- TheThinkTank - lists.bikecollectives.org

'rental' bikes
by Bob Giordano 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

we do rentals with whatever is on hand. good income. $1/day, $5/week, $15/month, negotiate for longer. most come back. some marked with 'free cycles checkout', some painted green. some with fenders, baskets etc. sometimes they do the work to get it rolling. no deposit- too messy. flexible. we also have a community fleet with 60 (mostly one speed, rear derailer limit screw cranked) bikes.... goes to large groups, like Korean and Japanese teachers coming to missoula next week thru university program. we had 500 helmets donated by hospital. not many takers. local gov't group gives us free blinky red lights. not great, but usable. sometimes we do locks, sometimes not. (we want to make our own!) we give brief training/ rules of roads to all... many times a really good bike will be a checkout for awhile, and then go into the build a bike program. -bob g. free cycles missoula. info(a)re-cycles.ca wrote: > > We take a similar approach and sell people a discounted AS-IS bike (tuned-up used department store bike) for around $40 Cdn if they promise to dontate it back when they are finished with it. This avoids a lot of hassles with tracking the rentals and with our lack of insurance coverage > for rentals. > > Chris Wells > (Email Handler & one of many Volunteer Head Mechanics) >

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Re: [TheThinkTank] Coming to PDX, need a bike to ride while there.
by info＠re-cycles.ca 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

We take a similar approach and sell people a discounted AS-IS bike (tuned-up used department store bike) for around $40 Cdn if they promise to dontate it back when they are finished with it. This avoids a lot of hassles with tracking the rentals and with our lack of insurance coverage for rentals. Chris Wells (Email Handler & one of many Volunteer Head Mechanics) re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op 477 Bronson Ave. Ottawa info(a)re-cycles.ca http://www.re-cycles.ca/ --- On Fri, 7/3/09, veganboyjosh(a)gmail.com <veganboyjosh(a)gmail.com> wrote: > From: veganboyjosh(a)gmail.com <veganboyjosh(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Coming to PDX, need a bike to ride while there. > To: "The Think Tank" <thethinktank(a)bikecollectives.org> > Received: Friday, July 3, 2009, 8:37 PM > Community Cycles in Boulder doesn't > rent bikes, but we get asked about it all the time. Our work > around is that we'll sell you a bike and then you can > donate it back when you're done. No deposit, return it > in whatever shape. > > I don't know if we've had any takers to date, but > it evens out with our local bike rental places after about 5 > days or so. >

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Anyone have a wheel building class curriculum?
by Rich Points 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

Hey All, We're developing a wheel building class here at Community Cycles. We have a rough idea of what we'd like to do but we could use some help smoothing it out. We're thinking the class would be three 2 hour sessions at a cost of $X to 6 - 8 students. We've thought of two ways to go about supplies for the class. One would be to use recycled rims, hubs, nipples and maybe spokes. Another way would be to buy the parts from our wholesalers. The latter option means we could have control of what the class is working with. The former option could mean a lot more on the fly problem solving for the instructor and class but it'd be a lot cheaper for us and our students. I'm leaning towards the new parts option because I think it'll provide the highest quality of instruction. What do you guys think? Another question we're trying to figure out is what happens to the wheels that get built in the class. At our shop we're always in dire need of 700cc wheels. So we're thinking the class could build 700 wheels and they'd be used by the shop. However people taking the class may want to build wheels that they'd keep as their own. If we structure the class to just build 700 fronts we have more consistency and control. If we let folks build wheels for their own projects the class might have more general appeal but presents logistical and supplies hurdles. Please let us know how your shop is teaching wheel building. Ride On! -- Rich Points Community Cycles Director http://CommunityCycles.org Rich(a)CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019 (W) 303-589-0597 (C) Donate your old car to Community Cycles http://communitycycles.org/get-involved/donatecar.html Make your ride count! Register for Bike to Work Day June 24, 2009 http://www.drcog.org/btwd2009/index.cfm?page=Register

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google squared useful for cataloging community bikes shops
by rachael spiewak 06 Jul '09

06 Jul '09

For the computery types on the list.. If you enter "community bike shop" (or bicycle collective, etc) into Google Squared, a nifty spreadsheet comes up with a handful of our shops. If anyone wants to take it on, it could be expanded to include everyone and all sorts of useful info. It might be a good way to answer some frequently asked questions, like "who has a youth earn-a-bike program?" or "what's your mission statement?". -rachael -- 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

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Coming to PDX, need a bike to ride while there.
by Julian Beldotti 04 Jul '09

04 Jul '09

Hailing here from Fort Collins, CO. I'm about to take a quick reprieve from the small city life, to a big small city, and hang out in Portland for 10 days in July. Last time I was there and attempted to borrow a bike, citybikes or whatever wanted to charge me 15 bux a day. It wasn't very co-op friendly of them, I thought. So this time, I'm hollering at all ya'll in the Portland area who are bike co-op connected to see if I can borrow a bike while I'm there, so I don't have to take the rail everywhere. Holler. Julian.

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Creative solutions for handling/storing shop pumps?
by veganboyjosh＠gmail.com 04 Jul '09

04 Jul '09

We've got a number of donated, bought, and found floor pumps in our shop. A variety of brands, sizes, and shapes. Right now they just live in a corner, but they like to play the domino game and fall over themselves when someone goes to grab one. Does anyone have any creative things you've done to handle this problem? As always, pictures are great. Thanks! josh.

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Hiring an employee / Advertising
by Urban Bike Project Wilmington, DE 03 Jul '09

03 Jul '09

Hi All, Thanks for the advice a ways back on hiring mechanics as contractors. I may just be paranoid worrying about things but I have another employment question. Say a community bike shop wanted to hire a person for the summer to develop a board of directors as well as youth and free bike programming....Is this something we have to advertise publicly about or can we just make the decision as a collective and hire someone? We know someone that is perfect for the job (experience and enthusiasm), Thanks! Brian Urban Bike Project of Wilmington -a 501(c)3 non-profit bike shop- 1908 N. Market Street (entrance is in the parking lot behind the building) Wilmington, DE 19802 Hours: Thursday 6:30-9:00 Saturday 1:00-4:00 Visit us online at http://urbanbikeproject.org

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Duzer Duz America - Bike Tour
by Ryan Guzy 01 Jul '09

01 Jul '09

I don't think this has been posted to the list before, I'm surprised Josh didn't let us know sooner :-) Ryan Van Duzer is riding a New Belgium three speed across the US raising money for Community Cycles in Boulder, filming for his blog and a newspaper, and doing bike advocacy. His blog and info are here: http://ryanvanduzer.com/ He's a really cool guy, we hung out and rode with him while he was in Tempe this past weekend, and he was at BICAS in Tucson today. While he was in town he did some filming at Bike Saviours and with another bike advocacy group I'm involved in, TBAG. Check out his route to see if he's coming your way, he should be heading through Las Cruces and Albuquerque next. <http://ryanvanduzer.com/>*Ryan Guzy* Bike Saviours Tempe, AZ www.bikesaviours.org

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Website, hosting...
by Jason Moore 30 Jun '09

30 Jun '09

Hi, I'm with the Davis Bike Church and we are looking to setup a new website for our group (we've been using the daviswiki.org). I want a site that will allow anyone with permission to add content, allow for calendars, forms, online donations, etc, and have our own domain name and a decent amount of server space (~1GB) so we can use it to share files and documents. I want to run an open source content management system such as plone, joomla, drupal, etc to do these things and wanted to ask some questions about how other groups handle this: 1. Recommendations on which CMS if I've never used a CMS before? Which one offers functionality that bike collectives typically need? Which one is easiest for end users? 2. Where do you host your site? How much is it? Can non-profits get free or reduced price hosting? 3. Any other tips on website related stuff? Rev. Jason Moore Davis Bike Church

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Business Licensing mumbo jumbo
by Erik at Recyclery 27 Jun '09

27 Jun '09

I know laws aren't all the same everywhere, but The Recyclery has been told that we will be needing a second-hand business license because we sell used bicycles and parts. We don't pay for anything used--everything is donation-only--and this would mean that we have to take IDs from every buyer and donor. There are a number of other prohibitive restrictions obviously aimed more toward pawn shops than charitable organizations, but our indepented 501(c)3 status hasn't gone through yet. As of now we are just planning on not holding sales in our new shop. Has anyone else had to grapple with this while trying to open as a "legitimate" business? erik -- The Recyclery Collective 7628 N Paulina Chicago, IL 60626 P: 773.262.5900 F: 773.751.5241 www.therecyclery.org

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