TheThinkTank August 2009

thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org

49 participants
26 discussions

Ateliers velos (community bike shops in Europe)
by Christine Bourgeois 10 Aug '09

10 Aug '09

Bonsoir! I am getting ready for a trip to France and I discovered that the number of "ateliers velos" is growing all over Europe. In 2007, Rome organized the 1st European Forum of Bike Workshops. http://un-e.org/toulousebikeforum/images/stories/velocity.pdf http://un-e.org/toulousebikeforum/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsec… This year, Marseille is going to have a Heureux Cycleur week-end at the beginning of October (same idea as Bike! Bike!) All the best, -- Christine Bourgeois www.bicicentro.org

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dispensing housing
by Jonathan Morrison 08 Aug '09

08 Aug '09

Has anyone figured out a good way to dispense new housing in bulk? A new set of cables / housing on a bike makes a huge difference -- but I don't think people realize how much this costs and take it for granted. We can of course try to throw volunteers / staff that we don't have at the situation, but I am hoping that there is a way were we could show the cost of housing as they pull it out. Just like gas at the gas pump. I was looking at this rope application as a possible solution..... http://www.botachtactical.com/pmiropmeas.html Sincerely, Jonathan Morrison Executive Director Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 f: 801-466-3856 www.slcbikecollective.org Get Addicted to Crank! http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/ The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

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unsubscribe please
by Steve Stollman 07 Aug '09

07 Aug '09

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Thethinktank Digest, Vol 36, Issue 7
by Jason Tanzman 06 Aug '09

06 Aug '09

I work with the Sibley Bike Depot in St. Paul; we currently have accounts with Quality Bike Products as well as J&B. We are a not-for-profit with a fairly well established retail operation that largely funds our other programs; thus far this year, we've sold about $50,000 worth of used bikes and parts (both used and new). We are stocking more different new items for retail sales and also doing more special ordering of higher end new parts for customers. We generally order about $2500 per month in parts and supplies. Our mission remains to recycle as much as possible. However, it has become clear to us that things like cables, brake pads (we replace brake pads on about 60% of bikes that come through our shop), handlebar tape, tires, lights, locks, helmets, and more are really helpful for people to have a comfortable, reliable, safe ride. In terms of setting up distributor accounts - really all QBP and J&B require is a storefront with a sign. In my experience, we've never had trouble getting them to accept orders, even when Sibley was ordering way lower quantities. Contact them - it may be less lucrative on their end, but they have plenty of customers and it isn't a whole lot of extra work on their end to distribute to you. And they sometimes even feel happy to be supporting a socially conscious organization. If you don't have a storefront or can't get a distributor account, connecting with a Local Bike Shop may be an effective way to get your coop/collective discounts. I've heard multiple instances (including our neighbor the Grease Pit in Minneapolis) where a local shop (in the Grease Pit's case, a worker-owned coop retail shop) offers them parts at wholesale (or close to) price. Most LBS do not view your collective as competition, and are happy to offer discounted parts (i've head like 25% above wholesale cost being used before). Jason Tanzman Volunteer Coordinator (paid staff) On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:00 AM, <thethinktank-request(a)bikecollectives.org>wrote: > Send Thethinktank mailing list submissions to > thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > thethinktank-request(a)bikecollectives.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > thethinktank-owner(a)bikecollectives.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Thethinktank digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Distributors and interacting with the profit model > (Carolyn Braunius) > 2. Re: Distributors and interacting with the profit model (R > Points) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 07:45:10 -0700 (PDT) > From: Carolyn Braunius <brauniusc(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Distributors and interacting with the > profit model > To: The Think Tank <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Message-ID: <155359.53587.qm(a)web50301.mail.re2.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi, > > We have two small collective shops at Troy Bike Rescue, in Troy and Albany. > We are also very lucky to have a major distributor's warehouse nearby who > are very accommodating with our order needs. > > In our shops we heavily emphasize using recycled parts first. We only were > really keeping new cables, bearings, and housing in stock. > > We had a special situation in Troy, which made us rethink some of our shop > policies on not buying new parts for our customers' consumption. The local > police began issuing tickets for not having bike bells or lights, to the > tune of like 50 bucks in some cases. > > We test ordered some bells, lights, and patch kits to see if people would > be willing to give us a more specific "suggested donation" for the parts, > since the parts were paid for by us, instead of relying on donations. In our > case, there was no local bike shop or even a major big box retailer that was > easily accessible for people who use bikes as a primary means of > transportation to get a bell or a light. > > So far, the change has been very successful. We wanted to make sure, if we > were providing people with bikes, we were also providing them with the > opportunity to get a bell and a light. People have heard about the > ticketing, have been coming to us for bells and are very willing to meet our > minimum suggested donation. > > With our minimum suggested donation, we try to cover the cost of our > purchase, and not undercut the local bike shops to much. So far, this has > been cool. > > We also let our core staff order stuff when we order from the distributor. > No one is paid at our shops, so it is a small reward for a group of very > dedicated people. Of course, this is about 10-12 people for two shops, so it > isn't to much of an onerous task. Each person is responsible for looking at > the catalog, writing down all the relevant information, and then making sure > the items are in stock at the local supplier before we order. > > Carolyn > www.troybikerescue.org > > > "When shall we live if not now?" - M.F.K. Fisher > > --- On Thu, 8/6/09, rachael spiewak <rachael(a)sopobikes.org> wrote: > > From: rachael spiewak <rachael(a)sopobikes.org> > Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Distributors and interacting with the profit > model > To: "The Think Tank" <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 6:53 AM > > We have an account with Hawley.? Our minimum order is $50, and we only buy > things necessary for operating a repair shop (no retail items, nothing for > people to take away unless it's installed on the bike as part of a repair; > generally tools and consumables costing less than $5 apiece only).? They > required from us up front that we have liability insurance and a store > front, and maybe a few other things that I can't recall. > > > We talked about buying benefits for volunteers, and we decided it create > too much confusing administrative work, and volunteers have plenty of access > to nice donations and other benefits anyway.? And we like to send folks to > the for profit shops for parts when we don't have them because that helps us > maintain good relationships with the shops.?? Plus, our mission is about > affordable repair by way tool sharing, not by way of bulk parts purchasing. > > > This fiscal year to date, we've spent a little more than $5000 on shop > supplies, mostly on Hawley orders, and the rest split between hardware > stores and emergency trips to for profit bike shops.? We surpassed our > supplies fundraising goals with some grant money, so we splurged a little on > some tap and die sets, which have pretty much paid for themselves in > salvaged bottom bracket shells and fork threads. > > > Hope this helps! > Rachael > Sopo Bikes//ATL > > On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Rigel Christian <rigelc(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I had an interesting discussion with someone who worked at a smaller > > distributor today. I had called in order to try and cultivate a > > business relationship for our local co-op, which is in desperate need > > of tools and consumable parts like bearings and cables. He mentioned > > that a lot more co-ops were inquiring about accounts. > > > > He also told me the reasons why co-op/DIY shops were problematic from > > his end, and it's a reasonable criticism from that perspective. > > Individually, we simply dont do the volume of business necessary to be > > attractive to a business interest. The time necessary to administer > > and verify an account that does maybe a couple hundred dollars worth > > of business a month for the higher traffic shops kind of burns your > > profit margins, which are not large at that level. distributors count > > on reliable, volume business to stay afloat, and take a smaller cut of > > profit on the assumption that that's the type of business theyll be > > doing. > > > > I've know that some of the longer running co-ops and collectives have > > relationships with distributors, but clearly many of the newer ones do > > not. > > > > I'm curious about a couple of things. > > > > 1) Does your collective have a relationship with a parts distributor? > > 2) Regardless of the answer to #1, roughly how much does your shop > > spend on tools/consumables/things-that-one-would-get-from-a-distributor? > > > > It seems to me that in the first few years of a > > co-op/nonprofit/collective situation, lots or most of these > > organizations leverage either existing ties to, or the goodwill of > > LBSes. > > > > My suspicion is that in some edge cases, where the bike or DIY culture > > isnt all that strong, this can be a fairly significant issue for a > > fledgling operation, in terms of both finances and social capital. > > > > The idea that i'm trying to push here is that of a sort of buyers > > club. Disregarding for the moment the perfectly valid criticisms of > > the legal structure of 501(c)3s, if there was a nonprofit that could > > act as a go-between for a parts distributor and a number of regional > > shops, that would serve the needs of both the for-profit distributors > > AND the co-op shops. distributors wouldnt have to deal with as much > > volatility from taking on co-ops as charity cases, and co-ops banding > > together could drive the price of a lot of the most necessary > > consumables and parts down even further than their current distributor > > relationships can offer. in the ideal case, of course. > > > > I would appreciate any input people have. I dont know if this has been > > suggested before (I suspect it has), but i didnt see anything in my > > archive of the last year or so. If I'm totally off base in my > > assumptions I'd like to know that too, where i went wrong, and what > > the real deal is. > > > > cheers. > > _______________________________________________ > > Thethinktank mailing list > > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > > To unsubscribe, send a blank email to > TheThinkTank-leave(a)bikecollectives.org > > To manage your subscription, plase visit: > > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… > > > > > -- > Sopo Bicycle Cooperative > 404-425-9989 > www.sopobikes.org > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > Hours of operation: > Tues, Wed, & Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm > > Sat & Sun 2 pm - 6 pm > > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > _______________________________________________ > Thethinktank mailing list > Thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org > To unsubscribe, send a blank email to > TheThinkTank-leave(a)bikecollectives.org > To manage your subscription, plase visit: > > http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.… >

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Press Release for 816 Bicycle Collective Benefit Show 8/16/09
by the816bikecollective Kansascity 05 Aug '09

05 Aug '09

July 29, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *Bi-Annual Fundraiser to support Kansas City’s Recycle-A-Bicycle Project * *Kansas City, Missouri -Californos in Westport, located at 4124 Pennsylvania, hosts the Bi-Annual 816 Bicycle Collective Fundraiser, Sunday, August 16**th**. Doors open at 6PM and the event will end at midnight. The night will include musical performances by Lord of the Yum Yum, The Afterparty, Atilla, Andrew Connor, a raffle, silent art auction and more! All proceeds will go to benefit The 816 Bicycle Collective, Kansas City’s only non-profit recycle-a-bicycle project. * Our benefit in December of 2008, successfully raised $1,650.50, which went to sustaining our programs through the winter months, and helped us to prepare for the now busier summer season. Our goal is to rescue and repair bicycles, increase bicycle ridership in the Kansas City area, and to offer educational services. Since we attended the Southeast Regional Bikebike! in Atlanta during January of 2009, (which was a convention of community run bicycle shops,) we have… -Doubled our physical shop space -Organized a back-lot cleanup and are now utilizing the space for youth activities -Purchased new specialty tools, with the addition of 10 new mini tool kits -Gone from 5 voting collective members to 8 -Redistributed 71 bicycles (and counting) to a diverse range of people in the community -Seen over 500 visitors (and counting) within the shop We emphasize to our patrons the importance of giving back. Giving back can mean a variety of things, from money to printing services, volunteering to clean up, sort parts, or help another person with their bicycle. We rely completely on donations and community support, and all collective members are volunteers. These benefits help ensure that we will be able to continue to provide these services and the resources needed to those who rely on our facility, no matter what their financial situation is. Please help us in spreading the word about our organization or help us by making a donation. We are currently in need/accepting the following donations (all are tax deductible) *-Money for rent and utilities* *-Items to raffle – gift certificates, coupons, art, or other merchandise* -Bicycle wheels and complete bicycles, (especially kids bikes) -Metric box wrenches and allen keys, or any specialty bike tools -Bike cables, housing, chain lube, grease and degreaser -Helmets and bike locks (cables, chains, u-locks) -Front and rear flashing lights -Bicycle repair stands -Printing services The 816 Bicycle Collective is a non-profit organization under The Greater Kansas City Bicycle Federation. We are located at 3109 Troost Avenue, in the back of the Creative Minds Art Center. For more information, media inquiries, or to find out what you can do to help – Visit *www.816bike.org* or contact us at *The816bike(a)gmail.com* or Suzanne Hogan 505-231-589 ###

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Bike Machine/Appropriate Technology Collective in Mexico Needs Help!
by james blesdoe 02 Aug '09

02 Aug '09

this came in the mail at the bicycle kitchen i sent them $10 on their paypal account !!URGENT LETTER ASKING HELP FROM C.A.C.I.T.A. (Kah see tah)!!! Please send to ALL your contacts! C.A.C.I.T.A. IS ASKING FOR DONATIONS OR SMALL LOANS TO HELP PURCHASE THEIR NEIGHBORING PROPERTY!!! Friends, family, and recipients of this letter; We write to you to ask for help for something very important to us. The possibility to grow, develop and strengthen our work, in many ways depends on this opportunity. We ask that you take the time to read our request below to understand better our proposal. Our project C.A.C.I.T.A., Centro Autónomo para la Creación Intercultural de Tecnologías Apropiadas- (the Autonomous Centre for the Intercultural Creation of Appropriate Technologies), is located in San Pablo de Etla, in the suburbs of Oaxaca City, in southern Mexico. We recently were offered the opportunity to obtain the neighboring property and expand physically the size of our place of work. C.A.C.I.T.A is a learning center in constant development, experimentation, instruction and production of appropriate technologies, such as bicycle machines, solar ovens, dry compost bathrooms, natural materials building, humanure and worm compost production, rain water catchments, natural filtration, and human-power pumping systems, sustainable community agriculture, recycled alternative fuels, bicycle powered electrical generators; to name a few. Please see our video- http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2091717/video_cacita/ The neighboring property measures 8 meters by 20 meters, or 160 square meters, almost the same dimensions as the property that we currently own and are occupying now. The owner of the neighboring property came recently to offer us first rights in buying the property, reducing his original offer of 100 thousand pesos, to 80 thousand pesos, approximately 6000 dollars. The owner offered us that we could give him 50 thousand pesos as a down payment, and pay him the remaining 30 thousand over a specified amount of time. Our goal is 90,000 pesos, 80,000 for the owner of the property, and 10 thousand to put the title of property paperwork in our name. WE CURRENTLY HAVE 60,000 pesos in donations and small loans paid towards our goal! We are still working to raise the remaining 30,000 pesos that need to be paid off very soon! It's very unusual for us to be asking for help in this type of way, but in other respects the owner of the neighboring property will have to look for another buyer for his land, which would mean our losing the opportunity to grow as a work space. We are asking for donations or small loans that could be repaid in the following year. If it is in your abilities to grant us this favor, please contact us to make the support happen. C.A.C.I.T.A is an self-sustaining project. Meaning, we don’t receive any kind of support from governmental, or international cooperation programs. We want to continue being autonomous as a project and as individuals, becoming an example for other households in southern Mexico to incorporate low cost and low-tec sustainable appropriate technologies into their daily lives and also benefit from the autonomy that they offer. And so for some time now we’ve been creating a learning center and dormitory for visiting collaborators that come from varied places and realities to share their knowledge and learn in an intercultural learning environment about appropriate technologies. We know times are difficult, economically speaking; but they are also times of change and solutions, and of other ways of relating with one another and the natural world around us. We feel that we share these feelings and dreams with you, and that is why we are asking you to help us grow as a workspace, a place for learning, and as an organization. Thank you for taking the time to read our words. Attentively, C.A.C.I.T.A. cacita(a)riseup.net. to donate by paypal, please use the following link! https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5169270 En español............ CARTA URGENTE SOLICITANDO APOYO PARA C.A.C.I.T.A. Familia, amigos, amistades. Les escribimos para pedirles una ayuda muy importante para nosotros. La posibilidad de crecer, desarrollar, y fortalecer nuestros trabajos, en muchos sentidos depende de esta oportunidad. Pedimos que lean nuestra solicitud para entender mejor nuestra propuesta. Nuestro espacio de trabajo, el Centro Autónomo para la Creación Intercultural de Tecnologías Apropiadas- C.A.C.I.T.A., esta ubicado en San Pablo de Etla, a las afueras de la Ciudad de Oaxaca. Somos un espacio de trabajo, en constante desarrollo, experimentación, enseñanza y producción de tecnologías apropiadas, como son las bicimakinas, hornos-solares, sanitarios secos ecológicos, la bio-construcción con materiales naturales, la producción de composta humana y lombricultura, sistemas de capitación, filtración natural, y bombeo de agua de lluvia, la agricultura sustentable comunitaria, combustibles reciclados alternativos, y la generación eléctrica por viento y por bicicleta; por mencionar algunas. Favor de ver nuestro video~ http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2091717/video_cacita/ El terreno mide aproximadamente 8 metros por 20m, o 160 metros cuadrados, casi las mismas dimensiones del terreno que actualmente ocupamos. El dueño del terreno vino recién a ofrecernos primer derecho de comprar el terreno, reduciendo su oferta de 100 mil pesos, a 80 mil pesos. Y que pudiéramos darle 50 mil pesos de entrada, y pagar los 30 mil restantes en un tiempo determinado. 10 mil pesos para la tramitología de titulo de propiedad. Nuestro objetivo es recaudar 90,000 pesos, 80,000 para el dueño del terreno, y 10 mil pesos para la tramitologías del titulo de propiedad. ACTUALMENTE TENEMOS 60,000 PESOS RECAUDADOS en donativos y pequeños prestamos ya pagado al dueño del terreno! Estamos todavía trabajando para recaudar los 30,000 pesos restantes que se tiene que pagar en los próximos semanas! Es muy inusual de nosotros pedir este tipo de apoyo, pero de otro modo el dueño del terreno buscaría otra persona para comprar la propiedad, que causaría nuestro desalojo, y estancamiento físico en cuanto a la posibilidad de crecer como espacio de trabajo. Pedimos donaciones o pequeños prestamos que podemos pagar en el transcurso de un año. Si esta en tus posibilidades este favor que pedimos, por favor contáctanos para realizar el apoyo. C.A.C.I.T.A., para quien no lo conocen de cerca, es un proyecto autogestivo, que quiere decir que no dependemos de ningún proyecto gubernamental, ni de un programa de cooperación internacional. Queremos seguir siendo autónomos como proyecto y como individuos, siendo un ejemplo para familias en el sur de México para incorporar tecnologías apropiadas en sus vidas cotidianas y tambien beneficiar de la autonomía que brindan. Y es por eso que desde hace mucho tiempo atrás venimos creando un centro de aprendizaje donde la gente interesados en compartir y aprender sobre las tecnologías apropiadas. Pensamos que la compra de este terreno nos posibilitaría esa oportunidad de crecer en espacio, y realizar nuestro sueño de crear un albergue para visitantes internados que vienen de variados lugares y contextos, para compartir sus conocimientos en un ambiente de aprendizaje intercultural. Sabemos que son tiempos difíciles, económicamente, pero también son tiempos de cambio, de soluciones, de otras maneras de relacionarnos con la sociedad y la naturaleza. Pensamos que compartimos estas ideas y sueños con ustedes, y por tal, nos dirigimos a ustedes para pedirles que nos apoyen y que nos acompañen en este camino de transformación de conciencia y acción que queremos crear en el mundo. Gracias por tu tiempo que tomaste por leer nuestras palabras. Atentamente C.A.C.I.T.A cacita(a)riseup.net. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5169270 -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Kitchen-board mailing list Kitchen-board(a)bicyclekitchen.com http://eight.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/kitchen-board

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TheThinkTank August 2009