XtraCycle is Hiring (Not Me, But They're Hiring)

    Bike at San Jose's 2015 Cargo Bike Festival converted to a Cargo Bike via XtraCycle Kit

If you’re a cargo bike nerd* like myself, you got an email this morning from Xtracycle - the cargo bike company based in Oakland (who inspired the very design of the first cargo bike I made myself as well as the second one I made when I moved to Silicon Valley - which is proudly pictured below). 

I would have used my car to pick up my new energy efficient shop light from Lowe's but that would have looked strange.

Anyway - the email said they are still searching an Online Marketing and Sales Manager. 

I applied to that job myself a week ago…and the subject of the email I got this morning was…We’re still hiring! (exclamation point theirs). 

You cut me deep, Xtracycle. You cut me deep.

But anyway: I’ve been rejected from enough jobs over my lifetime to know not to take it personally and I really want them to have the right person doing this job even if it isn’t me. 

A perk of getting the job is a free Leap Basic Kit which allows you to convert your own ordinary bike into a cargo-carrying force to be reckoned with. But the nice part is: if you refer someone to the Xtracycle job and they get it, you get a leap kit too. 

So if you live in the Bay Area and want to give Xtracycle your application, mention DIYBIKING.COM as where you heard about the job. I want that Leap Kit. Not for myself, though: If I get it I will donate it to Good Karma Bikes here in San Jose so they can sell it in their retail shop and use the proceeds to fund their programs to help the homeless and at-risk youth earn bicycles. 

Xtracycle takes applications until June 30th, so apply and mention DIYBIKING.COM today. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

* easier to spell than ‘aficionado’  

Help The East Bay Innovation Academy Replace Their Bike Shop!

Distressing news last night from NBC Bay Area by reporter Jean Elle: the bike shop at the East Bay Innovation Academy in Oakland was decimated by thieves. Bikes that students had fixed that were meant to go to a women’s shelter - and the tools they used - were stolen out of a locked shipping container. 

I’ve nearly had one of my own bikes stolen and I’ve comforted friends who have lost theirs. It’s upsetting. Not just because of the loss of a machine you love and use to get around, but because it shakes the trust you have in humanity - and that can be harder to replace than the bike itself. 

But I have a theory: most of humanity is better than the few who steal bikes. 

Will you help me prove that?

Now 99.9% of the time there is nothing we can do to help those who’ve had their bikes stolen, but this post is about the 0.1%. So what I’m asking you to do is make a contribution at the East Bay Innovation Academy’s donation page to replace their bike shop. 

Cycling brothers and sisters: let’s put a big, Making-A-Difference story big enough to land on the desk of Lester Holt in the next news cycle. Donate here. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

Follow me on Twitter: @michaelknorris