On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Bruce Lien <
bikedadlien@yahoo.com> wrote:
how do low income families who can only stretch their budgets far enough to buy their kid a bike for under $100, $70, or $40 do so? While some might advocate they buy used bikes, check out the junk sitting at the Goodwill with exorbitant prices on them, sold as is and you can see why that is not a viable option. Garage sales are great alternatives, but again the bikes are sold "as is" which often leaves a bike in need of some TLC
from a good mechanic. Bruce
several things the people on this list have or have access to:
volunteer power/time/energy.
bike knowledge.
decent--better than dept store bikes.
this is just a brainstorm that just came to me after reading gary, rafael, and bruce's emails....but what if we could somehow get the word out to these low income families with no LBS that the coops are the place to go. some kind of mailorder thing...i'm not sure how it would work, but if we're operating on a national level, then shouldn't we be able to address at least some of the basic needs of everyone in the country?
just an idea, i've been thinking about for all of 30 seconds. unlike gary's and rafaels, which both sound awesome and doable...