There are a great diversity of people at the bike co-op. There are people of every race, social-status, economic-status, and religion. In that respect, the bike co-op has been an eye-opening experience for me. I have met someone that lives in a one room apartment with a couple other people right outside of the projects and I have met someone that owns his own business and drives a sports-car. I think that bike co-ops ability to attract such a diverse group of people is what makes the bike co-op unique from a standard “bike shop.” I think that the bike co-op is more of a culture/experience than a place to just buy/fix bikes. In that respect, I hope that the bike co-op continues to grow and develop because it is really a unique place. It would be great if the Hawken community got more involved with the bike co-op because the co-op really does embody many of the values and service-commitments that Hawken prides itself on.
Also, if anyone wants a bike for college, wants to fix up their old one, or wants to learn more about how to fix bikes, you should visit the co-op sometime… 1840 Columbus Road near Downtown Cleveland, in the flats.
~Joe
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Some Suggestions
After working at the co-op for a while, Seth and I have thought of a variety of suggestions for the bike co-op. Currently, the bike co-op is still in its “developmental stage” due to have just relocating. The bike co-op is now located in what use to be an old factory on 1840 Columbus Rd. Since the location use to be a factory the bike co-op is very… dirty and run-down. I think that the co-op should make cleaning up the site a number one priority (instead of a minor priority, as it is now). I think that doing this would allow the bike co-op to be more appealing to a greater and more diverse group of people. Moreover, I think that a clean and organized environment would greatly increase efficiency, enabling the bike co-op to get more done than it normally does (organization is a big problem). The second priority that I think the bike co-op should focus on is increasing the functionality of the entire co-op. Currently, the command structure and the volunteer structure at the co-op is very loose. People don’t always know what to do and there is no “mission guide/plan” to follow. Sometimes I will be told to scrap some bikes by one person, just to be told by another to save them. I feel that if the bike co-op focused on these two priorities, the co-op would improve vastly.
~Joe
~Joe
Actually Working on Bikes
Today we actually worked on bikes. We didn’t sort parts, sweep the shop, or any other kind of “grunt” work. It was actually a lot of fun. It was nice to finally engage in a task that required a little bit of thinking. I learned more today actually working on a bike than I learned during the rest of senior project. It was a nice experience being able to finally put all of things that I had learned from the bicycle maintenance classes to use. I started with a basic kid’s bike, which served as a good introductory task. I fitted the bike with new tires and wheels. I adjusted the bottom bracket and the hubs as well. I also learned how to use a variety of tools I hadn’t known how to use before. I think working on the bike helped teach me about a variety of mechanical skills in addition to bike-repair skills. It was quite fun. The only thing that wasn’t fun today was the heat. It gets VERY hot at the bike co-op. Regardless, today was still more fun than most days. I hope that for my final day tomorrow I get to work on some more bikes again.
~Joe
~Joe
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Grand Opening Day
I came to volunteer for the Coop's Grand Opening of their new location (across the street from their old one), and was pleasantly surprised. Roughly 100 people showed up at some point during the event, enjoyed free lunch (thanks to Jim, our director & great cook), and looked at bikes. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, despite a horrible odor escaping from the underground drainage pipes & broken toilets. Of course, they could've ignored it while our rock band tore up the building (with its concrete walls & floors). To say the least, it was a crazy day.
I even took a stab at selling a customer bike parts. Of course I had no idea what I was doing, but luckily neither did the person I was selling to know or care. So while I didn't make a sale, I still got my first experience as a sales rep. Easily, I knew I wasn't fit for the job.
The rest of the time I spent wondering around aimlessly, talking to coop members & looking around for some entertainment. A little obstacle course was set up using a mini-bike (this bike has tiny wheels) & half-tennis balls as cones. Kids tried to beat top times by riding between the tennis balls. I don't know if there was ever a winner, but it looked like fun!
Finally, the raffle took place for a $150 towards a coop bicycle. No one I knew won it, but it was a great event addition either way.
The Day Before the Grand Opening
Friday was our last day at the coop to prepare for its big opening day on Saturday. Fortunately, I got out of the brunt work involved in getting ready. Instead, I spent most of the day fixing toddlers' bikes, which was relatively easy & fun.
Since these bikes were so small, taking them apart was quite easy. There weren't any heavy parts to remove nor did I find my self in awkward or precarious positions. However, I did have to replace a lot of worn out tires & eroded brakes. It surprised me to find so many worn tires, especially because you wouldn't expect a toddler to be travelling that far. Maybe because the tires are so small they receive more wear just as a result of their diameter, and not so much the difference in the distance they travel.
However, I found the last bike to be the most daunting. With bent front brakes, a missing brake handle, worn rear tire, and worn hand grips, I spent nearly 2 hours repairing it!
The rest of the day I spent "spiffing up" old city bikes into looking like new ones. I actually wouldn't repair the old bikes, but rather give them the appearance that they've been repaired (i.e. adjusting the seatpost height, aligning brake cables, etc.) so that the coop appears to have a huge inventory on the grand opening. Technically they could be sold, but that would be cheating them of their hard-earned dollars!
Other than working on bikes, I threw wet tires onto a trailer to be recycled. The lesson learned: don't keep tires outside - they get wet, really wet!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
We made it.
On Thursday the 26th, we had the final performance of the tour in Cleveland at The Grog Shop.
The promoters were not the usual ones who throw shows at the Grog so it was kind of weird but it was still awesome.
These promoters had the show start an hour earlier than it was supposed to, which led to the crowd being pretty small during the first couple performers. The lineup was a group called Plastic Hearts, then me, then a group called Twenty One Pilots, and then Smoke Screen.
Despite the relatively small crowd, my performance still received a pretty good response.
After the show, the promoters said they would love to put us on more shows in the future. And one of the members of a group called The Manhattan Scene came up to me and asked if I would like to perform at their upcoming album release show.
So looking back at this tour, there were a lot of obstacles, as we predicted, but each obstacle came with a myriad of benefits whether its experience, connections to a new scene, or even just having our names associated with certain venues as a resume builder. I would definitely consider it a success.
Now we're basically spending all of our time compiling and editing footage, along with scoring the documentary with our own original music.
The promoters were not the usual ones who throw shows at the Grog so it was kind of weird but it was still awesome.
These promoters had the show start an hour earlier than it was supposed to, which led to the crowd being pretty small during the first couple performers. The lineup was a group called Plastic Hearts, then me, then a group called Twenty One Pilots, and then Smoke Screen.
Despite the relatively small crowd, my performance still received a pretty good response.
After the show, the promoters said they would love to put us on more shows in the future. And one of the members of a group called The Manhattan Scene came up to me and asked if I would like to perform at their upcoming album release show.
So looking back at this tour, there were a lot of obstacles, as we predicted, but each obstacle came with a myriad of benefits whether its experience, connections to a new scene, or even just having our names associated with certain venues as a resume builder. I would definitely consider it a success.
Now we're basically spending all of our time compiling and editing footage, along with scoring the documentary with our own original music.
Charleston, Part 3
Our second interview on Tuesday was with an owner of a local bookstore, known as Ravenous Reader, located around ten minutes outside of downtown Charleston. Unfortunately, as we pulled into the parking lot in front of the small pink storefront, we saw a huge banner displaying the message: "Going out of business!" So we obviously had to alter some of our questions in our heads to cater to the fact that this local business wasn't surviving or able to compete against the larger chains. We figured that maybe we would be able to figure out something that this business was doing that may have hurt it and caused it to go out of business.
We entered to find the storeowner sitting behind a desk, quietly reading while music played throughout the tiny, vacant store. The shelves were far from full, so we realized that the business was trying to get rid of all of the books without receiving shipments of any more. When we talked to her, she mentioned how a lot of her difficulty with her business lately was from dealing with the new technologies, just like we had found with the owner of Mac's Backs Books in Cleveland. The difference between the two businesses that seemed to have helped Mac's Backs but not Ravenous Reader was that Mac's Backs had set up a method for buyers to purchase eBooks towards the store, yet Ravenous Reader did not even have a website. Another reason Ravenous Reader was going out of business was because the owner was in her early sixties and ready for retirement, so she wasn't as willing to fight against all the big businesses and the new technologies.
When we asked for her opinion on the eBook movement, she mentioned how she thinks they are just a fad, and that what is troubling is that consumers always want what is currently trendy. However, she doesn't believe that eBooks will completely take over the book industry because there are some types of books that are important to have in the physical form, such as certain non-fiction and self-help books. She does not plan on adding eBooks to her business' products because she is not willing to pay the expenses for a website, so she hasn't been and won't be able to compete with other businesses in that aspect.
She did mention that in the seventeen years that her store has been open, it has had a very loyal group of customers, and that often times several generations of her customers' families will shop there. Her first location was right next to a Publix, similar to a Giant Eagle, which brought a lot of foot traffic. But after ten years of open business, she moved down the street to a location a little more tucked away, but that wasn't as much of a problem because she had already built many customer connections.
One coincidence that we thought of while talking with her was that she did advertise more than other businesses we had previously talked with. Other businesses would maybe advertise a few times in a local newspaper, but they depended heavily on word of mouth, whereas Ravenous Reader advertised much more often in newspapers and magazines, budgeting a lot more money towards that part of the business.
The owner did not want to be filmed, so it was a quick conversation that was short yet informative, and it gave us a different aspect on local businesses because we had talked with one that was no longer successful.
We entered to find the storeowner sitting behind a desk, quietly reading while music played throughout the tiny, vacant store. The shelves were far from full, so we realized that the business was trying to get rid of all of the books without receiving shipments of any more. When we talked to her, she mentioned how a lot of her difficulty with her business lately was from dealing with the new technologies, just like we had found with the owner of Mac's Backs Books in Cleveland. The difference between the two businesses that seemed to have helped Mac's Backs but not Ravenous Reader was that Mac's Backs had set up a method for buyers to purchase eBooks towards the store, yet Ravenous Reader did not even have a website. Another reason Ravenous Reader was going out of business was because the owner was in her early sixties and ready for retirement, so she wasn't as willing to fight against all the big businesses and the new technologies.
When we asked for her opinion on the eBook movement, she mentioned how she thinks they are just a fad, and that what is troubling is that consumers always want what is currently trendy. However, she doesn't believe that eBooks will completely take over the book industry because there are some types of books that are important to have in the physical form, such as certain non-fiction and self-help books. She does not plan on adding eBooks to her business' products because she is not willing to pay the expenses for a website, so she hasn't been and won't be able to compete with other businesses in that aspect.
She did mention that in the seventeen years that her store has been open, it has had a very loyal group of customers, and that often times several generations of her customers' families will shop there. Her first location was right next to a Publix, similar to a Giant Eagle, which brought a lot of foot traffic. But after ten years of open business, she moved down the street to a location a little more tucked away, but that wasn't as much of a problem because she had already built many customer connections.
One coincidence that we thought of while talking with her was that she did advertise more than other businesses we had previously talked with. Other businesses would maybe advertise a few times in a local newspaper, but they depended heavily on word of mouth, whereas Ravenous Reader advertised much more often in newspapers and magazines, budgeting a lot more money towards that part of the business.
The owner did not want to be filmed, so it was a quick conversation that was short yet informative, and it gave us a different aspect on local businesses because we had talked with one that was no longer successful.
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