As a city dweller, sometimes it’s easy to forget that the majority of land making up These United States, isn’t contained under concrete anxiously awaiting it’s turn as the next foundation for a Starbucks, but way the hell out in the middle of nowhere, with maybe some corn on top of it.

The land between the urban and rural is made up of sprawling suburbs, and a new kind of combo-pack called an exurb. Distant strip malls and forgotten outposts of manufactured homes, where sidewalks go to die.

Anyone who has ridden her bike more than about 30 miles in any given direction (unless they were riding into the ocean) has undoubtedly encountered this awkward mess of infrastructure and pseudo-development. Anyone who has ridden further, can tell you about the terrifying network of two lane highways that stitch together massive swaths of raw land out in America’s farm country, where drivers are categorically impatient and reckless. Not unlike most city drivers, but in the country, all this recklessness happens at top speeds with no shoulder and dozens of miles between gas stations/ambulances.

Some people take entire bike tours with the express purpose of exploring these roving fields of genetically modified subsidized agriculture that make our country so great, but later on, when they are back in that new Starbucks that just opened, uploading photos from their sweet tour, they will still think of city cycling as preeminent and all other cycling as extracurricular.

This thought pattern does a huge disservice to a great number of bike enthusiasts who actually don’t live in cities, but in these exurbs and rural outposts, for whom a commute to work might take 30 miles on dirt roads when the deer are still out and the sun hasn’t boiled the pavement yet. People for whom the point of cycling isn’t to run to the grocery store and back because that would take 4 hours, but will ride for pleasure, often up and down the same stretch of highway on their thrifted mountain bike every afternoon.

In the suburbs, when amenities are marginally closer, but infrastructure is equally lacking, cycling can be even more dangerous. Anywhere a sidewalk exists, drivers will wonder why you’re not on it. Traffic speeds are generally higher than in cities, and the roads tend to be wider with more lanes and tons of large, blind driveways leading to and from businesses along the strip of road, all of which can be dangerous and inhibiting for cyclists. It is in these places that I have seen some of the most dangerous riding of my life. People regularly riding in the street against the flow of traffic (although that happens in cities too but at lower speeds and with more traffic lights to slow everyone down), or riding on sidewalks (also against the flow) with grocery bags hanging from the handlebars, disobeying all traffic laws with no helmet, and dubious components. In places where the cycling community is not as large or as visible, there is very little peer pressure to keep the errant, unsafe cyclist in line. It’s a concrete jungle out there and it’s every Cannondale for herself. That’s how people die.

Part of the mission of Fender Bender is to make cycling accessible to people who don’t have resources where they live, which is often the case with folks who are stationed outside the city center. In areas of sprawl, car culture is dominant in practice and mentality. We design communities that are so heavily dependent on motor vehicles that even the thought of riding a bike a mile away to the library or the bank feels like riding to Siberia. Getting over the mental block of car-dependence is the greatest challenge to riding in the outposts, but people are getting over that hurdle more and more every day and we are excited to encourage it.

The simple fact of riding is that the more visible cyclists are, the more accepted it becomes as practice, which will inherently lead to more cautious drivers and better cycling infrastructure. Awareness leads to progress. Those who are riding on the fringe of cities and in farm towns, have the daunting task of raising visibility at a time when car culture has not yet caught up. Those who make the leap, knowing that the only way to make something safe is to do it while it’s still dangerous, are doing a great service for all the two-wheelers who come after them. We hear often that people ride on sidewalks because they assume it’s more dangerous to ride in the road where the cars are. This is patently false. FALSE. Don’t ride on the sidewalk! If you think cars aren’t looking for you in the road, they definitely aren’t looking for you on the sidewalk, and when they come flying out of their driveway, you are going to suffer. If you are in the road, they can see you and move around you. If you are on the sidewalk, you are telling vehicles that they don’t need to respect your space in the road because you have ceded it to them. Don’t give them the road! You pay for that thing too!! Get on it! The only way for us to achieve visibility and acceptance, is to create such an intransigent presence that cars have no choice but to respect us. But it takes a few brave, relentless pioneers to start that visibility and teach other cyclists.

Every person who rides a bike is part of the cycling community whether they identify as such or not. We all benefit from visibility and safety. The duty is on all of us to teach each other how to ride safe, be respectful, and implement positive changes for cyclists in our communities. By focusing our bike activism on cities and urban dwellers, we are chopping off a huge number (I would argue, the majority) of cyclists who don’t have the luxury of living within a few miles of a bike shop and definitely don’t have the option of lobbying for bike lanes on the millions of miles of state highways that currently adjoin most of the country. The onus is on all of us to teach bike repair and safety to ourselves and each other so that anyone in any part of the country can have access to the kind of cycling that fits their lives. The invisibility of rural cyclists is intolerable, and only serves to make road riding more dangerous for those who choose it.

If you live in a suburban, exurban, or rural area, why not start a group ride with your neighbors? Or get a bike-pool of folks together twice a week to ride to the grocery store as a group, or ride with your kids to and from school? There are myriad ways to gain visibility while also riding safely. If you’re not sure about the rules of the road or how to navigate city streets by bike, contact us or come to one of our full moon bike rides and get some practice! By gaining visibility and supporting cycling in all it’s forms across all landscapes, we can all make the roads safer for ourselves and others.

See you out there.
Liz + FB

What: Full Moon Bike Ride

When: September 12, 2011. Meet at 9PM, ride at 9:30PM. We will return to the meeting location around 11PM.

Where: Meet us in front of the old Michigan Central Station (on Dazelle St., just off of Michigan at 14th // Roosevelt Park area).

We were also informed that this ride is a double bonus because it’s also Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival).

Please bring your bike, helmet, lights, and friends! We’ll bring bike pumps and basic tools but we highly recommend that you bring a spare tube! If you don’t know how to change a flat, we’ll help teach you, just pick up a spare tube at a local shop before the ride.

The moon is bright, but it is still required that you must have a flashing red light on the back of your bike and a white light in front. You don’t have to have anything fancy, tape a flashlight to your handlebars if you want. Just make sure that you can see and be seen.

Bright and/or reflective clothing is rad, too.

If you never ride at night, this is a great opportunity to try it out in a comfortable setting.
We can also match you up with someone willing to ride by your place so you don’t have to ride alone to the meeting spot, and have someone ride back to the same area with you following the ride.

See you soon! Spread the word!

You can also view the Fender Bender’s Facebook event.

A quick update about our regular Open Shop time for women, trans and gender queer folks, once it resumes next week, we will be closing up a half hour earlier than normal, which will make our regular hours every Saturday from 4-6:30pm until further notice (further notice will be pretty soon, actually, so look for updates regularly).

Also, there is an exciting fundraiser coming up for our friends at the Hub you should know about because it’s going to be really great! We are going to be volunteering/attending in some form, and you should too!

What: Progressive Dinner Bike Ride
When: September 18th, 2011, meet at the Hub at 3pm, ride starts sometime after that…
Details: Pay $25 and receive a map that you will use to pedal around town and stop at predetermined checkpoints for awesome food made by Neighborhood Noodle, Suddenly Sauer and some other nice local folks. Vegan options are available at every stop!
Why: To raise money for the Hub and the awesome programming they offer. Cool, right?

See y’alls next week!

xoxo

FB

This Fender Bender Detroit ride is open to everyone as we try to raise awareness and have fun riding bikes in the night.

August 13th

Meet us at the corner of Cass & Forest, in front of the UU Church (First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit).

Meet at 10:00pm, ride at 10:30pm.

Rain or (moon)Shine

Bring your bike and your friends!  Helmets are cool, protect your head!  If you don’t have a helmet, know that your life is worth more than the price of a helmet.

The moon will be bright, (hopefully it’s not cloudy) but it is still required by law that you have a front white light and a rear red reflector.  Flashing red light is a bonus for safety as well.

A bicycle or an electric personal assistive mobility device being operated on a roadway between 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise shall be equipped with a lamp on the front which shall emit a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet to the front and with a red reflector on the rear which shall be visible from all distances from 100 feet to 600 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful lower beams of head lamps on a motor vehicle. A lamp emitting a red light visible from a distance of 500 feet to the rear may be used in addition to the red reflector.

Bright and/or reflective clothing is rad, too.  Tape a flashlight to your handlebars, ziptie a reflector to the back of your bike, it doesn’t have to look fancy, just make sure you can see and be seen!

If you never ride at night, this is a great opportunity to try it out in a comfortable setting.  We can also match you up with someone willing to ride by your place so you don’t have to ride alone to the meeting spot, and have someone ride back to the same area with you following the ride.  Send us a message, fenderbenderdetroit[at]gmail[dot]com and we can help set something up.  RSVP on facebook.

We are currently working on a route for the ride so let us know where you would like to go! We can try to work it out that we might go through your neighborhood, so please comment with any suggestions.  We will end the ride, where it begins, between Midnight and Midnight-thirty.

Ride safe and see you soon!

-FBD

This is the website of EMEAC, sorry I can’t post a direct link…still learning….soon

Fender Bender is going to be providing EMEAC’s summer camp (ages 13-21) with bicycles for transportation between destinations, as well as group rides and a healthy active way to be smart about resources (and of corse for the pure enjoyment of riding a bike). We’re still in need of TEN bikes to complete our goal of FIFTEEN bikes for the program (fixable, if not well-maintained)

If you or anyone you know has a bike(s) and are willing to donate please contact us here on Facebook or email at: fenderbenderdetroit@gmail

We’ll handsomely reward you a lovely hand printed thank you card with the Fender Bender logo and a big smile when we see you! We’ve included a link in the next post to the EMEAC website incase you aren’t familiar…they are an amazing transformative orgainization and collaboration of people in Detroit.

Thanks so much! Our deadline is July15th (coming up fast) so feel free pass our request on!

-FBD-

All donations will be put to use, so please don’t be shy! You can arrange a drop off or we can pick up from where you are. Just leave us a note here or send us an email: fenderbenderdetroit@gmail.com

Thanks everyone!!

These classes will happen every other Tuesday at the Wheelhouse for the rest of the summer. They are taught by Fender Bender’s stellar crew of female mechanics, Sarah and Liz and will come with awesome take home literature hand crafted by us so you remember what we taught you when you’re showing off for your friends at home.

Classes cost just $5 and include a patch kit! Dates are May 10 and 24; June 7 and 21; July 5 and 19; and August 2, 16 and 30. They start at 6 p.m. sharp and are first-come, first-serve!

This class is open to anyone of any background or experience level, and is not gender-specific, so we encourage everyone to come!

Here is the website for the Wheelhouse and the totally informative Facebook Event if you’d like to holler at us.

Hope to see you there! We’ll be the ones wearing matching smocks!!

COME SEE US! 

BRING YOUR BIKE, LET’S GET IN GEAR FOR SPRING. 

WE ARE READY AND YOUR BIKE SHOULD BE TOO!

Also, in other developments, we’ll eventually be moving to a new location. We are partnering with a few other Detroit based organizations to collectively share a building TBA in the near future. SO, keep an eye out, because wherever we go will be a great environment that truly embodies the principles we cultivate. We are excited about the possibilities and to implement the program of our dreams.  PLEASE tell us what you want to in a women, trans and queer bicycle shop.  Although the shop will continue to serve the community at large, our primary goal is to provide bicycle education and repair/maintainence classes for the LGBTQ community of Detroit.

Happy warmer weather biking,

Sarah and Liz

First, there are a few really interesting articles about bike culture that have come up recently that we wanted to share.
Did you know the average American two-person household could save as much as $825 a month by switching from a car commute to one based on cycling and public transit? SNAP!

Also, new data shows that the lowest earning quarter of Americans make nearly one-third of all bike trips. Cycling is not just for yuppies anymore!

And Congress bums us out by proposing that the Environmental Protection Agency be prevented from regulating greenhouse gasses. Ugh.

As for us, we’re busy getting ourselves ready for the summer season and are excited to see everyone out on the road! This summer, in addition to our regular open shops, we will be offering a twice-monthly drop in class at the Wheelhouse which will cover all the basics of bike repair in just 2 hours! We will teach you how to fix a flat, adjust and repair brakes and derailleurs, diagnose common problems and get moving again! The class is $5 per person and comes with free literature and a patch kit. The class will be open to anyone of any age or gender, but space is limited. The schedule will be up soon, so we’ll keep you updated.

See you out there!

xoxo

Liz + Fender Bender