Let's try doing something a little different

You don't know unless you try...

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT

I've been writing newsletters for 15 years now. I love doing it, and I know people love reading it. But what would happen is that I would send out said newsletter, people would read it, then poof! Slipped into the ether. Never to be seen or heard from again.

I did try turning the text into a blog, but my suspected ADHD brain was bored and had found something else shiny to do by that point.

1. Why this platform, why now

I toiled over these newsletters. TOILED I TELL YOU. It would take me days to write. People told me they loved it, so I kept doing it. Which made me a better writer, which was never the intention. I never ever ever set out to be a writer. Never in a million years. Yet here we are.

Anyway.

Instead of despairing at all that content now lost in the mailchimp archives (we left because they got bought out by Intuit and now charge an arm + leg), I’ve decided to create a newsletter/blog hybrid, where my words will finally have a home. Gosh that feels nice to say. After wandering for so long, they can finally rest.

2. What kind of community are you looking to build here

I’ve known for a long time that there’s people out there at the intersections of DIY culture, bike maintenance, the Right to Repair, environmentalism, and social justice. And that’s what I generally like to cover for LBK newsletters. There’s always a useful nugget inside. And obviously we are selling things like classes and merch. We are 100% funded by YOU, our customers.

So I’m trying to weave these worlds together and create something different. Why do we keep making binaries? Good/Bad don’t exist, they’re just opinions. I want to create a new kind of world where as bike mechanics we can make a living doing what we love, be fairly paid for our labour, share our knowledge, get more underrepresented communities on bikes/spanners, be respected for our handiwork, reject a hierarchical capitalist system that requires profit to be the bottom line, other things I’m forgetting, and cat gifs. Is that too much to ask for?

3. What can you expect?

It’ll be free. I’ll post at least once every two weeks, but I have soooo many writing prompts started (but not finished haha) I might post more if Substack is as easy as they say it is.

I might experiment with a paid tier, but I have no idea what I’d offer at that level. Auntie Seize agony aunt bantz? Exposure to the other things my weird brain comes up with but I don’t post coz it’s not bike related? The future is unwritten…what would you like to see?

5. What happened to 4?

I have no idea. I’m still playing around with this, and this was the first template that Substack suggested. 4 disappeared, so I just left it like this to show y’all the soft underbelly of my work.

I leave you with a release of a LBK Lockdown Masterclass I did on How to Pack Your Bike (and Unpack it! - no one talks about this!!!)

Love, peace & grease,

Jenni x

ps. THERE WILL BE GLITCHES - I’m not done yet configuring this site. But do let me know if you find something weird, or I’ve left placeholder text or anything else that’s missing. I’m still exploring Substack, but I like what I see so far 😊