Re: [TheThinkTank] New bicycle co-operative at York University
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
- I would like to connect with the managers of other University/college
campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
- Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like the
tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
- Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative made a
floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
- Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I
would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!
Best,
Parag
Hi Toronto, greetings from Ottawa!
While our shop is not attached to an educational facility, I could answer a few questions.
Floor layouts really depend on two things:
are you dealing with a blank, empty space that you can customize to your needs? If so then excellent! I’m jealous. ;) Some of us are working with older spaces (ours is from 1925) and that often results in things you just have to work around such as weird door placements, uneven floors, etc.
some shops don’t sell used bikes, some do. Some shops offer DIY services, some don’t. Our shop offers both, so we need an area where bikes can be looked at and talked about, and also space for people to work on their bikes. Oh, and if bike donations are what you seek then prepare for needing lots of storage.
Creature comforts: we have some industrial ceiling fans, and a vent fan to pull air through the shop. No A/C. During the current heat wave here it has been around 34C / 92F inside. Thankfully our volunteer staff keep showing up, as well as our customers, but we’re all moving a bit more slowly. ;)
Next year we will be expanding our shop somewhat when our landlord retires and give us his office. We’ll tear down a dividing wall and then be faced with twice as many windows facing the western sun. His space does have an A/C unit but I doubt its strong enough for our entire building, but we’ll definitely install some good strong blinds of some sort. Plus, being Ottawans we seem to like to brag about surviving +30C summers and -30C winters without too much fuss.
I’m actually preparing plans for revising our shop layout, because the expansion will give us a chance to reorient some things and maximize our use of the space (which we’ve been in for eight years).
Some photos are at our website: http://www.re-cycles.ca/
And a whole bunch (incl. from our very early days) on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/recyclesottawa/
Cheers and good luck!
Mark Rehder - Coordinator re-Cycles Community Bike Shop http://re-cycles.ca
On Jul 5, 2018, at 4:40 PM, Parag Kapoor parag@regenesis.eco wrote:
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
I would like to connect with the managers of other University/college campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like the tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative made a floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!
Best,
Parag ____________________________________
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Hi:
We started a very small bike co-op at the University of San Francisco about 2 years ago.
- Sure, feel free to email me directly as well. It has really just
been a very small offshoot from a larger push to get students more engaged in direct hands on work/learning/engineering (and art). but its been a great way to build bridges with many departments and groups- bringing together a diverse community from every discipline. last semester we had a class from environmental studies do projects, and we also have the gardening class building mobile seed libraries etc, but also more engineering focused with workshops with bici-tec, that builds bike machines in Guatemala to do work like pump water, or power all sorts of agricultural and household machines.
- nothing to help. i would like to know myself. we are pretty much
doing this on a shoe string so only borrow or build.. rarely buy anything.
3, 4, &5. Our plan changes a lot as its a shared space with a woodshop, so things shift as needed. if you have a dedicated space I am quite jealous! I would like to know how you managed to get such an expansion into your own large space!
On 7/5/18 1:40 PM, Parag Kapoor wrote:
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
1. I would like to connect with the managers of other University/college campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
- Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like
the tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
- Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative
made a floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
- Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I
would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!*
Best,
Parag*
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Hi!
sending some pics of our tool boards as well as tool boards from the community cycling center in portland or. We recently re-did our set up hope it helps!
personally I would get AC and make the shop as comfortable as possible
enjoy all the files and cy'all at Bike! Bike!
Alison Percifield - volunteer
On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 2:33 PM, joshua mcdermott jmcdermott@usfca.edu wrote:
Hi:
We started a very small bike co-op at the University of San Francisco about 2 years ago.
- Sure, feel free to email me directly as well. It has really just been
a very small offshoot from a larger push to get students more engaged in direct hands on work/learning/engineering (and art). but its been a great way to build bridges with many departments and groups- bringing together a diverse community from every discipline. last semester we had a class from environmental studies do projects, and we also have the gardening class building mobile seed libraries etc, but also more engineering focused with workshops with bici-tec, that builds bike machines in Guatemala to do work like pump water, or power all sorts of agricultural and household machines.
- nothing to help. i would like to know myself. we are pretty much
doing this on a shoe string so only borrow or build.. rarely buy anything.
3, 4, &5. Our plan changes a lot as its a shared space with a woodshop, so things shift as needed. if you have a dedicated space I am quite jealous! I would like to know how you managed to get such an expansion into your own large space!
On 7/5/18 1:40 PM, Parag Kapoor wrote:
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
- I would like to connect with the managers of other University/college
campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
- Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like the
tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
- Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative made a
floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
- Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I
would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!
Best,
Parag
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-- Joshua McDermott Performing Arts and Social Justice Tech and Design Program 415.422.6134myusf.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/tech-design-certificate
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Parag,
I'll suggest the same to you that I did to the folks in Melbourne - take care of the insulation, heating, and cooling before you begin to camp out in the space, before you begin working on bikes and before you begin storing things there. If you're already kind of in there, try not to really settle down and set up until you get climate control installed. The same applies to electric. All of these things are a huge pain in the ass to install when the place is full of stuff and use is in full swing.
And yes, under the circumstances you described, I'd suggest some kind of air conditioning. That could be a pair of huge fans at either end of the space just as well as an AC unit. Or installing reflective film over the windows for Summer and rolling it up in Winter - there are several options and there may be a department at your university that would be happy to consult as a volunteer effort.
One thing I hear a lot from people coming in from other college and university community bike shops are stories that amount to the following dynamic: the shop depends on student presence for staff, and students come and go.
Subsequently, you should prepare your administrative/collective/cooperative structure to survive the moment when the three most committed and skilled students are gone, and all that's left are newbie freshman wondering "why all these cool bikes are in this room over here". I don't have a great answer for how to solve this, other than paying a local to be a consistent backbone for the shop. A common story from these individuals would be that they had this cool "bike co-op" at their school but no one really knew what they were doing and no one was ever there, in other words it's just a big room with a bunch of random disordered tools and bike parts that sits empty most of the time. But they heard it was really active at one time.
The interesting thing about those situations is that it becomes a lesson in how a space by itself can function as the institutional memory of an entity.
Cyclista Nicholas
On 2018-07-05 21:33, joshua mcdermott wrote:
Hi:
We started a very small bike co-op at the University of San Francisco about 2 years ago.
- Sure, feel free to email me directly as well. It has really just
been a very small offshoot from a larger push to get students more engaged in direct hands on work/learning/engineering (and art). but its been a great way to build bridges with many departments and groups- bringing together a diverse community from every discipline. last semester we had a class from environmental studies do projects, and we also have the gardening class building mobile seed libraries etc, but also more engineering focused with workshops with bici-tec, that builds bike machines in Guatemala to do work like pump water, or power all sorts of agricultural and household machines.
- nothing to help. i would like to know myself. we are pretty much
doing this on a shoe string so only borrow or build.. rarely buy anything.
3, 4, &5. Our plan changes a lot as its a shared space with a woodshop, so things shift as needed. if you have a dedicated space I am quite jealous! I would like to know how you managed to get such an expansion into your own large space!
On 7/5/18 1:40 PM, Parag Kapoor wrote:
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
1. I would like to connect with the managers of other University/college campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
- Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like
the tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
- Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative
made a floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
- Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I
would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!*
Best,
Parag*
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Parag, I just forwarded you a thread from a few months back of toolboard discussions, but here is the link from the final entry with all the photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskuVEvhv
Nate
On Fri, Jul 6, 2018, 12:30 AM Cyclista Nicholas cyclista@inventati.org wrote:
Parag,
I'll suggest the same to you that I did to the folks in Melbourne - take care of the insulation, heating, and cooling before you begin to camp out in the space, before you begin working on bikes and before you begin storing things there. If you're already kind of in there, try not to really settle down and set up until you get climate control installed. The same applies to electric. All of these things are a huge pain in the ass to install when the place is full of stuff and use is in full swing.
And yes, under the circumstances you described, I'd suggest some kind of air conditioning. That could be a pair of huge fans at either end of the space just as well as an AC unit. Or installing reflective film over the windows for Summer and rolling it up in Winter - there are several options and there may be a department at your university that would be happy to consult as a volunteer effort.
One thing I hear a lot from people coming in from other college and university community bike shops are stories that amount to the following dynamic: the shop depends on student presence for staff, and students come and go.
Subsequently, you should prepare your administrative/collective/cooperative structure to survive the moment when the three most committed and skilled students are gone, and all that's left are newbie freshman wondering "why all these cool bikes are in this room over here". I don't have a great answer for how to solve this, other than paying a local to be a consistent backbone for the shop. A common story from these individuals would be that they had this cool "bike co-op" at their school but no one really knew what they were doing and no one was ever there, in other words it's just a big room with a bunch of random disordered tools and bike parts that sits empty most of the time. But they heard it was really active at one time.
The interesting thing about those situations is that it becomes a lesson in how a space by itself can function as the institutional memory of an entity.
Cyclista Nicholas
On 2018-07-05 21:33, joshua mcdermott wrote:
Hi:
We started a very small bike co-op at the University of San Francisco about 2 years ago.
- Sure, feel free to email me directly as well. It has really just
been a very small offshoot from a larger push to get students more engaged in direct hands on work/learning/engineering (and art). but its been a great way to build bridges with many departments and groups- bringing together a diverse community from every discipline. last semester we had a class from environmental studies do projects, and we also have the gardening class building mobile seed libraries etc, but also more engineering focused with workshops with bici-tec, that builds bike machines in Guatemala to do work like pump water, or power all sorts of agricultural and household machines.
- nothing to help. i would like to know myself. we are pretty much
doing this on a shoe string so only borrow or build.. rarely buy anything.
3, 4, &5. Our plan changes a lot as its a shared space with a woodshop, so things shift as needed. if you have a dedicated space I am quite jealous! I would like to know how you managed to get such an expansion into your own large space!
On 7/5/18 1:40 PM, Parag Kapoor wrote:
Hello all,
We're close to launching a new bicycle co-operative at York University, Toronto, ON, Canada!
I had some requests to ask the community:
- I would like to connect with the managers of other
University/college campus based bicycle co-ops to discuss practices and business models, go over past decisions made to get to where they are now.
- Are there any tool bench designs that are favorites? I really like
the tool benches @ Charlie's in Toronto, but would like to see other examples of well thought out tool benches.
- Could we look at examples of shop layouts? Has any co-operative
made a floor-map with the furnishings placement on it? We have plans as well to share!
- Do creature comforts matter? I wanted to be double sure. Normally I
would not hesitate myself to say A/C is definitely not needed at first, but for context we are moving from a hidden closet in terms of operations into a 1500+ sq ft. new storefront.
We have big glass windows that face east, which means that by 10 am the place is a broiler. Installing an A/C system feels like the right thing to do....
As well I have a whole bunch of photos of our space and shop logo to share to anyone interested!*
Best,
Parag*
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https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lists.bikecollectives.or...
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participants (6)
-
Bike Farm -
Cyclista Nicholas -
joshua mcdermott -
Mark Rehder -
MoBo Bicycle Co-op -
Parag Kapoor