Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Closing Early TONIGHT!


Ok kids, there are 3 reasons why we will close the shop early -

unbelievably bad weather (i.e. 3 feet of snow)
very sick volunteers (i.e. no one is able to open the shop)
Dramatic restructuring and in-shop construction.

...okay okay there are 4 reasons.
an historic birthday party! Like tonight's bicycle-related 18 kegs birthday party.

Sorry folks. It looks like we will be closing at FIVE PM tonight, rather than seven. Let your friends know. take the opportunity to go for a beautiful evening ride!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

March 19 - Bike Pirates Craft Night

A bottle of Bike Pirate Glue
Break out your puff paint, bedazzlers, and DIY spirit! Bike Pirates' first craft night is happening Friday, March 19th at 7:30 pm.

BYO Craft supplies and Beverages.
Homemade snacks! Tea!
Mini-workshop on making jewelry out of bike parts!

Crafts do not have to be bike-related.

Bike Pirates is a fully accessible space.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Family Day?

those who sail the sea have no family but those on their ship! We don't serve a government or religion, only the rocky waves, and the whispers the gales tell of buried gold. We do not lower the sails for a day because a queen wishes it so! But if a mate is ill with scurvy you bet we will have to put off our pillaging for another day.

.........

We are open tomorrow. yes. see you there.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Annual Ice Race - Early Closure


Please note that as per tradition, Bike Pirates will be closing early the evening of the annual ice race! Tomorrow, Saturday February 13th, we will be closing the shop at hour early at 6pm SHARP in order to get set up for the party we are hosting.

Please come out to the races at Dufferin Grove rink 7-10pm, and to Pirates afterwards for an awesome dance-party fundraiser for Charlie's Freewheels. This is a fantastic, fun, hilarious, exhilarating tradition in the Toronto Cycling community!

See you there!

The Pirates.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Icycle 2010 & Bike Pirates Afterparty


Icycle, Toronto's annual bicycles-on-ice race, takes place Saturday, February 13, 2010 from 7-10pm in Dufferin Grove Park. Free admission! The afterparty, a fundraiser for Charlie's Freewheels, is right here at Bike Pirates.

Speaking of Charlie's Freewheels, congrats to them for winning a 2009 Toronto Bike Award!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Charlie's Volunteer Callout!



Charlie's Freewheels is seeking volunteers to act as Mechanic Mentors in the second session of our youth bicycle project. The sessions will run every Friday from 5-8pm. The First session will be Friday February the 5th and the program will run for 12 weeks.

Charlie’s Freewheels will enrol 6 youth participants from the Regent Park community to learn basic bicycle mechanics and safety through the process of assembling their own bike. Through a combination of hands-on practice, cooperative work, discussion and mentoring, the participants will focus primarily on the repair of one bicycle each that, upon the project’s completion, will belong to him or her.
The volunteer mechanics will be working with the youth from last session in assisting the new participants with the assembly of their bicycles. We are looking for mechanic volunteers who have previous experience working on bikes and who have had hand on experience in repairing and building up bicycles for the bottom up.

We are also looking for people who would be interested in being involved in other aspects of the program. Last session we had one volunteer work with one of the participants on putting together a manual for the session that turned out amazingly.
We are looking for people who are interested in or have skills to share including but not limited too:
  • Snack planning and food prep
  • Photography and web site making/ blogging knowledge
  • Grant writing
  • Party planning and fundraising
Volunteer Info Meeting
Tuesday February 9th at 6:30 pm
Location: U of T, International Student Centre, the building at 33 St George
In the the Baldwin Room (located on the ground floor)

If you need more info you can email Caitlin at:
mccarlisle (at) gmail.com

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Pirates - Helping 3,000 a day!

The quality of fact-finding and direct-quoting in the media Never Fails to Impress. Yesterday's papers had a fantastically blown-out-of-proportion quote about Bike Pirates usage during this mild-ish Winter! (see the portion marked winners)

Rest assured, we are seeing more people than you might expect in January, in Cananda, but not 140 people a day! That would blow our minds!

Business is steady over the winter months but a bit quieter, and less hectic than the spring/summer season. So if you are thinking about getting your bike ready for spring or you have decided that you want to be a Winter Cyclist too(!) come by the shop. We have lots of volunteers on hand to help you fix and learn.

As usual, you can't believe everything you read ;)