hmasonnbda

Greetings all, I'm Heather Mason, President of the NBDA, the National Bicycle Dealers Association. We've been helping our industry's retailers achieve success since 1946 in a wide variety of ways.

As part of our DEI Committee's priorities, we've identified that helping America's nonprofit/co-op shops prosper is really important to the cycling eco-system.

The first step is a survey that will be sent out later this month.

We've assembled a great team to work on this, including John Robinson, one of our NBDA board members and chair of the DEI Committee, who has a bike shop in Columbus, Ohio and works closely with the non-profits in Columbus.

Ray Keener, who many of you know as Retail Editor of Bicycle Retailer magazine, he's conducted surveys of you all and written articles for the magazine about co-op shops. He was also Board President of Boulder's Community Cycles from 2013 to 2016.

And finally, Peter Woolery from Bicycle Market Research LLC. Peter will be formatting, conducting and analyzing results from the survey. He's also part of an industry group called the Nerd Collective that keeps track of all bike-related research.

One more element to our efforts: PeopleForBikes and the League of American Bicyclists have agreed to share their programs that may benefit through the "one-stop for non-profits" page we'll be setting up on our website.

If you are interested, please e-mail tray@growthcycle.net with your contact info to make sure you get the survey.

wheelreason

D part of NBDA here, and my tongue is starting to bleed...

skidder

You lost me at DEI.

Was this cut-and-paste script that was sent out to bicycle dealers? Because it reads that way and comes off as generic and impersonal to an individual like me, no effort to connect with the audience.

NVFlinch 

I've got a reading disorder...my attention span goes to zero after "DEI"...

Rick_D

May find you've run into a firewall of cranky old men here.

Good luck!

indyfabz

Did you read what is obviously a copy and paste job of a form letter? Send the OP your email address so they can easily communicate with you. Personally, I l will pass.

badger1

Yep; absolutely ridiculous. The message is directed (second person, direct address) to the owners/managers of "nonprofit/co-op shops". Whoever this person is/whatever this organization is, they/it couldn't even be bothered to copy edit this missive to fit this context.

I especially liked this: " ... survey that will be showing up in your inboxes soon." So, every active/inactive member of teh Biek Formz is assumed to be connected with a 'nonprofit/co-op' shop? And what are these 'inboxes' of which this individual speaks? Lol!

Sincerely,
Cranky Old Man

CrimsonEclipse

and bigoted....

indyfabz

Damn! You got me.

indyfabz

Yep. Why would I want to help?

And before I get flamed, I will note that in the last two months I have donated 3 bikes to my local co-op, including a custom IF Steel Crown Jewel SE frame and Ouzo fork (both in Starlight Purple) built with some very serviceable SRAM Force parts. Pretty much a complete bike minus wheels, seat post, saddle and pedals. And a Shimano long cage RD thrown in.

badger1

Did the same, in the Spring of this year. Not on your scale, but I had a complete drivetrain, wheel set, two brake sets, and other bits and pieces laying around that I was never going to use. To the local co-op they went, and much appreciated they were.

indyfabz

To be completely forthcoming, the 80s Trek 800 something I took there belonged to an ex. She had left it behind and didn’t want it anymore, Part of what the co-op does is run a youth cycling program. Kids earn bikes by working on them, The ex is 5’, so the bike is perfect for a younger person and urban riding. I hope to see it and the other two on the streets someday. I’m still on the fence about donating the B.O.B. Yaak trailer.

RCMoeur 

I missed the original post, which seems to have vanished. The NBDA initiative seems to be described in the BRAIN article at https://www.bicycleretailer.com/anno...ops-nationwide . I suppose NBDA thought BikeForums might be a place to find/mine this sort of information.

As a regular participant in our local co-op, I think this would be a tough sell. What would the $129 really buy in terms of tangible benefits to the shop? The issues co-ops face can be similar to new-bike IBDs, but can be quite different. I see NBDA as focused on retail dealers, and trying to serve co-ops might de-focus their efforts. Also, considering co-ops to be under the DEI umbrella could be seen as possibly stereotyping. I don't care what the customer's ethnic background or socioeconomic status is - my job is to help them with what they need in terms of obtaining or repairing a bike within the limits of the co-op's resources and my training & expertise.

wheelreason

B.R.A.I.N. dead is more like it, not new or surprising. They are a bunch of wanna be experts looking out for the hand that feeds them, but what do I know, our shop(s) have always made money, and I suspect they will continue to do so. They should change their name to NB (compete with) DA.

Dave Mayer

This initiative would allow commercial bike shops to better identify co-ops and non-profits and their capabilities. The commercial shops that surround our local Co-op frequently refer clients our way whose: "needs cannot be met" by their shop. This usually involves complex repairs on obsolete bikes. And repairs for clients with no money. Or usually both.


The second class of referrals is directing folks over who are more into activism than bike repair, and who aspire to the higher goal of mobilizing the resources and funding of the Co-op as a staging point for causes such as more bike infrastructure, ban the car/car free days, anti-fossil fuels, anti-homelessness, low-income housing, social justice and other progressive causes. Clearly these are not in the mission statement of a for-profit shop.


I suppose this initiative would better delineate the roles and 'turf' of the commercial and co-ops in any region, and allow the commercial shops to achieve progressive social goals, at least indirectly.