[TheThinkTank] Some advice for some newbies...

[Peter Garver]

Hi Beth,

I'm with the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op - we're a blend of a traditional
nonprofit (with the mission of bicycle education) and a co-operative
organization (our board is comprised of members, members do a lot of the
work on bikes that we sell/use in programs). We have been in existence for
about 6 years in total, and 4 years with a physical location, and have just
recently started to seriously seek funding from the city and some private
foundations. Our model is a little different from other bike nonprofits, but
you might find some good information on our web site anyway; our adult shop
class curriculum is on there, and although it isn't completely up to date
(we have expanded the first class to include basically everything someone
owning a bike and not wanting to do self-maintenance needs to know, and now
give it away free with every bike purchase). We also have a manual of a lot
of common volunteer bike tasks, although some of it is org-specific.

We are also working on a database system for bicycle nonprofits, which will
hopefully be in releasable shape later this year (all open-source, and
documented). I'm about to submit a grant to polish it up and add the
functionality it needs (we have been limping by on a half-done version for a
year or so). It will allow tracking of volunteering, membership trends,
services delivered, and cover intake-to-exit tracking of bicycles, all of
which are pretty important success metrics if you're seeking funding. I'll
send out a message on the thinktank list when it's done.

I won't give you any advice now, since I don't really know what your goals
are for the project, but I will say that we store our backstock of bikes by
making rows of about 20-30 up against a wall, putting a big piece of plywood
on top of them (about 12 feet long, I'd say) and putting another row on top.
The bottom row is easily placeable by one person, and the top is easy for
two. All you need to do is turn the handlebar of the bike against the wall
90 degrees so it sits flat and alternate the direction of the rest of the
bikes. Done well, the piles are totally stable and allow access to at least
a few bikes without gathering a work crew. The ones that we have out for
sale are just stood on kickstands or some things that we got from a bike
shop donation that you stick the left crank into that hold the bike up. Our
rental/loaner/program fleet is hung from various 2x12s hanging from the
ceiling on screwhooks.

Well, I will give one bit of advice. Whatever it is you want to do exactly,
get as friendly with bike shops as you can, and make it clear that what
you're doing isn't a threat to their business. Some of them will never
understand, but most of them can see the light. If you're getting bikes on
the road cheap, you're hurting walmart, not the LBS, and if you're educating
people about riding, that will lead to more riding, and probably more buying
nice bikes at bike shops. Once they're your allies, they can be a source of
word of mouth, possibly bike donations (if a customer is considering buying
a new bike but can't figure out what to do with the old one, a little
"donate it to these guys" might push them over the edge), and possibly
materials, like Jonathan mentioned. I think things would be different for us
here if more than one or two bike shops in Cleveland thought of us as
competition. You probably already knew this, but if not, it matters - bike
shop owners are just one more group of people to educate!

Let me know if you have any questions - as you can probably guess, we try
very hard to make everything that we know available to other bike
collectives.

Peter
OCBC
http://ohiocitycycles.org

On 1/14/07, velocipede-bikes at riseup.net < velocipede-bikes at riseup.net>
wrote:
>
> Hello out there--
>
> I'm new to this list, working on Baltimore's first bike collective.  We're
>
> woking towards our first year of active existence, and we have lot's of
> questions and could use any advice we can get.  In paticular we are trying
> to figure out the best way to store bikes efficiently and
> inexpensively...Also we are working on starting up mechanics classes for
> kids and adults and would appreciate any advice, curricula, written
> materials, or funding sources anyone could shoot our way...
>
> I sent something out to all the bike collectives before, but I thought I'd
>
> try this list as well and see what came up....
>
> thanks in advance--
> i'm excited that this list exists!
> -beth of Velocipede Bike Project
> _______________________________________________
> thethinktank mailing list
> thethinktank at lists.bikecollectives.org
> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org
>
>
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