Thursday, December 25, 2008

holidaze update

Happy Holidays!

a big thank you to everyone who came out for the BBB Warehouse event!
Check out pictures here and here

and for some really good news, we were able to renew our lease for another year. Another year of low overhead, another year of great opportunity.

We've had some great events this past year, and you can be sure that we're going to be doing even more in 2009. Every week, we're meeting more people who're looking to get more involved as well as being introduced to people who're already doing some great stuff around town.


Upcoming News...

Bicycle Workshops!
Thanks to demand, there is one already scheduled for early January, which will include things such as what to look for in a quick check and some basic mechanics. If you're interested in becoming a volunteer mechanic, or just want to join in on a workshop email us at zombiebikes@gmail.com and we will work on getting a second workshop organized in the upcoming month.

January Movie Nights and Women's Ride part deux!
Come Out and Have Fun!



On January 23 through the 25, several of us will be heading to Atlanta to take part in Bike!Bike!, a regional gathering of bike shop members. Besides these dates, Zombie will have the following regular weekend hours: Friday afternoon, Saturday 1-5 and Sunday 1-5. Weekday hours will be a little more fluctuating, but count on someone being around tuesday and thursday afternoons.

Finally, look forward to Zombie Bikes hosting (what will start off as) a small zine distro. We've got some zines coming in, some racks need to be built and details need to be finished. But I'm hoping we will be able to pick up the radical literature outlet that was lost when heartworks and intertia closed their doors. If you write a zine, or know someone who does, again email us with the lowdown, we want to push good local stuff (and not just here, if you're local and you're good, we will support you when we go out of town for things such as bike!bike! and various other polo/alleycat/bike events).

come visit us!

hugs and kisses
from the ZBBC



Monday, December 8, 2008

Movie Night!!

schedules and bikes to be painted

alright, so far, the december schedule is going to be a little rough
definite days that we will be open are
Monday 11-late
Friday 1-5
Saturday 1-5

we still have some frames up for painting for the upcoming BBB, just head on up, if somebody at Zombie isn't here, go next door and the Burro Boys will help you out! Doesn't matter if you're an artist or just a dabbler, deadline to get it back is going to be the week of december 15th.

and we will be watching the movie Dark Days wednesday night at the shop!
8pm sharp!

hey all,

we still have two frames available to be painted by local artists or just those who like to dabble, deadline to have them back is going to be the week of the 15th




lastly, check out our myspace at http://www.myspace.com/zombiebikesjax
for some new photos of a recent field trip from a nearby afterschool program
and bike polo shots via Tisa

Saturday, December 6, 2008

the women's ride

There have been some questions as to why I would be co-hosting a women’s ride and I think it’s important that I clarify why such an event is important and why I am a part of it.

As a biker in both Jacksonville and Philadelphia, I have had to deal with a lot of intimidation. The fixed gear community is a male majority. Going to bike shops both here and in Philadelphia, I’ve had to deal with a lot of shit from bike mechanics deciding I didn’t know what I wanted. A couple examples from Philly, when I first went in to have my polo bike set up, thinking it would be better to get a ‘professional’ to install the braking system, I had to go in three times before it was done how I wanted it, because the guys didn’t think I knew what I was doing with my brake set up. It took a lot for me to even begin playing bicycle polo in such a decidedly male messenger town. Most weeks I was the only girl, and it was a balancing act trying to assert that no, I wasn’t there to hook up with a “hot” messenger, that I just wanted to learn, but at the same time not coming off as a “bitch” and proving I could play. It was frustrating, and at least once I almost quit, but I loved playing so I kept going.

I don’t want Jacksonville to be that male-dominated biking town (and I’m not saying that it is). I don’t want other girls who’re getting into biking to face the same sort of stumbling blocks. I want to see chicks on every level of the biking community. Because biking is fun, it’s liberating and it’s a great form of transportation. I’ve talked to a lot of people (not just girls) who have told me they don’t like doing the weekly Jax ride known as ‘midnight mass’ because they feel intimidated, because their bike isn’t “cool” enough, that they don’t feel comfortable in the mostly male, cliquish, environment. It’s become a somewhat macho thing.

Well Aimeee and I are establishing alternatives rides. We want everyone to feel included, with also a possibly more convenient time. The first step is going to be this women’s ride. We want to see every type of bike there, from cruiser to bmx. We want women to feel included, no judging, just fun.

After this ride there will be more, and not gender inclusive. This is just the beginning and we are looking forward to hosting a series of just fun, themed rides in the near future. So if you’re a boy, keep your eyes out; if you’re a girl who couldn’t make it to this one, keep aware. Jacksonville can be a sweet biking town with an inclusive bike community. But nothing happens overnight, and this is just a step, one we hope in the right direction.

Also, just a post note. I am not saying that midnight mass is a horrible ride, I’ve gone several times and it is fun. I apologize if this reads like I’m attacking anything/anyone, that is not my intention. For events/movements/etc. to be successful, one has to constantly question why, and improve upon things found lacking. There can be more than one ride; there can be more than one group.

<3 Cherri

Friday, November 21, 2008

Upcoming Events

Zombie Bikes has been busy rolling out a couple fun events in the upcoming weeks!

This Sunday will be a fun potluck afternoon at the shop:

Sunday, Dec. 7th Aimee and Cherri will be hosting an afternoon ladies-only ride through downtown/riverside ending with beer and festivities.


There will most def be a movie Dec. 10th, sorry for the lack of one in November (blame the rain.. and thanksgiving) Choices will be among Breaking Away, Bomb It! or A Hundred Dollars and a T Shirt.

Most importantly, don't forget to mark your calendar for Dec. 20th when we'll have the BBB Complex Art show

BBB Warehouse Art Show

DECEMBER 20th, 2008 @ BBB Warehouse (Our shop, 1520 N Main St.) 7 pm with selectors from 74 Sound System filling the shops with reggae and rocksteady.

Burro Bags and Zombie Bikes will be hosting a night of art our warehouse. Hold on to some holiday shopping money to spend on better gifts created by local people.

Burro
Messenger bags designed by local artists will be for sale. They are definitely one-offs! Paint, cutting, sewing and a few secrets have been thrown into these bags. There are some crazy ideas flowing out of the shop!

Raffle - Over $1000 worth of items
Tickets will be $10 each or 3 for $20.
- Custom Messenger Roll Top Backpack
- Custom Messenger Bag
- 3 Hip Bags
- 1 AEROSPOKE ! - We'll have 2! You'll get your choice of 1!
- Lots of T-Shirts!
- Grocery Bags
- 3 Recycled Backpacks
- 4 Frame Pads
- Burrito Gallery Gift Cards
- More to come... That's almost 20 things!
- Arturo Clothing Beanies and Tees

Zombie
Local artists are reviving dead frames into new art! There are plans for local made pinatas for auction and ready to beat open that night.

All proceeds will go to benefit the non-profit cooperative.

Royal Treatment Recors
Open all night selling old and new vinyl for all the audiophiles.

Polo Tournament - 3pm -6pm
3 on 3
$10 entry per team
Cash pay out and prizes to top 2 teams!

Sunday Sixer
Jacksonville's favorite race/past-time
Sunday
6 Stops
6 Beers
6 O'Clock at Night
Starts @ the BBB Warehouse BYOB Free Entry

Sunday, November 16, 2008

bike builds

To keep those who don't visit us on a regular basis up to date with Zombie happenings, we wanted to post a couple of our most recent build ups..

and here's a picture of one of our current projects..



don't forget that a lot of what we do is repairs and guided work, our aim is to get more people on bikes. So bring in that old schwinn and we'll help you get it in working order!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

the following times will be the set Zombie schedule for the month of November

Monday 12-2
Tuesday 12-6
Wednesday 12-5
Thursday 12-5
Friday 12-5
Saturday 12-5

Friday, October 24, 2008

October Rundown

This month has been pretty busy for us here at Zombie bikes. What with the Night Ride hosted by BikeJax, an amazing event Zombie was lucky enough to be a part of. A thousand cheers to Matt for hosting such a stellar success. It's hard work to organize this kind of event; one that brings together an array of artists, business owners, local craftsmen&women and bike enthusiasts and he deserves the biggest props. I regret that Zombie didn't get on the train earlier with helping plan and hope that we can be an even bigger part of Matt's next event.

Onto current events a la Zombie. We are working to get more concrete hours posted and will (all fingers crossed) have a regular schedule starting in November. We've hosted two movie nights this month; Pedal this past Wednesday and Quicksilver two weeks earlier. Both a success, although Pedal was made possible through thanks the help of Tom and his last minute projector grab. Movie nights will start to be a regular addition to our line up, every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, so keep an eye out. However, our biggest upcoming event is going to be a sweet art show hosted at the shop, which I'll post more details about soon.

Zombie bikes will be open tomorrow, but Sunday I think its safe to say we'll all be out on the Zombie Walk.
Hours for the upcoming week will be:
Tuesday 4-8 and
Wednesday 12-4
possibly Thursday with unconfirmed afternoon hours

Friday, Saturday and Sunday most of us will be down in Gainesville for the Fest,

Happy Halloween!
<3 ZK

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

SCHEDULE UP!

TUES 5-8
WED 12-4
THURS
FRI 12-4 (possibly later, unconfirmed)

SUN 3-8

Monday, October 6, 2008

SCHEDULE AND EVENTS

A whole week of shop times and events, exciting non?

Monday; 3-?
Tuesday; 3-8
Wednesday; 12-4 and MOVIE NIGHT at the shop bring blankets/chairs we'll be watching Quicksilver at 8pm
Thursday; 3-?
Friday; 12-4
Saturday is Bike Night check out http://thenightride.blogspot.com/
it's going to be a whole afternoon of bike events!

In case you were unsure our shop is located at 1520 N. Main in Springfield just north of downtown. We currently don't have a phone right now, but if you have any questions email us at zombiebikes@gmail.com and we will get to you asap (if you want leave your # and we'll call you back via cellular telephone).

<3 ZK

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

zombie schedule!

Wed 9/24: 11-3 and 6-8
Friday 12-4 and 6-8
Saturday 2-8

and possibly Sunday 3-8 but unconfirmed

Friday, September 19, 2008

Zombie Meets the North Florida Bike Club

This past Tuesday, word out on the blogosphere (aka BikeJax) alerted me to a bicycle related planning meeting taking place, hosted by the North Florida Bike Club. Since its important Zombie make itself known to all parts of the bicycle community--especially when it relates to Jacksonville bike paths--I made sure to be in attendance.

Before I went in, my impression was a discussion focusing on what was being done to make Jacksonville safer for bikers, ie adding more bike lanes. Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly the case.

The two big headings for the evening were the program's long-range planning and their new safety campaign.

By "long range", the implication was to include paths and lanes to be done by 2035. The way they see it, in order for shit to get done, people need funds; in order to get this funding, they need to submit a plan. Plans that are still in the works and do not have a definitive timeline. The problem with directing all your energy on the long term planning are twofold: one, nothing was being mentioned about things being done now to effect transportation routes when biking is really getting into vogue and now would be a great time to act; two, by already having a list of things that are being, well, planned to be planned, the group is not allowing for a lot of flexibility to change direction later on. Once the infrastructure starts spending the allocated funds for whatever decided purpose, it will be a hell of a lot harder to stop and redirect. Which might not be that big of an issue if we were talking long range for commuters but sadly, the people they talked to and took census of (which by the demographic I met were not urban bikers, were not of a minority and were not of a younger crowd) wanted recreational, regional sites. Don't get me wrong, I love these kinds of trails, Philadelphia has a couple really great ones that will lead you to the different counties surrounding the city. They are beautiful and they are fun, but lets remember these kind of trails are built primarily with recreational use in mind. And when your thirty year plan (that wasn't available in an organized format) focuses on suburbia paths (the top two corridors being discussed are Vilano Bridge to Micklers Landing--Ponte Vedra--and Green Cove Springs to Black Creek Trail) you not only alienate a mass of city commuters, but also ignore citywide and national trends. Trends saying more people want to bike, but they just don't know how to make it work.

Which leads to the "new", "out of the box" safety campaign. First huge problem, one of the advertising representatives admitted she hadn't been on a bike since youth and the other said he was a mountain biker/trail user. Hmm. So the safety campaign they wish to enact rests on the tagline.. are you ready.. "Thanks for looking."

Seriously? Could we be more passive?

Or sexist, because of course that sells. One of the few posters shown was a girl walking backwards with arrows on her ass with the side note saying something like "Or you know maybe we could just look out a little more."

I raised my hand at this point and asked why we couldn't be more aggressive with slogans focusing on our right to be on the road. Since a lot of drivers (including some coppers) still have the misconception that road bikes, you know, don't belong on the road. The advertising rep wasn't too happy with criticism, and I wasn't the only one showing it. Of course, this is when what is beautiful about these kind of events started happening. Other people shared their criticism and suggestions, and while the rep disdainfully shot them all down, I had a bit of change in thought direction.

Someone else brought up the idea that these kind of campaigns are negative in that they give out the impression that there's something inherently dangerous in biking. And I realized this. is. so. true. I think even I shared that misconception before, especially in Philly. When you aren't on a bike, zipping through traffic looks ten times more hazerdous than it really is. When all you hear about biking is when a biker gets hit or the whole New York critical mass fiasco, of course you're going to get a negative impression on the whole activity. And this line of thought comes directly back to what Zombie Bikes is all about; when all you remember is fucking with your rear derailler for two hours, or that time you had to change your tube three times in one day because no one ever really showed you how, of course you're going to be reluctant about biking. We're busy trying to help people learn how to fix their bikes, but maybe we need to do more.

Zombie will do what it can to support NFBC's campaign because after all it comes down to solidarity, but meanwhile we're going to run a corresponding campaign. One that really focuses on why you should bike. I'm thinking t-shirts, wheatpasting and some good ole' tables with flyers in Five points, Riverside, San Marco and Springfield. Cheap, starter bikes can be found in thrift stores or Brooklyn can hook you up. You don't know much about bikes? We can help you learn some basic mechanics. You worried about riding some of the streets? We can do more organized rides, during the day incorparting more than just your usual bike crowd. This will obviously be a multi-month campaign. But everything starts somewhere, and I think this is something Zombie will be attacking full force.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Zombie Schedule for 9/16-9/21

9/16 Tuesday 5-8
9/17 Wednesday 11-3 and 6-8
9/18 Thursday 1-5
9/19 Friday 11-8
9/20 Saturday 12-6
9/21 Sunday 3-8

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Wanted: Artist!

For those who aren't aware, the warehouse complex housing Zombie Bikes also hosts two other independent shops: Royal Treatment Records--run by Tough Junkie, Ian/Triclops and Big Dunn--and Burro Bags--run by Chris and Matt. Recently, these two groups came together and purchased a screenprinting outfit and have since been pretty busy making some sweet shirts. Now naturally, given their proximity, Zombie would be fool not to take advantage of this amazing set up. We are eager to get shirts printed out in the next couple weeks, only we'd love some outside input. So long story short, we are in the need of an artist who wants to see their image out on the Jax streets and is happy with being paid for their talent in the form of a couple of shirts and Zombie love. The shirts will be sold for $5-7 with all proceeds going back to Zombie.




Also, Sundays are Potluck'd Polo Nights, come out and have fun!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

9/9-9/14

Zombie'll be open this week:

Tues: 1-7:30
Thurs: 6-8pm
Friday: 12-8pm
Saturday: 11-5
and
Sunday: 3-8pm, with bike polo at 4 and potluck at 7.30

Friday, September 5, 2008

First Post

Sorry we've been slacking with keeping an updated online account of our happenings at Zombie Bikes. We took a step back, looked at what our neighbors at Burro were doing, and decided to mimic them with starting our own Blogger account. Easy to both update and access--and free to use--we hope this will work out better than our old website.

We get a lot of questions about Zombie, and I'm hoping we were able to answer the majority of them on the right. As far as the schedule goes for this weekend:
we will be open today (Friday) until 8pm
Saturday 11-5
Sunday 3-7, Bike Polo @ 4
along with our first potluck @ 7

We'll have next week's schedule up by Tuesday.



the Zombie Kids