May 2026 - TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

Managing Used Parts Retail
by Andrew Westphal 16 Jul '26

16 Jul '26

Hello everyone, I am looking for your insight on how to best manage the sale of used parts. Specifically, I would like your thoughts on the following: - Do you offer new items alongside used items, or do you partition the shopping experience in some way to differentiate between these items? - How much staff/volunteer support is available to customers shopping in the used parts area? - Please share any strategies that you employ to make used-parts shopping a positive experience for your customers, and manageable for your staff/volunteers. For further context, here's how we currently run used parts retail at Bikes Together in Denver, Colo. Layout: Used parts are stored in bins, boxes and small-parts trays, while used wheels hang from the ceiling. New-stock inventory (chain lube, pedals, grip tape, locks) is limited, and offered in a separate part of the shop. Both types of retail are available as self-service for customers. Pricing: Used parts are sold on a pay-what-you-can basis, with suggested donation rates by component type. Certain high-value parts are separated into a glass display case and stickered with specific prices. New-stock items are stickered with prices at market rates. Retail check-out runs through a single point-of-sale for new-stock and used parts. Shopping assistance: New-stock retail is generally supported by the staff who also support sale of refurb bikes and customer check-in to the service shop. Used parts retail is generally supported by staff and volunteers working in the DIY workshop. We struggle with managing the amount of staff time spent assisting used-parts shoppers; it can be time-consuming to educate the customer about what is compatible with their bike, and actually find that item in a bin. When available, volunteers are looped into that role. Unfortunately, some customers leave dissatisfied because they did not receive the assistance they required for used-part shopping. Some past resources I found in the ThinkTank archive: - Layout: shop space design advice (8 Jan 2009) <https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikeco…>, with specific insights from SLC Bicycle Collective below: - We elevated our checkout area so it overlooks the entire shop. - We have tried to position everything so it stays "open" eliminating as many blind spots in the shop as possible. - We moved away from using large milk crates for parts to smaller parts bins, this means there are more bins, but it is easier to lift, and get to the parts on the bottom. This also meant the shelves are 1' deep instead of 3', so we gained 2' of the shop back. - Anything we had a choice of putting on hooks or in bins, we put on hooks. - Wheels are hanging from the ceiling on 8' 2x4s with bike hooks at certain intervals - Pricing/highlighting some difficulties with used-parts retail - [TheThinkTank] Policy on Profiteering from Community Bike Shops (27 Mar 2013) <https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikeco…> - [TheThinkTank] What to do with the nice stuff? (12 May 2009) <https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikeco…> - Difficulties of hiring for retail shop management in the bike collective world: Suggestions for finding a good shop manager (16 Mar 2010) <https://lists.bikecollectives.org/hyperkitty/list/thethinktank@lists.bikeco…> Thank you all! Andrew -- *Andrew Westphal* Board Secretary, Bikes Together andrew.westphal(a)bikestogether.org 248-345-3530 he/him <https://pronouns.org/what-and-why> *Our Mission: Bikes Together uses recycled bicycles as a vehicle for equitable social change; collective and individual wellness; education and empowerment; and connection.*

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Would your project like to weld?
by Total Liberation Bicycle 01 Jul '26

01 Jul '26

In a past life, I help create a great project! I had access to so many bike frames that it made too much sense to get a welder. It started off small with fun and freak bikes but eventually I started making cargo bikes. Upcycled cargo bikes are my jam!! Do you want them to be yours??!! With a space and small tool investment, a cargo bike a day isn’t impossible. Maybe this is the time you were waiting for??!! Any ideas? -Dakota Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for iOS.

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Where can I find the think tank archive?
by Bayley Vanderpoel 17 Jun '26

17 Jun '26

I have a link saved but it didn’t work. My real question is we’re looking for a new accountant and wondering if anyone uses a business they could recommend. Thanks! Bayley Vanderpoel Volunteer & Board Member Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative http://velocitycoop.org/ | http://www.meetup.com/VeloCity-Bicycle-Cooperative/ https://twitter.com/velocitycoop | http://www.instagram.com/velocitycoop Shop Phone: 703-549-1108 Del Ray Shop 2111 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria Hours: Tues, Thurs, Fri: 11am–6pm Sat: 10am-4pm Sun: 12pm–4pm Wed: 11am–9pm (6–9pm DIY hours) Lyon Park Shop 2647 North Pershing Drive, Arlington Hours: Tues–Fri: 11am–6pm Sat: 10am-4pm Sun: 12pm-4pm

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kids' bicycle trade-up program
by weogo＠liveedge.net 10 Jun '26

10 Jun '26

Hi Folks, Is anybody doing a kids' bicycle trade-up program? Can you share specifics? Thanks and good health, Weogo PigeonRiverBikes.org

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Teaching mechanics to kids (elementary school)
by martin_labrosse.gabriel＠courrier.uqam.ca 19 May '26

19 May '26

Hello think thank community! There is a very motivated mom from a parents' committee in a nearby elementary school that has reached out to our CBS to participate to a program they are conceptualizing and have received fund for (3K$). They wanna make a small bike workshop for kids' bikes. The first objective is to inspire confidence and autonomy through manual skills/labor in bike mecanic and maintenance. I wanna know what kind of things you are teaching to kids. We're talking elementary age (here in Québec it's 6-12 years old). Of course parents in the committee will be present throughout. For the cursus, I am thinking about the cleaning and maintenance of the transmission, the tube repair and maybe the installation of a few parts, which more be a way to make a better understanding of the bike in genereal. I am thinking there should be an initial crash course with the parents in our workshop, then we could go to their school with our mobile workshop. Let me know what you guys think! Cheers BTW pardon my english!

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Re: kids' bicycle trade-up program
by Jade 15 May '26

15 May '26

Are you in Ithaca? I know a store called mama goose?! “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”Maya Angelou

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Fwd: FW: lecture Weds. 29 April, Batterbury/bike workshops
by angel york 01 May '26

01 May '26

============ Forwarded message ============ From: Simon Batterbury <00009091183a7a38-dmarc-request(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK> To: <CYCLING-AND-SOCIETY(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:56:20 -0400 Subject: FW: lecture Weds. 29 April, Batterbury/bike workshops ============ Forwarded message ============ Lecture “Prefiguring Consumption Reduction: Recirculating Resources, Knowledge, and Skills in Community Bike Workshops”, by Simon Batterbury, University of Melbourne, Australia. https://liu.se/en/event/planning-in-transition-lecture-with-simon-batterbury Zoom link is on there. 10am CET. 29 April. [9am UK] As Patrick Rérat et al. argue (Le tournant vélo, 2026), "a cycling city is first and foremost a question of will." I explore some willful, unconventional organizations that perform practical tasks – assistance to keep thousands of bikes maintained and, on the road, largely in Western cities – and I show how they also contribute to countering consumerism and unsustainable transportation. Community bike workshops or ‘bike kitchens', have practical intent but also 'prefigure' more sustainable mobilities and contribute to degrowth. They offer a convivial environment for maintaining/restoring/salvaging bicycles, sharing tools and knowledge (also doing art projects, arranging classes and rides, directly assisting the marginalised, and many other activities). Workshops put into practice many of the principles set out by Ivan Illich and theorists of solidarity networks. They give participants (some with no mechanical knowledge) repair skills, and participation in convivial and diverse social networks in a 'sharing' commons. 'Practice' generates values. Community bike workshops are part of undervalued, 'shadow networks', generally marginalised by the local state and by mainstream infrastructure-heavy transport planning. They can be fragile since they need affordable premises, tools and volunteers. Interviews and participant-observation done with my friends & colleagues in around 60 workshops over 20 years in 8 countries have revealed some workshops are better at securing sustained human interest and investments of money, time and energy than others. Federating workshops has led to more visibility, as with l'Heureux Cyclage in France, but is still rare. Workshops, and cognate organisations like Tool Libraries and repair cafes are important because they willfully and enthusiastically intervene in specific circuits of material items and knowledge largely outside the state or corporations, and they also socialise reuse/repair, active travel, and urban 'bikespaces'. They need our support. About the lecturer Simon Batterbury is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne, and currently a research visitor at TEMA T. He has worked on […….] (Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky, 2024). He currently supports students through the Melbourne Climate Futures PhD Academy and has been editor of the Diamond OA Journal of Political Ecology for 23 years, also challenging commercial academic publishers. He has worked at WeCycle, a bike kitchen restoring bikes free of charge for refugees and people in need in Melbourne, since 2019. The lecture is organised by the international lecture series Planning in Transition at Technology and Social Change, Linköping University [Peter Cox also did one in 2024 ! https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema/temat/international-lecture-series-… ] Prof. Simon Batterbury April-May 2026 | https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/tema/temat/research-fellows-at-technolog… , Tema T - Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden School of Geography, Earth and Atmos Sciences & https://www.unimelb.edu.au/climate/collaboration/mcf-academy in Melbourne Connect. | 2.36, 221 Bouverie St, University of Melbourne | 3010 VIC | Australia | simonpjb @unimelb.edu.au +61 383449319 http://www.simonbatterbury.net/ | Journal of Political Ecology https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/ Kowasch M, Batterbury SPJ (eds.) 2024. Geographies of New Caledonia-Kanaky. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49140-5 Socially just publishing outlets https://simonbatterbury.wordpress.com/2015/10/25/list-of-decent-open-access… To unsubscribe from the CYCLING-AND-SOCIETY list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CYCLING-AND-SOCIETY&A…

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