Hey all, my name is Jesse Cooper and I've been a community bike shop mechanic in Vancouver Canada for over 20 years, and I agree that donations haven't really waned, but the quality certainly has.

I find this unsurprising though with the rampant crush of capitalism. The lack of affordable good quality bikes has diminished, and maybe the older serviceable bikes are now coveted and less likely to be donated.

Just a thought

On Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 20:43 Jean-François via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:

My experience with the Bike Kitchen and AMS Bike Co-op in Vancouver BC is a little out of date, but from what I remember the volume of donations never really abated, but what went down was the *quality* of donations. We used to get a decent amount of 1970s/80s/early 90s bikes where even the low-end models were worth fixing up (steel rims aside). It seems we eventually scoured every garage of those types and started getting late 90s-recent big-box-store brands that are only worth their weight in scrap metal and maybe a few parts for scavenging. No moral judgement on the people buying these is intended, but it's very disappointing to see a Supercycle/Ironhorse/CCM or whatever roll in with absurd "faux-suspension" and triple gearing with steel chainrings.

Jean-François
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