Hey All,

I live in NYC, but I'm in New Orleans for three months. They have a most excellent community-based bike shop here. See this:

https://planb.bikeproject.org/

The reason I'm writing is because there is really not much of a fixed-gear/track bike culture here in New Orleans due to the bad roads. But Plan B Bikes has a ****LOAD of retro (and not so retro) roadie frames suitable for building a fixed gear, single speed, english racer, or whatever. What they really need are frames that can accept fat tires, like mountain bike & beach cruiser frames.

I was thinking that if you were looking for a nice frame to build, or a complete bike, please consider getting in touch with them. They are great folks, and have (I'll say it again) a ****LOAD of nice frames that would be better suited to NYC road riding.

Here's why I think these guys are great; I just got into town yesterday. I went in there, built myself a nice retro cruiser (using their tools and a mix of new & old parts) and they wanted to charge me $25 for the whole bike. Absolutely ****ing nuts! I gave them a bunch more money than that.

C'mon, please help these guys out! Donate cruiser frames to them, or buy roadies from them. it shouldn't be hard to work out the exchange. At least three people from Brooklyn passed thru the place while I was working on my ride.


--Matt

I bought a Sturmey Archer hub from them a few weeks ago for a project bike. $3. Great shop, great people.

Welcome to NOLA. Say hello if you see my on my Gitane fixie.

works for me, how do i see what they have available, or do i just email a request?

im heading down there on friday and i'm definitely gonna swing by plan-b. it's an awesome place. who was working there when you were in?

the awesome thing about plan-b is they are very community based, and build and work on lots of bikes for the kids and other people in the neighborhood that really need cheap forms of transportation, not just college kids and whatnot. that's a large part of the reason why there isn't much of a demand for road bikes and fixies there.

I'm not sure who was working & who wasn't. This one girl Crystal was there.

I'll be living in NOLA until April, so I plan on volunteering there a lot. I wish we had stuff like Plan B in my neighborhood in Brooklyn.

why are you living in NOLA and where do you live in Brooklyn?

Were they affected by Katrina at all? How'd they get such a surplus of great road frames?

Absolutley amazing idea! Every city in the US needs to have one of these. Any interest in starting one in Denver, CO? Drop me an email if you are interested, I would love to get something like this going. And what a great name for the idea. Plan-B!

12xu - they probably weren't too badly affected by Katrina, but in the wake of the hurricane i heard they had tons of frames donated to them.

They are in the Faubourg Marigny, which didn't really flood. Michael's Bicycles on Frenchmen also was not damaged and has been open for some time. Bayou Bicycles, for those of you familiar with the city, took heavy water and has not reopened.

Groups across the country sent bikes to Plan B after the storm, and now they have a lot.

Another post-Katrina phenomenon is that people gutting their houses are throwing out perfectly good bikes, sometimes bikes that didn't even flood. A friend of mine pulled a very nice Raleigh Sports three-speed out of the trash, and I found an old triathlon bike (took the wheels and brakes) and an old Huffy (which I cleaned up and gave to a bikeless friend). I have turned away dozens of department store bikes.

Working Bikes of Chicago sent a truck load of bikes and some volunteers in support of Plan B. www.workingbikes.org

I'm living in NOLA for a while because I want to, and I live in Midwood Bklyn (near Marine Park).


--Matt

nice. how long have you been in NOLA? you diggin it? i'd try to give you some tips on things to check out and do, but i haven't been home since the hurricane and i dont know what's still open and around. i'll be back next week.

riding through midwood i've often thought it reminded me of some areas of new orleans.

midwood is awesome. wanna get a place there some day.

i'll bet you're thinking about ditmas park, which is next to and kind of melds into midwood and flatbush. the houses there are the most incredible i've ever seen.

> how long have you been in NOLA? you diggin it?

I love this town. Only been here three days, but I've visited & stayed with my friends here before.


> i'd try to give you some tips on things to check out and do, but i haven't been home since the hurricane

It's eerie. The Quarter is this little island of happiness surrounded by alternating normalcy and desolation. I like it here. I'll see how I feel after three months. Maybe I'll stay.


> ...riding through midwood i've often thought it reminded me of some areas of new orleans.

Like Boots said, I think you're thinking of Ditmas Park, which is very nice. Midwood is kind of a ****hole that I've lived in for 11 years because my rent is super cheap, but I'm surrounded by crazy religious people (jewish). Basically it's a place for me to crash, and there's nice riding nearby.

Gimme a yell when you get back to NOLA. mattqpublic at hotmail dot c o m


--Matt

I'm talking about the area just north of brooklyn college between Ocean and Bedford. Not sure if that's midwood or ditmas. Reminds me of parts of the Garden District and the Fountainbleu area in NOLA.

edit: upon doing some research - yeah, ditmas.