Help us make free warm items for our upcoming Winter Skill Share’s gear swap!  You are also welcome to make warm things for yourself. We have sewing patterns, fleece fabric, and some supplies to share. No crafting experience is needed.

When/Where:

Saturday, October 25 from 12:30-4:30pm. You can stay for part or all of the event.

Hosmer Library, Room L02. 347 E 36th St, Minneapolis

Please bring if you can:

A face mask, sewing machine, cutting mats, fabric scissors, rotary cutters, pins, needles, thread, extensions cords, etc.. 

We will provide some snacks. Food and covered beverages are allowed in this room of the library.

If you are on Discord, please send Sarah Francis a Discord message with any questions, or post in the Grease Rag events channel. If you are not on Discord, please send any questions to the Grease Rag email address (greaseragmpls@gmail.com).

HELP NEEDED:

We need 2 people to help set up and 2 people who can stay to help clean up. We need at least 3 people to bring sewing machines. Comment in the Grease Rag events channel if you can bring a sewing machine, or if you have one we could borrow for the day. If you are not on Discord, please send an email to us (greaseragmpls@gmail.com).

Masks are required. Spare N95 masks will be available. Please stay home if you have any flu or cold symptoms.

We’ll learn, connect, and share our collective knowledge on the basics of winter biking, supporting and empowering a community of FTW people to enjoy a safe and fun winter riding season.

• Date: Saturday, November 1st
• Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM 
• Location: Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

The afternoon will feature skill shares on the basics of winter biking, in a safer space. This year’s sessions include:

• Bike Maintenance
• What to Wear
• Safety, Handling, and Routing
• Self-Care will be interactive between sessions and we will provide resources on this topic. 

Schedule of sessions:

10:15 am Routing and Safety

11:15 am Winter Bike Maintenance

(Lunch break at noon)

12:30 pm What to Wear

1:30 pm Gear Swap

A community gear swap with essential winter items and bike gear will finish off the event.

Things to know about the Skill Share

This event is open to all FTW (femme, trans nonbinary, two-spirit and women) riders! If you are a cis man who benefits from cis-male privilege, please respect this space and do not attend this event. Read more about WTF is FTW.

This event is NEWBIE and BEGINNER FRIENDLY! Come with questions and leave feeling more confident and ready to take on Minnesota’s most interesting season.

Masks are required in the presentation space. The smaller classroom has snacks; if you are not actively eating or drinking, please keep masks on during the event. The library does not require masks. Please stay home if you have a positive test or feel any symptoms.

This event is FREE. We want to keep things as accessible as possible to FTW, so this event, like all of our events, are volunteer-organized and run.

We run on DONATIONS of labor and goods. If you would like to donate your labor (volunteer) or goods (gear swap, snack table), please contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail.

The gear swap will include goods donated by community members like you! You’re invited to bring bike gear you don’t use, a sweater you outgrew, studded tires you want to pass on, or base layers you no longer need, for example. First-time winter bikers are given priority at the swap. We accept gear for all biking seasons. 

The skill shares are meant to share the basics with you. We encourage you to engage with our social media, make real-life connections with people at the skill share, and to attend open shops if you wish to learn more. Because there are so many approaches to biking, like life, it is impossible for us to tell you every detail of everything you might need to know! So be prepared to have some lingering questions – but don’t worry, we have a large community of people who are interested in helping you.

Grease Rag members have agreed that staying on Facebook is no longer an option.
After much discussion, the volunteer moving crew has organized a server on Discord and hope it will continue to facilitate events, socializing, and skill-sharing.

On June 1st, we will be archiving our Facebook group. The archived group’s posts and comments will still be viewable to current members, but no new posts or members can be added.

The Grease Rag Discord Server is by and for transgender, femme, non-binary, two-spirit, and women only. If you are a cis man and benefit from cis male privilege, this space is not for you. You can instead:

• find events open to allies on our calendar: /events/
• follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greaseragbikes/
• join a Bike/Walk/Transit/Urbanist MSP Discord server: https://discord.gg/fAZrFvt9c8 

If you are new to Discord and have any questions or need help joining, please send us an email so we can can help! greaseragmpls@gmail.com

Thank you to those who have made this space so vibrant after all these years on Facebook! Here’s to the next adventure…

From Recovery Bike Shop’s Bike Law Workshop on 2/3/2020

Seriously. I’ve spent so much time researching this, and still I come back to issues on interpretation. When lawmakers start throwing around phrases like “reasonable amount of time” and “as close as practicable”, it makes it difficult for anyone who doesn’t regularly practice law to know what it really means, or what is defendable. I am personally of the opinion that I will do what is safest and best for me that I can put logic behind, and most of that falls into what I interpret as legal. That being said, I acknowledge my privilege as a white person, and that makes things like interacting with people in cars and cops easier, if it comes to that. Make the law work for you, and at least for me, knowing what’s written in the law books helps me to navigate how I choose to bike in the real world. 

Bikes are Vehicles 

In Minnesota, bikes are considered vehicles. That means that “bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as operators of any other vehicle on the road with certain exceptions” (City of Minneapolis Bicycle Laws and Ordinances). The big thing about this for me is to remember that you have the same rights as a car. You own the road as much as a driver, and riding like you do makes you safer and more visible. 

There are a few exceptions that makes bikes different: 

You have to travel “as close as practicable”– NOT as close as possible– to the right side of the road. This is already one of those weird interpretive ones, but I take this very liberally. I do not think it is practicable, for example, to ride where a parked car could open its door into me. That just isn’t safe, and unfortunately that’s where a lot of bike lanes are placed. You can always take the lane, even if there’s a bike lane– you are never required to use a bike lane. When you are riding in a traffic lane, it’s recommended to ride where the line of a car’s right tires would be. If you feel like people are passing you too close though, It makes more sense to get farther out into the lane, so that you are more easily seen, and so cars understand that they have to merge all the way into the next left lane instead of trying to squeeze past you. 

• If you are preparing to turn left, then you should not be to the far right lane. You have to yield to cars and signal as you merge, but there’s nothing written in the law about when you should start merging. Do what feels comfortable and safe for you, and give yourself lots of time and space. 
• You can merge over to pass slower traffic. Usually it’s another bike, but hey, if you’re haulin’ it past cars, good on you. 
• You can merge as necessary to avoid hazards. Ice, water, potholes, trash, opening car door, whatever you consider a hazard, it’s much better to move far away from it and get into the next lane over than squeeze yourself between it and a passing car. 
• If a bike lane isn’t on the far right, you don’t have to be on the far right. You are allowed to still be on the far right though regardless of where the bike lane is. 

You have to signal with your arms the direction you’re turning unless you need both arms to control the bike. Know yourself, know your bike, and though signaling is helpful to drivers, it’s going to be way more dangerous if you slide out in front of a car. 

You are allowed to ride two bikes side-by-side as long as it doesn’t “impede normal traffic”. My interpretation of this is that you’re definitely in the clear if there is more than one traffic lane and cars can merge around you, and if there’s only a single travel lane in your direction, just make sure to fall in line if a car can’t easily get around you. 

Riding on the sidewalk is super dangerous, even if you’re being careful, and there are a lot of places in Minneapolis where it’s illegal to bike on the sidewalk (areas of uptown, downtown, and on the U of M campus). Avoid it as much as you possibly can. If you are on the sidewalk, you have to yield to pedestrians, give an audible signal when passing, and go really slow through intersections. 

For lights that only change with the presence of a car (there are lots of them now), you can legally run the light if: 

• You come to a complete stop. 
• The signal stays red for an “unreasonable amount of time”. What does that mean? Who knows. I just go when I know the light isn’t going to change for me. 
• You believe the signal is triggered by cars. 
• There is no cross traffic. All of these have to happen before you run the light. How you interpret it is really up to you, but if you get stopped for running a red light, it’s good to know that it might have still been legal.

The Goods 

A front light and a rear light (or reflector) are required at night. It’s a pretty good idea, the brighter the better. You can’t have multiple people on a bike made with one person– no riding on bars or pegs. You need at least a rear brake on your bike, unless you can skid on your brakeless fixie, then that actually counts as a rear brake. It is totally legal to ride in Minneapolis without a helmet. 

Parking 

You are allowed to lock you bike to: 

• Bike racks 
• Signposts 
• Parking meter racks 

And not allowed to lock to: 

• Handrails 
• Trees 
• Streetlight poles 
• Traffic light poles 

If somewhere you go doesn’t have a bike rack, tell them to get one! 

What Cars are Supposed to be Doing 

It’s good to know what responsibilities are on the side of the motor vehicle drivers, even if they don’t do it that often. If a car does something illegal, it’s up to you whether filing a police report is worth it or not, because often nothing comes of it. Remember to try to get a license number, color and type of car, and a picture if you can.

• Cars have to give you at least 3 feet. I wish it was more, even though most drivers don’t even manage that. Be careful riding in the bike lane, because I think that’s actually when cars get the closest to me– the logic must be that I’m in a separate lane, so they can get as close as they want. It’s always safer to force cars to give you that room, so if I’m having issues with that, I always take up space in a large part of the lane so cars have to merge over to the other lane to get around me.
• Cars aren’t allowed to interrupt traffic flow with their open doors, and that includes bike lanes/ bike traffic. Make sure to be really aware of parked cars, and always give yourself enough space that when a door swings out quickly, it won’t be in your way– for me, this often means taking the lane instead of riding in the bike lane.
• Cars cannot go into/cross bike lanes unless they’re doing it to turn or park. Any car blocking the bike lane is doing so illegally, unless they have an obstruction permit (usually just city vehicles).
• Cars have to yield to cyclists and merge into the bike lane before turning, that way they have to (theoretically) pay attention to what’s happening with cyclists before merging/ turning into them.
• Cars are not allowed to go into a bike lane to pass a vehicle from the right side. I see this a lot on two-way streets when a car is taking an unprotected left turn.

If you are pulled over on your bike 

I am not an expert on this at all (I’m not an expert on any of this, but this part makes me especially anxious). Here are some guidelines that you can use in whatever way feels comfortable for you, and I hope this is something you never have to deal with. 

• Things you do or say can be used against you. 
• Police cannot arrest you for not answering questions, such as “Do you know why I stopped you?” or “Where are you heading tonight?” In Minnesota, however, you can be arrested for refusing to identify yourself if the police “reasonably suspect” you were involved with a crime. You do not need a license to ride a bike, so you do not need to carry or present an ID. 
• Police are allowed to do a pat-down over your clothes, in order to check for weapons “for their own safety”. You don’t have to consent to any further searches of your things or your bike. 

That’s pretty much what I’ve got! If you have any other questions or things to change/ add, please contact me. 

Alyssa Proudfoot
Community Outreach Coordinator
Recovery Bike Shop
(925) 784-5479
alyssaafoot@gmail.com

By Holly (she/her)

MN WINTERS

Two inches? 12 inches? Flurries? Polar Vortex? Grey skies for weeks. Bring it.

Several years ago I decided to limit my complaining about the weather and instead embrace the coldest/darkest days of MN winters. The idea was that I wouldn’t be setting myself up to feel frustrated and miserable. Hopefully, I would spend time enjoying things that I previously wrote off and not fight the inevitable.

It worked! I had a great winter (it was the year of the Polar Vortex). I learned about bird activity in January and February. I discovered this #lovemnwinter blog. I started noticing MANY signs of spring, starting in mid-January, that kept me going. I found that I especially loved SNOW!

Changing my expectations of winter for the positive, expecting it to bring me joy, has changed my life. Now, I LOVE SNOW and I look forward to winter-only experiences. Reminding myself to do this every year is now a part of my seasonal mental health care and I can’t recommend it enough for anyone who struggles with the cold and snow.

Pro Tip: Let people around you know if you are trying to change your negative feelings about winter. Ask them to not share their complaints with you and, if they are up for it, to help you think of more things to enjoy!

By Patrick Weber (he/him, they/them)

SELFIES!