We’ll be closed from Tuesday February 14 through Wednesday February 23. We reopen for Open Workshop on Thursday, February 24th. Additionally, we will only be open this Saturday, February 11th until 1pm, so get in early! GET OUT AND ENJOY CARNIVAL!

The first round of Build A Bike classes start at our new location tonight and we couldn’t be more excited. The response has been overwhelming and we’re almost booked up through February at this point, with a few slots left going through March. We’re anxious to see how it all works out at the new space and we’ve gotten fully stocked recently with tools and parts in preparation for this.

Stay posted, we’ll be hosting a grand re-opening event next month and we can’t wait to see you all!

Hey all, Christmas is FINALLY done, and if you were lucky enough to receive a fancy new bike this year, how about donating your old ride to Plan B? We’ll take it in any condition and put it to good use! Furthermore, your donation is tax deductible and you’ll be helping us keep bikes out of the landfill. We will happily arrange a pick up time if you’d rather not schlep all the way down to Elysian Fields during our open hours to do your good deed. Just call us or email to make arrangements.

FYI Plan B has been active in giving away bikes to those in need. Right now we’ve got an elderly lady in lower St. Bernard parish who IS STILL LIVING IN HER FEMA TRAILER. She just finished gutting her home and she needs reliable, short range transportation and we’re arranging to bring her a solid, upright cruiser over the next few days. When we get contacted by accredited agencies and because of YOUR generosity, we’re able to pull of shenanigans like this and we KNOW that our system is working. Thanks, y’all.

Hey all, we’ll be taking off a little for the holidays, but we’ll be right back at it as soon as possible. This weekend we’ll be closed on Friday and Saturday, but we’ll be open for regular Open Workshop hours again on Monday, December 26th from 5-9pm. We’ll do the same again next weekend for New Year’s, closing on Friday and Saturday and re-opening on Monday, January 2nd.

Does that make sense?

Basically, we’re open Monday and Thursday only this weekend and next. Furthermore, we will accept any cookies, gifts or hot cocoa you may choose to bring along.

Any questions? Email us. Happy Holidays, y’all!

The wonderful folks at Salt Lake City Bike Collective made a great short film that details the bike donation and re-use process. Please check it out and let us know what you think!

Please visit them at http://www.bicyclecollective.org/ to find out more about them.

Also, anybody wanna make a Plan B commercial? Must feature Gene’s Daiquiri’s and the Beauty Mart.

Since we left the Ark last month, Plan B volunteers have been hard at work preparing our new space at 1024 Elysian Fields. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into this smaller space to make it just as functional as the space we left last month. Leaving a space you’ve been in for over a decade is a daunting effort, but with the help of the community and so many wonderful supporters we were able to get it done.

Our new space is wonderful. We’re at 1024 Elysian Fields at the back of the building (just down the driveway) and we now share a space with the Lambda Center and with BikeEasy, two great organizations. We couldn’t be luckier! The Lambda Center provides meetings and 12 step programs for those in recovery and Bike Easy is The New Orleans Metro Bike Coalition, which advocates for increased bicycle awareness, infrastructure, and legislative support in New Orleans. Please support them and join if you can. The work they’ve done to help New Orleans cyclists over the past eight years has been nothing short of amazing and they’ve been wonderful in their support for us.

Please watch this space for announcements. If everything goes right we’ll be opening our doors for our first Open Workshop in our new space on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 5pm. That means we will re-open exactly one month after we shut down at the old location. Not too shabby for having to build out a whole new space! Please keep in mind that this is a “soft” opening and we’ll still be working out some kinks. Please expect our official re-opening and kick-off party in January 2012.

Use of tools and stand time is free, and we encourage you to use recycled parts, which are available for a nominal fee, but please be aware that we may impose time limits in our limited number of stands for each user based on demand on any given day in order to give everyone a chance to work on their project, so if you have a large project to undertake, it may be best to try to come in when we’re not as busy (early on Saturday or later on Monday or Thursday) or consider enrolling in the Build A Bike class for a complete bike build with step-by-step guidance.