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Second Annual Shake the Shack!

In 2014, we brought back Shake the Shack for a second successful year!

First Annual Shake the Shack!

The annual Community Spokes fundraiser, Shake the Shack, will be part of the final days of Lakehead University Orientation Week.
The party starts around 5:45pm on Friday, September 13th, and begins with a liesurely bike ride through Thunder Bay's downtown north core (Port Arthur). Post-ride, everyone will meet back at the bike shack for a barbeque starting at 7:00pm. The barbeque is by donation and there will be plenty of food for everyone, including vegetarian options.
While you eat, enjoy music provided by bike-riding local rock band Fin'r Things.
Then, at 9:00pm, an outside wall of the bike shack will be converted into a movie screen for a showing of Quicksilver, a 1986 Kevin Bacon flick. Bacon stars as a bicycle courier in the midst of a personal crisis. An obligatory love story is thrown in, but hey... it's Kevin Bacon, the greatest known actor. It's going to be the best movie you've ever seen. (What we mean to say is, it's campy. Even Kev calls it "the low point of [his] career!) It's gonna be awesome!
Quicksilver will be projected onto the side of the LUSU Bike Shelter, the home of Community Spokes, which is located near the northwest corner of campus, beside the ATAC building and the Music and Visual Arts building.
Feel free to join us for all or part of the evening!
For more info, find us on Facebook using that little button at the top of this page or check out the event page here.

Hope to see you there!
Thunder Bay's first ever Tweed Ride is coming to town on September 27th.

'Turn out the Tweed' for this fancy-pants event, where folks dress up in formal tweed-wear, reminiscent of Britain in the early 1900's, and cycle as a group around the city. Participants are encouraged to dress up like any by-gone era of fashion and enjoy, as John F. Kennedy puts it, the "simple pleasure of a bike ride".
While the dress is old fashioned, bicycles being ridden don't have to be antique, ancient, or otherwise aged. As long as it's got wheels and is powered by the rider then you're good to ride.
Since the first Tweed Ride in London in 2009, or as they had called it "Tweed Run", these events have spread widely, showing up in cities all over the world, from Brazil to Spain, Russia to Australia, and in Canadian cities like Vancouver, Calgary, and Windsor.
Toronto's Tweed ride has a website, and the event is used as a fundraiser for Bikes Without Borders, a non-profit organization dedicated to using bikes and bike related solutions as a tool for development in marginalized communities. Community Spokes hopes to turn these into fundraisers in the future, featuring teams which enter the ride after collecting pledges from the community.
Community Spokes is proud and excited to host this event, especially in light of the fleet of bikes they have for hire. Thirteen old fashioned, single speed cruiser bikes, complete with chain guards, fenders, and baskets, are part of the new BikesToGo program at LU and Community Spokes is offering them for people to use on the Tweed Ride. They're free of charge but first come, first served. If you're interested in matching your boots to your bike, this is a good chance.
Anyone and everyone is encouraged to join in on the fun. The pace is slow and they avoid hills. To participate in the Tweed Ride, simply meet at Community Spokes, at the LUSU Bike Shelter (BS), at 5:45pm on Friday, September 27th. The group leaves at 6:00pm and winds up back at LU at the end. The ride will take us into the flatter sections of Thunder Bay, stopping at various sight-seeing destinations for photos-ops.
This is also the first of a series of costumed rides that Community Spokes is hosting. Stay tuned for Halloween Ride, the day after Halloween, and the soon-to-be-famous Moustache Ride on November 29th. See the website for more details. CommunitySpokes.com










Halloween is by far the most exciting time of the cycling year. Why? The costumes! Riding your bike goes together with costume like cheese goes together with everything. What better way to show off your costume than parading it through the streets, along with all your friends. Party bike!
Last year, we had some excellent costumes attend. One bike was decorated up like a unicorn, and the rider had on an 80's hair metal costume, complete with blonde wig and denim everything. Someone joined us on a unicycle. A totally badass rubix cube rode with some difficulty, and 10 clowns rode on one bike, like the equivalent of when they all pile into the same car, you know? Nah, I'm kidding, that didn't happen. But it was still awesome! This year, you can tag along to see me in drag.... woot!
We meet at Community Spokes, in the LUSU Bike Shelter, at 5:45 pm November 1st. Costumes are strongly encourage, but not necessary. Friends are also strongly encouraged, but not necessary. The route will be through the streets of Port Arthur, traveling in a group and being friendly to the motorist.

See you there!
Community spokes is hosting the Moustache Ride - the costume event which takes the most courage. This is partly because it takes place at the end of November, when cold winds are blowing and icy flakes are showing, but also because the men are Mo'ing. Yes, that's right, we're growing moustaches in order to tackle the tough issue of men's health. Across Canada, and the rest of world, we join thousands of other people supporting the Movember campaign.
But Community Spokes is combining this with the view that cycling is a great way to stay active, which is itself an important ingredient of a healthy lifestyle; not to mention that a healthy carob-free earth is a healthy human race. We're creating a safe space for everyone, not just men.
So, while we sport our Moustaches around the city of Thunder Bay, we're also advocating for a safe space on the road for cyclists, encouraging cycling as a healthy activity, and reminding people that just because the warm weather goes away, doesn't mean your bike has to go away, too.
The Moustache Ride will meet at the LUSU Bike Shelter at 5:45pm, carouse each other and socialize for a little while inside, and then head out after 6:00. The ride will take us down to Marina Park, and anywhere else people feel the need to go. There, we'll take some photos in hilarious poses, and a few close-ups, and then come all the way back.
At the Bike Shelter, there is some cat-walk activities, and finally a moustache contest, judged by volunteers, with some cool prizes to give away. Categories for the contest are "Best Moustache", "Best Fake Moustache" and "Most Creative/Daring Moustache". Prize packs will include such swag as Movember t-shirts, LUSU t-shirts, gobal warming t-shirts, reflective wrist bands, iron-reflective stickers, stress balls, bells, lights, and other Movember paraphernalia. Refreshments provided.

Also of note is our official participation in Movember, and our registration on the Movember website. A team has been started, entitled Lakehead University Moustache Riders. Search this at movember.com to find out more. Everyone is welcome to join, men and women and people of all genders and sexes, and we encourage your participation, if not by donation, then by learning a little bit more about men's health, and encouraging others to be educated themselves.

Mo' Riders Unite! Let's be healthy and happy together. See you on the road.