Somerville News coverage of last Thursday's bike-path and street robberies

[ron_newman]

is now online, or pick up the paper edition and turn to page 3. Quite a long and detailed report, with a lot of attention paid to our LJ discussion.

(See also: earlier post about Somerville Journal article)

Bike questions

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of bike questions. I'm putting aside my fear of Boston drivers and want to do more biking, which is a big step because after spending time in Amsterdam where there are dedicated bike lanes with their own traffic signals and a very highly-evolved set of rule that are for the most part obeyed, I'm a little trepiditious. (But all is not paradise- they stupidly allow motorized scooters in the bike lanes as well and there is a lot of conflict between the people-powered and the engine-powered.)

1> I bought a new lock for my bike. It's a Bell that has a Kevlar-coated cable and a U-lock. Is this a decent lock set-up? I'm a little concerned about the U-lock, as the housing is made out of plastic. (I am assuming there is steel underneath) Are any of you screaming in horror or will I be pretty OK with it?

2> Do any of the local shops install the rear wheel locks that are permanently attached to the frame? In the Netherlands, most bikes have them and folks use a combination of them and cable/chain w/ U-locks. Even then, there are still thefts, if you can believe it.

3> I am looking for European-style wide curved handlebars. I currently have the straight mountain bike style and am looking to switch them out for the far more comfy wide bars.

TIA

Hackspace Meeting--Sunday, August 24th at 10:30

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

Some of you may already know this, but I wanted to extend the invitation to attend our next informational meeting to the rest of the community. Willoughby and Baltic is planning to expand. We will be clearing out our current space and adding some small tools (scrollsaw, sander, drillpress, etc.), workbenches and whatever else you'll need for your small projects. Next door, we are planning to house our hacker lounge (soldering irons, electronics), computer lab, and class space. In Union Square, we'll have our large woodshop (the big tools) and metalworking tools (welding, bending and cutting) for the bigger projects. There's a good amount of space there for large scale work.

Our goal is to give people the tools and community they need to make whatever they'd like.

For more information, stop by on Sunday at 10:30. I'm bringing the bagels, bring your own coffee.

Willoughby and Baltic
195g Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144

New Volunteer community

[richips.livejournal.com]

I've been disappointed with how the existing MA volunteering communities have degenerated quite a bit, so i thought a fresh start was needed.
So i made a new community!
Please join and spread the word and let's do good things together. yay!

ma_volunteers

h8 2 sk8

[or-not.livejournal.com]

hey is there a decent or ok skate shop around davis ?

i'm looking to pick up a longboard for making more enjoyable my trips to porter and teele. plus i just got over an inner-ear infection so i'm trying to capitalize on my rekindled agility

do bike shops carry crap like this ?