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@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)