us forward and the energy to help us get there.

…have web skills and a desire to help keep our web site up to date and accurate because, while we are homeless, it remains our primary point of contact with the community.

…have carpentry, electrical, and/or plumbing skills, assuming we find a space and will need to make it suitable.

When new space is found, we will continue to need people who have knowledge of bicycle repair, or simply a desire to learn, and willingness to pass that knowledge on, but our immediate need is for the many skills we currently lack and the people, time, and energy needed to put these skills to use. We continue to need and accept monetary donations (http://1304bikes.org/donate.html), but to insure our future success, the most important thing is an active, engaged community. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Meeting details:
Tuesday, July 27th
Cameron Village Library, Room 202A
6:30-8:30pm

Pictures from Derailed

Just wanted post a quick note to thank everyone who came out to the First Friday event last week to support 1304bikes. Also, thanks to the fine folks at AhPeele for letting us host the event at the gallery. Be sure to stop by sometime and check out their locally printed t-shirts and clothing.

The art auction and sale of bicycle part fashion accessories was a huge success. We managed to raise over $2000! The money raised will help us in the coming months as we try to secure a new space in the downtown area.

Here's a few pictures that we got of the event:



Works Left to Right:
-Hi-Sing by Kate Kluttz
-untitled by Jenn Hales
-Better Days by John Morris
-Three's Company by David Eichenberger, Jason Whitman, and Casey Porn
-Helios Fixie #3 Celeste by Lisa Schell


Works Left to Right:
-untitled by Adam Peele
-Machines 2 by Steven Valenziano
-Machines by Steven Valenziano
-Matthew Curran
-untitled by Josh Hoffman
-untitled by Adam Peele
-Bunny Bot by Adam Peele and Kiddee Charoenpanitkul






Works Left to Right:
-Helios Fixie #2 Pink by Lisa Schell
-Pieces of by Jean Gray Drake
-Series 3 by Paul Friedrich
-Feast of Fools by Kate Kluttz
-Helios Fixie #1 Green by Lisa Schell

















Michael Pilmer








Jeans by Raleigh Denim
Belt by Kelly Beck
Shirt by Adam Peele






















untitled by Lauren Pegram
Music by DJ Gonzo

First Friday Art Show Update

Here's the info for the First Friday show:

The 1304 bikes crew is gearing up for November First Friday and we hope everyone will make it out! We'll be holding a silent auction at AHPeele Studio at 400 Capital Blvd. Many awesome local artists have created and donated new works under the theme of human powered transportation. There'll be photography, painting, sculpture, a pair of Raleigh Denim jeans, and more! Bidding goes from 6-10pm. Place a bid, then sip on some local beer and take in the musical stylings of DJ Gonzo. Plus, start your holiday shopping early with some accessories fashioned from used bicycle parts. All proceeds from the evening will go to helping us secure a new shop space in the downtown area.

If you've not been to AHPeele before then you are missing out. Take McDowell St. north out of downtown. Immediately after you pass by the big steam plant and under the railroad bridge, it will be the first building on your right. Be sure to check out their awesome apparel including the Raleigh Oak T-shirt!

Please forward this info widely and don't forget to bring a friend or two to the show. Can't wait to see you all there!

DERAILED: First Friday Art Show to Benefit 1304 Bikes!

Dear friends,

Since losing our old shop space in July, we have been working on finding a new home. In order to serve what had grown to be a very large patronage we would love to have a large warehouse, and we feel strongly that our new location should be in or near downtown to be equally accessible by all residents of Raleigh. Because we also feel strongly about being equally accessible to people of all incomes, we never charged for bikes, parts or services. What few small expenses we had were covered by the donations of a couple dollars here and there. Thus we find ourselves without the means to rent an ideal (or really any) space. In order to continue operating on this model we looked into the possibility of getting a space donated for drastically reduced rent or possibly for free, but we have turned up empty-handed. As we are committed to keeping our program free, we will be holding a series of fund-raising events.

The first event of our fund-raising effort will be an art show (DERAILED: an unSPOKEn auction to benefit 1304 bikes) on November 6^th (First Friday) at Ahpeele gallery. Details about the event will follow. However, we are currently looking for submissions for the show. The theme of the show is, of course, bikes and other human powered forms of transportation. We hope artists will keep with the theme and create a piece (any size, any medium) to be sold in a silent auction. If you are interested in submitting a piece please contact Kelly Beck at kelly@1304bikes.org. If you’re not an artist, please start spreading the word and saving up for an awesome piece of local artwork!

Thanks in advance for your support in the form of artwork, funds, or otherwise.

-The 1304 bikes crew

Traffic Jam

Come on out Saturday, August 29th (that’s tomorrow) to show your support for 1304 bikes, shop for everything from fine arts and crafts to flea market style junk (remember, one man’s trash…), hear live music and cool off in the ice cave! AHPeele Studio at 400 Capital Blvd. (that’s just on the edge of downtown) is hosting. See the flyer and description (it defies definition) on New Raleigh. It will be lots of fun and a great opportunity to make a donation to 1304 bikes while picking up a sweet pair of earrings or other item fashioned from bike parts! We’ll also be selling (it sounds so dirty) a few bikes, including 2 sweet road bikes (a Cannondale & a Nishiki). Join us anytime between 12 noon and 6 pm. We look forward to seeing all our old friends and meeting new ones!

-The 1304 bikes crew

First Mobile Repair Clinic!

So we did our first mobile repair clinic today. It was sort of a feeling out process for us, to see how things would go. We loaded up two trailers and one trike full of tools, parts and repair stands and headed out. Our intention was to head to Chavis Park and see if there would be any kids and other folks out at the park who might need some repairs or tuneups. Chavis Park was fairly devoid of cycling activity, so we headed back to Moore Square where we had seen a bunch of folks on bikes. We got some repairs done, including a bottom bracket overhaul. A lot of folks showed up with repairs that we were not equipped to fix, but we took orders and plan to head back out to Moore Square in 2 weeks on the 26th of July. We learned a lot today about what we need to bring and what to expect, it was a good learning experience for us, and a lot of fun as well.

Our search for a new space is continuing. There are plenty of available spaces downtown that would suit our needs, but we're going to need to raise a lot of money to afford rent and utilities. We've got a lot of fundraising events in the works, so stayed tuned for details on those.

Also, cyclist Bruce Rosar was killed yesterday in Apex. Bruce will definetely be missed, and was a great asset to and advocate for the cycling community. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/1604061.html#story_headline and more info on Bruce: http://brucewr.home.mindspring.com/ec/biography.html

1304Bikes Shop to Close!

So here’s the deal. We at 1304bikes are having to close our shop at its current location. In short, it is all a matter of zoning. We were operating a non-profit “civic club” out of a residentially zoned building. In order to stay in the current space, we would have to get a “change of use” permit from city council, as well as get the management company of the building to bring the building up to commercial code, neither of which is going to happen. That being said, we have until the end of June to move our bikes off the property, and cease all operations. This not only includes 1304bikes, but all activities that occur at the ACRe (Action for Community in Raleigh) Space including Food not Bombs. If we continue to operate, it will mean possible eviction for the residents upstairs, as well as enormous daily fines.
This does not mean that 1304bikes is dead. We are dispersing much of our current inventory of bicycles to worthy causes, such as other NC bicycle Co-ops and Bikes for the World. We will put some bikes as well as our parts and tools into storage for when we do find a new space. In the meantime we have plans to start loading up trailers and doing mobile bicycle clinics and repair days. This will give us a chance to outreach to other neighborhoods that we have never worked with before. We will also continue our search for a new space.
Ideally our new space will be centrally located (preferably downtown), and will be much larger and more well suited to our goals. It is our hope to find a space that will allow us to continue the programs and services we offered before, as well as to expand our programs and do more.
We may be asking for community support in the next coming weeks. We are still trying to decide how best to proceed as a group. We will keep everyone updated via our website and blog. Thanks to everyone who has supported us in the past, and hopefully this will only be a temporary setback that will lead to better things.

-1304bikes