One Street News

April 2013

Vol. 6, Issue 3

  1. Bicycle Shift Lever in 3D Prototype
  2. Resources – Velo-city Cycling Visionary Awards
  3. Hot Topics – Wounded Vets Helping in Boston with Bikes
  4. Supporter Spotlight – New Belgium Brewing Company

Bicycle Shift Lever in 3D Prototype

One Street launched our components arm in response to our Social Bike Business partners around the world who are struggling to find basic bike parts no longer made by the bicycle industry. Our first component is a bicycle shift lever made from just six common parts that is affordable and easy to repair. Two of these parts, the lever and base, will be cast out of scrap aluminum such as beer cans, engine pieces and broken bike components. The other four parts are: one bolt, one nut, one clamp and a bottle cap as the friction plate.

The project also includes the development of a primitive casting process and training course for partners interested in producing their own, under license, to sell in their part of the world. Along with the design of the lever itself we are also designing the permanent casting mold for the two cast parts that we will produced for the partners we work with. The training course will cover methods for building a primitive charcoal furnace for melting scrap aluminum and use of the permanent mold that will withstand production of thousands of these levers.

The prototyping process of this project has been the most time intensive. Starting with soft wood and progressing into hand tooling of billet aluminum, each lever prototype represented weeks of effort only to discover needed changes once mounted onto a bike. That was our process until we discovered rapid prototyping using a 3D printer. A local machinist here in Prescott, Arizona is now helping us create prototypes on a computer screen that will be printed in plastic within minutes of hitting “print.” These somewhat fragile plastic models will hold up long enough for thorough testing on bikes followed by many fine adjustments through the computer image until we get it just right.

Now that we have engaged in rapid prototyping we look forward to a much speedier prototyping process that will get us to the real fun – melting aluminum in a charcoal pit to pour into our first mold. Stay tuned! Read more at One Street Components.

Resources – Velo-city Cycling Visionary Awards

The annual Velo-city conference (this year in Vienna in June) is always a treasure trove of inspirations. But usually you have to attend in order to tap them. This year they’ve added the Cycling Visionary Awards to help up-and-coming bicycle advocates win registration to the conference. There were hundreds of entries and anyone could vote for their favorites. They’ve posted the winning entries on that web page. Take just a few minutes to click a random sample and you are sure to be inspired!

Hot Topics – Wounded Vets Helping in Boston with Bikes

There aren’t many hotter topics than war carnage and terror attacks. This story includes both even as the main characters rise above them using bikes: Wounded Vets Helping in Boston.

Supporter Spotlight – New Belgium Brewing Company

The New Belgium Brewing Company has been a top supporter of One Street since our founding in 2007. Their commitment to serving social needs and their deep appreciation for the value bicycles bring to communities align beautifully with our work. From employee innovations that improve the sustainability of their brewery to generous support of socially minded organizations, New Belgium is an extraordinary model of a social business. Through their support of One Street’s Social Bike Business program we have developed our replicable model and published Defying Poverty with Bicycles that is helping local social bike business programs get started around the U.S. This in turn has inspired our partners in other parts of the world. Thank you New Belgium for all your great work and for your continued support of One Street!