The co-op here has SO MANY clipless pedals and shoes. People keep donating them, but people asking for them is exceedingly rare. These items keep piling up. I found a pair of Giro shoes just now that I remember donating over ten years ago! They take up a lot of space and create clutter.

I've tried getting the local NICA (youth bicycle racing league) organization to take them and redistribute them to student athletes, but that was only marginally helpful, we accumulated dozens more since we tried that last year, and no one at that org has responded to my last contact.

Anyone have a creative and non-wasteful way to make these shoes go away?

What's your favourite tool in the workshop? Not your most used, but the one you like the most, even if it's for a dumb reason.

Mine:

Pickle Fork. AKA Ball Joint Remover. I got to use this to take a crank off when the thread had stripped, and it was immensely satisfying.

Club Hammer. I mean, come on, it's rad.

Sharpened spoke with the end bent it a wee handle. Super useful, and fun to make.

my co-op has bins full of cranksets that have been separated from their bottom brackets. if I want to put one of these sets on a bike, I can sometimes look up the crankset to find the appropriate spindle length (Sheldon Brown to the rescue!) and hopefully come up with a BB unit to make it work. Other times, there's no easy answer because the Internet has no knowledge of the crankset, and I feel like I need to just guess and check until I find the right BB spindle.

How would you approach amore efficient way to pair bare cranksets with a BB spindle? Is there a way to measure from the inside edge of the square hole to calculate it? How would you build a rig to test and measure these?

POV: you're aware of an outbreak of zombies that's quickly headed your way. You surmise that you have 8 hours to put together a bicycle out of parts commonly found in a co-op, and will escape the city on pedal-power only. The complete bikes are all gone, so you need to pick a frame and build from there.

What are you building?

We have a lot of older cranksets and associated BBs with "oversized" spindles in our co-op, and we keep them squirreled away from the general public for a variety of reasons. One is that many people have tried using regular square-taper crank pullers on these cranksets and damaged the spindle threads, the tool, or both. Another is that people have tried to fit the wrong arms onto different spindles because they look similar, with disastrous results. See what happens when you try to cram old Ultegra arms on to a Truvativ ISIS BB! However, these parts are starting to pile up instead of being put on bikes.

I rode BMX bikes well into adulthood, and my first mountain bike had ISIS, but it was already dated at the time. I soon switched to GXP and Shimano 24mm cranks, so I don't have a lot of personal experience with those systems' predecessors. If I want to built bomb-proof bikes, what's more reliable to spin longer for the average commuter: spare taper or one of those afore-mentioned systems? My goal is to get more bike parts on bikes and out the door instead of hoarding them, while still making timeless and reliable bikes.

Our co-op takes in a ton of donated bikes that need a lot of work. We make them functional at least, and donate them back to organizations that provide them to people in need, or we sell them for shop revenue.

On some of these bikes, I'm questioning when it's appropriate to "restore" the bike using mostly original parts, and when to update to newer parts. where do you draw the line?

• adjustable bottom brackets: unless we're talking about something old but high-end, I don't find it worthwhile to clean, install, and adjust most adjustable BBs. We can get new square taper BBs in just about any size for under $10 each. tossing the old BB assembly in the recycle bin and popping a new one in means the BB will spin smoothly for decades and save a lot of labor.
• crappy canti brakes: I know people have gotten every type of brake in history working somewhat well, but some of these older cantis lack spring adjustment screws. others have springs that are held in place by brittle plastic that break if you look at them funny, rendering the brake useless. The average end user is going to have a devil of a time adjusting these in the future, so I like to toss these out in favor of a V-brake or at least a more sophisticated canti. (edit: yes, I'm familiar with differences in pull ratios for levers and calipers.)
• moto brake levers: for a long while, ATBs came equipped with these MASSIVE levers that appear to be inspired by motorcycles. I'm not old enough to know the real reason for these. did braking require a full set of fingers to work? was one-finger braking a thing? either way, these levers often have to go.
• triple chainrings: many people are satisfied with a single ring up front, maybe with a retention system or a narrow-wide ring. I found that many people don't really ever learn how to properly use a drivetrain with more than one chainring, or they abuse it with cross-chaining. might there be instances where converting to a 2x or 1x is superior for the average person who's not a bike nerd?
• Biopace and the like: modern ovalized chainrings are not the same thing as the earlier experiments like Biopace. If the rings are already a bit worn, is there any reason to keep the Biopace-esque stuff running, or should all those rings just go in the bin?

Furthermore, there's a compromise to consider here: tossing out (recycling metals, on our case) parts that are functional but offer sub-par performance and adjustability means we create a lot of waste. but building a superior bicycle by updating some parts makes a safer, more enjoyable, and more durable bike for the future rider.

thoughts? experiences? snide critiques?

My local co-op has a box full of donated dropper posts. The average person who comes into the shop is NOT looking for a dropper post, and most people don't know we have them, so these just gather dust. I plan to refurbish these to test that they work and then sell them cheap to locals who know how to use them.

Please share your tips and tricks for testing and servicing dropper posts. I know how to perform a basic disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly of the most common models, but I don't know when to give up and move on. are there any particularly problematic models that I should skip? I've been reminded that "everything in this shop is here because someone didn't want it for some reason," so I don't want to waste time on dead ends.

So, driving home from a 5k run today (I'm in Kona, if you swim/run/bike at all, you'll wind up doing the other two eventually) and I had an idea. I've been thinking we need a coop here, but the startup and organization is intimidating to me. And then I passed a couple garage sales.

What if I set up a co-op-ish thingy based on the "little lending library" concept? Rent a storage space, like 10x10 or something and stick a combo lock on it and a couple shelves. Put my parts bin in there. Hop on FaceBook and talk to folks in the local clubs and see if they want in. Throw in $5 a month or so to pay for the storage locker and bring in *their* parts bin and you get the combination. See if the local shop can donate some cash and/or take/offs. Put a tipjar in the locker and toss in some cash if you take a part without leaving a part. If we start showing a profit, add a stand, some tools, and maybe buy some spools of shifter/brake cable.

Start with it being honor system and kind of word-of-mouth. Visitors allowed with a "member," although they aught to leave a tip for that. Keep it small to start since there's not much from keeping someone from cleaning it out other than honesty. Eventually, it might evolve into something more complex.

Any ideas/constructive criticism from folks who are actually involved with running a co-op?

My friend and I (current and former co-op wrenchers) are heading to Berlin, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, late April -early May. While we both have touring bikes, for a variety of reasons we can’t bring them on this trip. This visit is more of a scouting mission so we will be exploring around the edges of these big cities and hope to do so by bike. We both have backgrounds in the bike co-op world, and have provided this service to others in the past. Any suggestions on how to obtain affordable rentals or loaners in these regions? Any recomended bike coops around the region?  other helpful suggestions?

I'm volunteering with a new group that is fixing and giving away bikes. We have a space, but it's a mess. Does anyone have suggestions, ideas, or links on organizing bike workshop and coop spaces?

I volunteer at an all volunteer non-profit bike co-op. We refurb and sell donated bikes. Teach and assist folks how to fix their bikes. All volunteer - we do not charge for labor - only charge for parts.

I got a call from our (possibly former) insurance agent. Told me the company that covered our building and liability was dropping the product for non-profits. No renewal possible. The agent has no access to companies that will cover a non-profit. The big sticking point is liability on used bikes.

After many calls, got an application in and paid first months premium to another company. But since it still has to be approved by underwriting, they could decide not to accept it. We get at least 60 days notice if we get turned down.

Who do you get your coverage through? We're in Ohio.

Hey, all, I am trying to better store an obscene amount of forks. They're presently in those rectangular, plastic bins, which does keep them compact, but also takes up a lot of floor space.

Any suggestions or examples of low-to-higher skilled (construction-wise) storage for so many goddamn forks?

Hi I'm going to be riding the GAP and C&O trail in June this year. Me and a buddy are building up two single speeds for the ride and planning on leaving them in DC. Wanted to see if there are any coops or kitchens in DC who might be interested in the bikes we'd be leaving them frame bags, and all parts besides saddles.

The Bike Coop non-profit that I volunteer at has been using QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Desktop for a long time. We do less than $50K per year. Yesterday a message popped when I opened POS said that POS is being discontinued this October. On-line payments and everything else will stop working. The message provides a link to Shopify for replacements. So, we're now shopping for a replacement POS. Ideally, it would be a POS that supports a card payments, a cash register, inventory, and talks to Quickbook Desktop.

Anybody else in the same boat?

What are you using for POS and accounting?

I live in a small poor community of 12,000 in NY and our downtown just got a $10 million dollar grant. I want to help influence our community as it grows and am interested in starting a bike co-op, especially since our downtown lacks parking. Additionally, I want more children and adults to have access to inexpensive transportation. Can I manage this myself to get started? Should I register as a non-profit? Not sure how to get started and any advice would be great!

The co-op in Edmonton where I live has two shops and I play crankset bingo: Check donated orphan spiders against donated orphan left cranks. Pictured is the all-time orphan five years in. I'll mail this (half-of a) two-piece FSA road double for free to any co-op out there that has the left crank for it: 175 mm. Hopefully the picture provides the details you need, but 24mm spindle, was in a 68 mm BB. (Hopefully the moderator is ok with...?)

The bike co-op in my city not only survived, selling bikes and parts by appointment, but opened a relocated-second location it was launching exactly when COVID shut retail down. It has now resumed DIY, which it had not done since March 2020.

Really my post is to see if this subreddit survived tho - im pretty new here so not sure if this is derelict or what

the one i frequent has shut its walk in service to everyone and set up a go fund me. they still have appointments in their regular bike shop formatted space, but thats not really bringing in enough dough for them currently.

im wondering if any others have something better set up.

Hi guys I am apprentice in a bike coop , one of the volunteers expressed concerns about sanding and scoring disc brake pads on older bikes we refurbish as they potentially are made with asbestos.Are you aware of any specific laws or regulations regarding this matter

Hi fellow co-op’ers-

I’m in Longmont, CO, and have been working on starting a co-op for about 18 months. My experience comes with Spoke Folks in Grand Rapids, MI.

I’ve learned that the bike advocacy non-profit (Bicycle Longmont) in town had a successful co-op years back, but ran out of volunteer interest to run it. What that means is I’ve got tools, stands, bikes, an active 501(c)(3), and even a dormant QBP account ready to implement, but lack only the space to operate. Rent In Longmont is not particularly cheap, and I’ve struggled to find anyone willing to parcel off an industrial corner for the project. BL is hesitant to commit to make the leap into putting their name on a lease.

All that is to say, do you have any recommendations as far as finding space that will work until the co-op is viable enough to start paying bills? Do I need to start with a fundraiser? If so, how many months of rent am I trying to raise?

In the grand scheme, this feels like a small hurdle, though it has sidelined the project for some time now. I’d appreciate any input!