Please don't schedule Bike!Bike! 2007 over Interbike.
I went to Interbike for the first time this year, and while I do have to acknowledge the retail consumerism -- there was a beautiful underbelly of resources. I talked to key people at Park, Pedros, Bikes Belong and Planet Bike just to name a few. For anyone who uses tools and promotes commuting, you would be crazy NOT to go.
Booths are free to non-profits, so the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is going to try and set up a table next year -- maybe even do a seminar on community bike shops. But then I was thinking this should be a collaborative effort of all collectives -- we should go in numbers and demonstrate what a complimentary resource WE ARE to the retail industry.
On other notes, aside from the below wholesale messenger bags, tools, and you-name-its, there was one of the largest Alley Cat races I have ever seen and Critical Mass on the strip. So if you go, ignore the crap and concentrate on the stuff that matters to you -- there is still plenty of that.
Booths are free to non-profits, so the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is going to try and set up a table next year -- maybe even do a seminar on community bike shops. But then I was thinking this should be a collaborative effort of all collectives
That's a good idea. Maybe this could be something that could be a
working group and outcome at Bike Bike-coming up with a really great
seminar/presentation that could be debuted at Interbike. It's a good
argument for having the conference before Interbike, and could help
when approaching some of these companies for donations, etc.
-Erok Boerer
Free Ride
Pittsburgh, PA
On Oct 5, 2006, at 12:20 PM, Jonathan Morrison wrote:
Please don't schedule Bike!Bike! 2007 over Interbike.
I went to Interbike for the first time this year, and while I do have to acknowledge the retail consumerism -- there was a beautiful underbelly of resources. I talked to key people at Park, Pedros, Bikes Belong and Planet Bike just to name a few. For anyone who uses tools and promotes commuting, you would be crazy NOT to go.
Booths are free to non-profits, so the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is going to try and set up a table next year -- maybe even do a seminar on community bike shops. But then I was thinking this should be a collaborative effort of all collectives -- we should go in numbers and demonstrate what a complimentary resource WE ARE to the retail industry.
On other notes, aside from the below wholesale messenger bags, tools, and you-name-its, there was one of the largest Alley Cat races I have ever seen and Critical Mass on the strip. So if you go, ignore the crap and concentrate on the stuff that matters to you -- there is still plenty of that.
-- Sincerely,
Jonathan Morrison Project Coordinator Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective 2312 S. West Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84115 w: 801-328-2453 c: 801-688-0183 www.slcbikecollective.org
On 10/5/06, andy@neighborhoodbikeworks.org andy@neighborhoodbikeworks.org wrote:
Dear Bovine,
Don't recognize your alias so I don't know if I know you. If not, greetings from Philadelphia. Thanks for the heads up... I was even thinking of going to Interbike next year, but it is usually such a miserable experience for me that I wasn't thinking of going that
much... (I hate conusmerism and Vegas in more or less equal amounts that
seem to offset the fact that there are bikes there, most of which don't have electric motors)Is interbike a common destination for Bike-Bike atendees? If so,
then it's obviously a bad time. Thankfully, there's more than one
weekend in Sept; the first and second are not so good for us, but anything's
better than August over here.Regards,
Andy
Late September is interbike
-- Andy Dyson, Executive Director Neighborhood Bike Works 3916 Locust Walk, Philadelphia PA 19104 www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org (215) 386-0316
thethinktank mailing list thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
thethinktank mailing list thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
That sounds beautiful to me. I forgot to mention there are distributors there too, QBP, Wilson, etc, etc.,...
The audience there is mostly bike store owners, manufacturers or distributors. Thus the seminar would need to come at the angle of how we can help them while they are helping us. We would need to at least touch on:
- Why Collective Shops compliment [and not compete with] Retail Bike Stores.
a) Refer customers that don't have enough money. b) Our bike prices fall in that vacant range between thrift stores and new bikes. c) Tax deductions and recycling sources for for your old parts and bikes.
- Get extra PR (Public Relations) and Goodwill Points for your Store / Company.
a) Free advertising when TV, Radio, or Newspapers report on a mechanics' clinic, bike drive, or Kids' Earn-A-Bike class and sees your shop or company participating or sponsoring.
- Reliable mechanic training.
a) Core Volunteers are qualified mechanics and potentially future employees. b) Have a new employee? Send them over to volunteer and get more experience
- Cycling community
a) Community Bike Shops create community, and which causes more people to ride. b) Set up relationships with new customers when they buy a brand new bike, they can take a mechanics and riding class at the local Community Bike Shop -- when they do they can get a gift certificate back to the original Retail Bike Store. Second visits are key.
- Needs of Community Bike Shops
a) Needs. b) How you can help.
- Examples of successful programs.
BTW, Has anyone been to the Bicycle Leadership Conference (http://bicycleconference.org/)?
Dear All,
This all rocks; I could add a few things to 1), including that bike
coops can help emphasize the the usefulness of bike dealers as opposed
to mass-market retailers for bikes, something that dealers always like.
Also as part of 1)-c), if you regularly pick up you are doing them a
favor by getting junk out of there!
One thing we occasionally do that helps the cycling community here is recover stolen bikes. That may not be something that you want to talk about--the fact that bikes are stolen at all... but it goes a long way to making sure that people don't think we're just some sort of chop shop. Every now and again I get a call from someone saying "do you have any used Colnagos?" or something and I have to say, "look, we're on your side. You don't have to ask me weird questions, just e-mail me a description of it and we'll keep a look out."
A major thing that we do that is probably not unique to us is that we connect the "town and gown" around the university of Penn
For our part, the non-competition part has been a bit of a tightrope on occasion--for instance, some shops here (Philadelphia) also offer maintenance classes and something like our Urban Survival Biking course. One shop stopped giving us donations of used parts when they found out that we did in fact sell some stuff that was surplus to the needs of the youth program (They are since out of business, though, and no other shops have complained about that. We always take pains to point out that donations may be sold or recycled, not 100% go direct to a youth, even though everything ultimately benefits the youth program)
Thanks,
Andy
Jonathan Morrison wrote:
That sounds beautiful to me. I forgot to mention there are distributors there too, QBP, Wilson, etc, etc.,...
The audience there is mostly bike store owners, manufacturers or distributors. Thus the seminar would need to come at the angle of how we can help them while they are helping us. We would need to at least touch on:
- Why Collective Shops compliment [and not compete with] Retail Bike Stores.
a) Refer customers that don't have enough money. b) Our bike prices fall in that vacant range between thrift stores and new bikes. c) Tax deductions and recycling sources for for your old parts and bikes.
- Get extra PR (Public Relations) and Goodwill Points for your Store / Company.
a) Free advertising when TV, Radio, or Newspapers report on a mechanics' clinic, bike drive, or Kids' Earn-A-Bike class and sees your shop or company participating or sponsoring.
- Reliable mechanic training.
a) Core Volunteers are qualified mechanics and potentially future employees. b) Have a new employee? Send them over to volunteer and get more experience
- Cycling community
a) Community Bike Shops create community, and which causes more people to ride. b) Set up relationships with new customers when they buy a brand new bike, they can take a mechanics and riding class at the local Community Bike Shop -- when they do they can get a gift certificate back to the original Retail Bike Store. Second visits are key.
- Needs of Community Bike Shops
a) Needs. b) How you can help.
- Examples of successful programs.
BTW, Has anyone been to the Bicycle Leadership Conference (http://bicycleconference.org/)?
Why is bikebike! planned for the fall instead of spring next year? I'm sure there are good reasons, but it seems to make more sense to do bikebike at the beginning of the busy season rather than the end.
-- Graham from the Bikedump in Winnipeg
Jonathan Morrison wrote:
Please don't schedule Bike!Bike! 2007 over Interbike.
I went to Interbike for the first time this year, and while I do have to acknowledge the retail consumerism -- there was a beautiful underbelly of resources. I talked to key people at Park, Pedros, Bikes Belong and Planet Bike just to name a few. For anyone who uses tools and promotes commuting, you would be crazy NOT to go.
Booths are free to non-profits, so the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is going to try and set up a table next year -- maybe even do a seminar on community bike shops. But then I was thinking this should be a collaborative effort of all collectives -- we should go in numbers and demonstrate what a complimentary resource WE ARE to the retail industry.
On other notes, aside from the below wholesale messenger bags, tools, and you-name-its, there was one of the largest Alley Cat races I have ever seen and Critical Mass on the strip. So if you go, ignore the crap and concentrate on the stuff that matters to you -- there is still plenty of that.
On Oct 6, 2006, at 12:39 PM, Graham Stewart wrote:
Why is bikebike! planned for the fall instead of spring next year?
I'm sure there are good reasons, but it seems to make more sense to do bikebike at the beginning of the busy season rather than the end.-- Graham from the Bikedump in Winnipeg
-well, in the warmer months in the north, there is no good time.
-the first bike bike happened in may in new orleans. May was good
for them and others in the southern states as it was the end of their
season (a bit slower), as it would soon get too hot for many people
to bike.
-For us in the North, May is the super busy season (at least in PGH)
-Not only does everyone want a bike then, there are lots of bike
advocacy events going on or starting up (classes, programs, bike to
work week, BikeFest in PGH, Bike Summer, etc) that many of us are
also organizing.
-August, although still really busy, seems to be good as it's the
wind down of the busy season (in the north) and many of the bike-
cultural events have happened, although there are many programs and
classes still happening.
-August is also before the cycling season in the south
-September is too late and gets really busy for a ton of cities as
that's when the college kids get back.
-if we do this while the colleges are out, we might be able to secure
some inexpensive dorm sleeping facilities as not everyone wants to
stay on a couch or floor.
moral of the story: no matter what time is picked, nobody will be
happy as the climate is so different on this north american
continent. and we don't want to bring people to our lovely city when
the weather is bad.
I hope that explains it somewhat.
Peace and grease,
Erok Boerer Free Ride Pittsburgh, PA
thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
-
Andy Dyson -
Free Ride -
Graham Stewart -
Jonathan Morrison