One thing we’ve started doing is ask for a photo of the bike or bikes they are offering to assess before we agree to accept them.

Cuts down on a lot of wasted time and resources.

A quick look will tell you if they are toy store bikes or bike store bikes and the general condition.

Often the donors have little idea of the quality of the bike – its up to you to tell them politely and firmly what they have.

Our general rule for assessing a bike is: if it has three of more substantial things wrong with it, we strip it for parts and put it in the metal recycling.

Bart Sbeghen

Founder/CEO, Dr Cranky’s

M 0418 231 686

www.drcrankys.com.au

From: Dan C via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>
Sent: Monday, August 7, 2023 11:14 PM
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>
Cc: Dan C <dngrusdan@gmail.com>
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Re: Bike collection day, what do you check

Hi Claude,

   Our assessment starts with some simple frame checks that could help avoid wasting time on a troubled bike:

.. are the forks bent or  misaligned with each other?

.. any paint ripples / cracks especially around the head tube and top of downtube?

.. does the headset bind or stick when the bars are rotated back and forth?

.. is the quill stem frozen / rusted to the steerer tube?

.. is the seat post frozen in the seat tube?

If the answer to any of these is 'yes' you may be looking at an extended repair or having to trash the frame. Two minutes and two tools can save time wasted by trying to anything else first.

We also consider the quality level. If the answer to these questions is 'yes', and the bike is not in pristine condition, it would not be  accepted:

 Does it have steel wheels?

 Does it have stamped steel brake arms?

  Does it have a one piece, or a cottered, crank set? 

My 2 cents. 

Dan Craven

Albany Bike Rescue (NY)

On Sun, Aug 6, 2023, 11:46 AM Claude Ferron via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:

Hello all,

We are going to collect used bikes from the community and while receiving them we will inventory the one we will keep. While making the inventory (using a Google Form) we will check several things on the bike to assign it a "score". This will help us prioritize the repairs.

Things we will look for would be loose crankset, rusty chains, brakes (pads and cables).

My questions, what are those things you check when receiving bikes on your side? I want to make sure we don't forget anything.

Thanks,

Claude

--

Claude Ferron Co-coordonnateur La Cyclerie claude@lacyclerie.ca

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