February 2023 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

E-bikes
by Andy Ballentine 01 Dec '25

01 Dec '25

Hi -- How are bike co-ops dealing with e-bikes? We are all-volunteer at the Bicycle Co-Op of Williamsburg (Virginia). We have several very fine mechanics, but none of us is expert in the motors and batteries of e-bikes, and we don't know whether we should accept them as donations or sell them. I'd be interested in others' experience and policies. Thanks -- Andy Ballentine

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Webhosting/domains
by Bike City 24 Mar '25

24 Mar '25

Well, I recently threw together some hand-written HTML and slapped it onto a free (and ad-less) webhost. This seemed great at first, regardless of the weird URL. But after lots of other publicity and potential traffic, I've seen it get hacked twice (by a radical Islamic group after the whole host, nothing personal), and lately it's either painfully slow to load or completely down. So, I haven't done this for about a decade and I'm out of the loop. I'm really not willing to suffer any ads, but since our budgeted is obcenely limited for such fluff, does anyone have recommendations? Are there any more reliable ad-free free hosts? (Probably not, for obvious reasons.) Otherwise, how do you guys handle web hosting? How much does it cost? What's a good balance between reliable and affordable? How much is domain registration nowadays? We don't have our 501(c)(3) status yet so we won't get a deal until later this year, by the way. Anyway, please help. It's rough to find time to FTP an update and find the site's down. Thanks, andrea Bike City Recyclery of Fayetteville, Arkansas http://bikecity.uuuq.com/ (hahaha)

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Seeking examples of liability waivers
by Joshua H. 11 Jul '23

11 Jul '23

Hello all, We need a better liability waiver for our CBS. We need something that is easy to read/understand. I've tried searching through the archives of the thinktank but it isn't returning any results (getting a ht://Dig error). Anything you can send will be very helpful! Bicycle rider solidarity, Joshua Community Bike Shop at Barber Park

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Reusable Repair Checklist Tag
by director 02 May '23

02 May '23

Hey All, We just spent some time and redid the tag we use to track repairs on a bike. I'm sure your shops are similar to ours in that many mechanics of varying skill levels will work on a single bike before it's distributed back to the world for use. This make it challenging to ensure a standard of quality on any given bike leaving the shop. As we fleshed out the tag we realized that it could function loosely as a curriculum. For most mechanics, especially students we suggest starting at the top and working down the list. I've come to realize that no two mechanics will do things in the exact same way, everyone has their own style. We've been suggesting that folks do the first two items in order and then address the rest of the repairs at their discretion. Of course we couldn't put everything on a half page so we had to make compromises. You'll notice as you get closer to the bottom of the tag the categories are a little more broad and don't get into the finer details. We're working on a final check list that will include finer details like checking bearing play, tire wear, fine tune derailleurs and brakes... The final checklist won't hang on the bike but it'll be around the shop and part of our training. Stay tuned for this. We print these double sided, cut them in half and laminate them. We hang them on the handlebars and fill them out with a Sharpie. When the bike is done and gone we clean the Sharpie off with 90% rubbing alcohol and a rag. This allows us to use one tag over and over and over. We've been using these tags for about 2 weeks now and it's been awesome. Communication between mechanics is much clearer and bikes are getting done faster. It's really helped orient Earn-A-Bike students to what needs to be done next on their bike. Anyway if you think it's a good idea feel free to adapt it to your shops needs. -- Ride On! Rich Points http://communitycycles.org Executive Director (c)303-589-0597 (w)720-565-6019 Community Cycles is Boulder's only bike shop dedicated to bike commuting. Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/CommunityCycles

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Service Tickets and Bike Tags
by Amanda Chilson 28 Apr '23

28 Apr '23

Good Afternoon, I am wondering if bike collectives and shops could share what they are using for service tickets or slips when a bike is being purchased, when preparing a bike to sell, when people drop off a bike to be fixed/tuned and/or a bike that was donated? Thank you so much for your help! Amanda Chilson Health and Wellness Coordinator Northern Berkshire Community Coalition 61 Main St. Suite 218 North Adams, MA 01247 413-663-7588 Ext. 16 www.nbccoalition.org

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Re: [TheThinkTank] wheels
by Kevin Dwyer 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

Louis- It sounds as though you have a serious problem with rust and wheel failures. If you are presently a service organization, moving to industrial production (especially as a collective) creates a variety of hurdles related to capital and organizational structure. The Mondrian collectives in Spain have been successful as collectives engaged in industrial production, but they have strong government and societal support. You may look to them for structural inspiration. With regard to the underlying problem: (mostly) cheap wheels that are not serviceable, perhaps there are other alternatives? Here are a few I came up with: 1. Partner with a bicycle co-op/collective in the (south) western US where rust is not an issue. In the past, there have been postings to this list of collectives with excess bikes and parts. I’d imagine that you might be able to get a container or rental truck full of just wheels, if you put the word out and were patient. 2. Buy unthreaded blank spokes in bulk. DT and China/Taiwan manufacturers have these available and with a $130 Hozan spoke threader you can make serviceable spokes. (Don’t forget that even nicer spoke threaders will take some time for the cutting and threading) 3. Buy lots of different sizes of cheap straight gauge spokes. For less than $1000, you could go on Ali Baba and buy a stock of nipples and every 14g spoke length available. Restock as needed. 4. Visit the DT facility in Grand Junction, Colorado where they make spokes. You will see the spatial and equipment requirements for spoke making and be better equipped an nd informed as to the requirements for such a project. Best of luck in your project! Eager to hear about your solutions! Kevin Dwyer Salt Lake City, UT > On Feb 16, 2023, at 4:06 AM, MARK via Thethinktank <thethinktank(a)lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote: > > > Louis, > > Personally, I think trying to become a spoke manufacturer is a bit over ambitious > unless you had a metal working factory. If you could by full-length spokes to thread > to length, a Phil Wood machine was over $3K last I knew. > > It seems to me your biggest hurdle is getting a wholesale account. Most distributors want > to see a picture of a brick and mortar storefront and some credential and or web-presence. > > We use J&B importers for our "bread and butter" supplies, but also have accounts with QPB and > recently Shimano. > > Yeah, wheels are the Achilles' heal of used bikes, especially rears. I usually start any wheel work > with hitting each nipple with Tri-flow. It also helps to have an adjustable spoke wrench, often > an antique tool in my experience, although we have a Hozan, so they might be still available. > We also has some spoke wrenches that grip three sides of the nipple, sort of, that work well > on stubborn spokes. Hope this helps. > > Mark Hoffman > BikeNB.org > New Britain, CT > USA > > ____________________________________ > > The ThinkTank mailing List > > Unsubscribe from this list here: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o… >

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wheels
by MARK 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

Louis, Personally, I think trying to become a spoke manufacturer is a bit over ambitiousunless you had a metal working factory. If you could by full-length spokes to threadto length, a Phil Wood machine was over $3K last I knew. It seems to me your biggest hurdle is getting a wholesale account. Most distributors wantto see a picture of a brick and mortar storefront and some credential and or web-presence. We use J&B importers for our "bread and butter" supplies, but also have accounts with QPB andrecently Shimano. Yeah, wheels are the Achilles' heal of used bikes, especially rears. I usually start any wheel workwith hitting each nipple with Tri-flow. It also helps to have an adjustable spoke wrench, oftenan antique tool in my experience, although we have a Hozan, so they might be still available. We also has some spoke wrenches that grip three sides of the nipple, sort of, that work wellon stubborn spokes. Hope this helps. Mark HoffmanBikeNB.orgNew Britain, CTUSA

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Marketing Tools
by Edward Kirkwood 15 Feb '23

15 Feb '23

For community bike shops that rely on used bike sales to help fund the operation, what media related tools do you use to showcase your inventory? Do you rely on your own website or do you utilize social media platforms like Facebook? Allen KirkwoodBroke Spoke Community Bike ShopLexington, KY

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Wheel (components) making : tooling and methods
by ronde d'effort 15 Feb '23

15 Feb '23

Hello dear and esteemed Fellow, I hope this finds you well, I'm writing hoping you afforded and wished to share with the community on wheel-making tooling, methods, and on distributors akin to selling such to collectives. Particularly, we aspire to be more autonomous in making or substituting this most demanded component of bikes within our capacity. For this purpose, we would benefit from advices on lacing methods and bench-size machines to make wheel (parts) that respond soundly to physics, and tighter budgets. We think of machines like Morizumi or Phil Wood, which would perform the operations to make spokes from a stock of stainless steel wire. Or even nipples and maybe rims. For cutting and rolling threads but also, head swaging, elbow bending and reducing wire diameter of spokes by rolling or drawing with acceptable results. Should we also think of methods for using wire with minimal fixtures and metalwork astutely. We don't mean to dream splendidly for the B-Choppe, our basement in Montréal Qc, where we share and uphold anti-oppression ethics and relationships first. Varied wheels size arrive with seized spokes (from de-icing salt) as we contemplate shortages and difficulty to order. Above all in current times, we felt relying on ourselves instead of (very unsteady) supply from far manufacturers to be wise and exciting. While most parts wholesalers refuse selling to us, arguing «unfair» or «too stringent competition». As we seek sustenance and relationships, not profit, but would not mind funding the shop by providing with value. I think this could be technically feasible, some operations could involve re-purposing body-actuated tools used in other trade (especially for diametric reduction of wire). Ideally be combined in dedicated gems like those WheelFanatyk offer with discernment and expertise, I find. Expanding beyond our capacity, If you happened to know organizations whom had summarized knowledge in metallurgy and modeled practical setups, I feel some of us would be excited to know. For instance, which alloy (or actual wire) to use, which forming process to perform (drawing or rolling, at which temperature), which annealing to enable and senseful equipment to build economically for that matter. As a member of a free shop, I'm open to reconsider spokes-and-nipples for other building and truing methods (materials). What I'd be happy to share if we ever came to sound and thrift results. Thanks so much for reading my best Second Language from french. I hope this is senseful and above all, that you are well and holding your values. Thank you so much, with our kind and highest esteem, Louis Atelier B-Choppe Montréal Canada (I hope this is right, as the purpose of the ThinkTank seems to be a «discussion on our Discussion» while I read technical matters on it. And did not see our current preoccupation making a subject on the Wiki. However, I feel a discussion stemming from this post shall benefit more on a Community repertoire where Subjects can be searched in fields like «wheel» ; which the ThinkTank does no longer allow. Suggestions welcomed, thanks). Envoyé avec la messagerie sécurisée [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/).

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RU There
by MARK 11 Feb '23

11 Feb '23

Bike New Britain (CT, USA) operates with a very tiny all-volunteer crewof three volunteers. We're all ex-shop mechanics with an average age of about 73 years. but it's been a struggle and we're only open for a couple of 3-hour days. COVID definitely threw the monkey wrench into things, but since we all had COVID this past year, we are learning to live with it and all the other diseases floating around out there. We're trying to move away from the public's conception that we are just a bike repair/used bike shop.(Hard to get listed as something other that "Used Bike Shop" with Google Biz!)We plan on doing a membership basis to try and cultivate new volunteers, with initially a free membershipthat would allow access to a DIY night to be determined. We envision fee-based membership in the future,as overhead keeps climbing. We just paid a bit over $1600 to Am. Specialty's LAB insurance program! We have had little in the realm of organized rides and hope to develop that as well as Smart Cycling classes. We do an annual Rodeo with the police dept., and have partnered with BikeWalk CT on several Septembertour events. We also supply local agencies with bikes for their clients that need transportation help. I am personally optimistic for the coming year, but only time will tell. I often wonder whether long-term viability is possible without a paid staff person, but getting into paid personnel is a bridge we don't feel we could cross at this juncture. We do offer stipends to LCIs to help with planned SC classes. Mark HoffmanBikeNB.org

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