Another Tour de Fat in Fort Collins has come and gone.  This year’s event was a ton of fun, and a huge success for the Bike Co-op.   Thanks to New Belgium, this was the first year that the Co-op received proceeds from the merchandise and the DIY tents.  In return, the Co-op provided all of the volunteers to help run those areas.  This partnership helped to raise nearly $5000 dollars to support the Bike Co-op.

For the second year, the Co-op provided Bike Valet service at this year’s Tour.  More than 1000 TDF participants utilized the bike parking service and the Co-op was able to collect $700 in tips throughout the day.  The Co-op also received a stipend of $1000 from New Belgium to provide the bike valet service.

Special thanks go out to Co-op volunteers Doug Cutter (merchandising) and Anthony DeNardo (valet) for their work coordinating the Co-op volunteers for the two endeavors.

Of course we can’t forget to thank New Belgium for allowing us to participate.  Their generosity towards non-profits, and their love of bicycles has no match.

We’re looking forward to next year, just 344 more days to get costumes together.

There are a lot of different ways for you to keep up with the Co-op these days.  We thought we would list all of the different methods here.  Then you can go ahead and pick your favorite.

Mailing lists

News- This list is to keep the general public up to date with things happening at the co-op.  This list receives 2-3 emails a month on average.  To join, just send an email to Click For Email with nothing in the subject or body.

Volunteers – This list is to keep Co-op volunteers up to date with all of the internal happenings at the Co-op.  This list receives 1-2 emails per week on average.  To join, sign up as a volunteer over at the volunteers page.

The Blog

Since you’re reading this post, I’ll assume you know about our blog.  You might like to keep up to date using the blog rss feed.  You can also have emails sent to you each time a new blog entry is posted.  Sign-up for that over on the left side of the blog page, under the “Follow Us” heading

Facebook

Of course we have a Facebook page, everyone has a facebook page.

Fort Collins Bike Co-op Facebook page

The blog posts end up there as well, but feel free to subscribe to both if you’d like

Co-op Contacts

If you’re looking to get in touch with us here at the Co-op, check out the Contact page.

If the name hasn’t made it clear, this is going to be a great evening.  The plan is to show “Race accross the sky” the documentary about the 2009 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race.  This film depicts the epic battle between race favorite Dave Weins  and Lance Armstrong in Armstrongs first race back from his previous “retirement”.  If you haven’t seen the film, it’s worth the $10 admission by itself.  Just look at this great HD film action:

But wait there’s more…  If you come out to see us we’ll throw in refreshments for free.

Still not enough?

Final offer:  The Movie, The Refreshments, snacks, local art, great auction deals, and the best looking people Fort Collins has to offer.  All for the low low price of $10.  So, show up early because we can only cram so many of you into the building.

The shipping container is loaded and on it’s way to Ghana!!  Saturday morning brought beautiful weather, and even more attractive people.  The loading went great, and we were finished before noon!!  451 bikes and a whole lot of spare parts are on their way to Africa!!  All thanks to a great planning by Lera Haines.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read about our Ghana Bikes Program

The pile before

Photo: Rick Price

The Container before

Photo: Rick Price

Then we went to work moving the bikes two at a time from the pile to the container.  It looked a little something like this:

No, that music wasn’t actually playing.

The pile after

Phot0: Curtis Heideman

The Container after

Photo: Lera Haines

If you missed out, you still have a chance to help.  We’ll be having a fundraiser to help raise money for the Co-op and our Ghana Bikes Program.  More on that soon.

More pictures can be found at:

Ricks Flickrstream

Curtis’ Flickrstream

Image design by Katie Dalsimer

Check out the great article about the Co-op over at Verve!!

“There’s a certain pleasure in putting people on bicycles.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Creating a cycling culture: Old Town crew gives back to FoCo, Ghana