BAR TAPE-A-THON
🍀 It's Your Lucky Dip! 🍀
Does your bar tape look like this?
Is it disintegrating? Raggedy? Sticky or covered in grime?
Then the time is ripe to get them retaped AND learn how the pros do it at the same time…
IT’S A BAR-TAPE-A-THON!
Thanks to someone withholding information from us, we now have a £6600 VAT bill to pay. We obviously don't have this money, and while I’m sure we'll work out some sort of payment plan with HMRC, we're putting the FUN back in fundraiser on Sunday 1 October - we’re hosting a BAR TAPE-A-THON!
We've got a heap of deadstock bar tape we want to clear out, so we're having a lucky dip: pay your donation, stick your hand in the bag (no peeking!) pull out your tape, and then off you go with one of the mechanics for a 30 minute 1:1 lesson in professional bar taping.
The tape will be of the wacky colour variety, so if you really are an ‘any colour so long as it’s black’ person, then you can treat yourself to the beautifully silky black Cinelli cork tape (£13), which is our house tape. We love the hand-feel, with just enough give that it cooperates.
To book your slot, please donate to our fund - suggested donation £25, but if you can afford more, we’d be much obliged [tips cap].
Slots are every 45 mins, available to 4 people at a time (there are 4 mechanics on the go). You will choose your tape on the day, at the time of your booking.
Join us Sunday 1 October by reserving your slot here!
THERE BE RULES:
you can't change slots once you book
drop bars only (no flat bars)
we reserve the right to refuse your bike if it turns out it's not tape-able
you must come on time; if you're late, no tape - we are on a tight schedule!
YOU GET ONE DIP - whatever tape you pick is the one you have to use
So if you’re feeling adventurous, in need of some new tape, and want to learn some new skills, come on downnnnn!!!
HOW TO BAR TAPE - THE BOOK
Surprise! My book, How to Build a Bike, contains a section on how to tape bars. Not simply a book intent on building up a bike, here you’ll also find how to take stuff off (like pedals!), picking out accessories (like racks!), how to clean, AND the aforementioned bar taping.
SEPTEMBER CLASSES NOW LIVE
Our greazzy hands have been busy in the workshop but all our September classes are now listed on the website.
Keep yer peepers peeled for some test classes coming soon: Intro to Tubeless Maintenance, How to Replace a Spoke & True a Wheel, and How to Fit Your Bike to Your Body.
Thank you so much to everyone who pledged from the last newsletter - I was so touched I felt nauseous (not kidding). You’ve made me feel like writing this super duper niche newsletter for the past 12 years actually means something, and that the existence of LBK also means something to you as well. You’ve also given me the confidence to turn on paid subscriptions, so HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO000000000ooooooo…….
If you’d like to support us as a paid subscriber, you’ll get the warm fuzzies from knowing you’re voting to keep us alive. Paid subscribers will also get access to a private Discord server, (we aim to have this up in September), where you’ll have all 5 of us women and non-binary mechanics on tap, be able to buy/trade/sell/giveaway bike parts & related accoutrements, ask for recommendations/advice, organise rides/meetups, be party to insider bantz, and whatever else might organically spring up.
I might do the odd private post here and there, especially if there’s anything I’m not feeling quite confident about and/or don’t want publicly available. But for now, it’s still going to be a public newsletter published every 2 weeks-ish. I find it difficult to stick to an exact day/time, coz, well, my hands are a bit tied up teaching & fixing bikes, and as a hard core introvert I need my alone-time to allow my creative brain to sneak out when the coast is clear.
Anyway, we are currently in talks with a couple different (read: expensive) accountants, but we are feeling positive about the future. More intel to come as we find out.
Other non-money based ways you can help us?
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Let’s bring it back to bar taping: I leave you with our All About Bar Tape video that was done over the lockdowns, now up on the glorious youtubes!
Hope to catch you down at the workshop on Sunday 1 October, get your Bar Tape-a-Thon ticket here.
Ride on,
Jenni x