Economics of Bicycle Recycling and Reselling

[Andy in Germany]

Some of you know I've been managing trying to organise a bicycle recycling workshop for about five months now, and another thread has developed into a general story of the workshop itself.

I'm not experienced as a manager, nor as a bike mechanic; I got the job because I'm trained and experienced dealing with vulnerable adults and these are/will be the "staff" in the workshop. That means I'm dealing with people with widely varying levels of ability and interest/commitment.

Now the place no longer looks like the inside of a skip, I've written a report to the manager of the shop I'm part of and the boss of the company, detailing what I see as the main issues and how to deal with them, and we'll be meeting together to put a plan together soon.

I'd appreciate input from people who do this sort of thing already, specifically on how to make the operation efficient and economical while using as many recycled parts as possible, because the point is to recycle bikes, so I'd like to hear what you think or experienced in this specific area. For example:

What are the "triage" criteria to help you decide if a bike even gets repaired?

What do you check first on a bike when you put it on the repair stand?

Do you have a fixed time scale to work on a bike? How long is it? If it varies, what are the criteria?

Having started a bike, is there a "cut off" in terms of time or complication where it is no longer worth repairing?

Are there parts that you always replace with new parts?

How much do you tolerate imperfections like scratches, mismatched tyres or shifters?

Do you use recycled lights, and if so, how do you test them?

What new parts would you keep in stock?

I think that's more than enough to start with. Some may be silly questions with hindsight, but I'll start there and work onwards to ask more pertinent questions.

 

[Jameshow]

I cannot answer this but perhaps you could email others who do:-
Margret Carey foundation.
Resurrection bikes in Harrogate
Gloucester bike project to name but three!

 

[Sharky]

Not one to advise, but check for stuck seat post and stem.

Good luck with the project.

 

[Cycleops]

No idea how to manage an operation commercially but as above if the seat post or stem is irreversibly stuck the frame is scrap.
Good luck with your project, I'm sure you'll find many appreciative customers as the price of new bikes goes ever higher and others who want to reject the throwaway society.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

Can't help much but I do know someone who volunteers at a bike recycling project and their standard's are different to mine, but I have no idea if I am just being a perfectionist.

For example they are willing to get a bike back on the road by using the wrong sized seat pin and a sleeve made by cutting up a "baked bean tin", the basic idea is not unsound as such sleeves are available commercially. As seat pins tend not to be things that are saved from wrecks doing this gets a bike up and running that would have needed a new part.

Is this sort of thing acceptable to you and your organisation? It is also probably obvious but as someone in the UK I have no idea on what is and is not legally acceptable where you are.

As I understand your situation much of the labour is "free" but also a long way from specialising in bike repairs, so the decision of when it is it safe to improvise (bodge) can't be delegated.

My impression is that people taking bikes from recycling sites expect the brakes to stop them and the gears to change and not slip, basically perform as a new bike would rather than be a project and be free(ish). This suggests to me that you need a ******* great big real of cable outer and lots of inners, chains and cassettes.

Whilst with STI there is a clear difference between brake and gear outers, pre indexed shifting I always used the same outer, and have just done so with a new down tube shifter build.

Cables and outers are quite expensive when bought individually/by the metre but do you have access to either an lbs or high street chain that would supply you at close to cost?

I am currently building up a new frame with things that I thought that I had as working spares, it surprised me with how badly worn/unusable those spares were.

Best wishes with the project.

Bye

Ian

 

[harlechjoe]

My advice is not to recycle a bike if you don't have the knowledge to assess its safety or skills and resources make it safe.

 

[Oldhippy]

I would do what I did with Emmaus and get in touch with companies that supply the new stuff you have to have and after explaining how and why you do what you do they invariably offered heavily discounted or free stock. You have nothing to lose by asking. I would also try and sell the where's and whys of cycling in general to the folk who find themselves working with the bikes in the hope of sparking interest and passion in doing a good job. I have no idea what the rules are I Germany though, here I have always operated on absurd optimism, so far so good. 😁

 

[MichaelW2]

https://bicyclelinks.org.uk/ in Norwich do similar work and seem to be good at it.

 

[biggs682]

First thing for me is too make sure seat posts and quill stems are both free to move and adjust .
Then a quick visual and if all looks ok a gentle cycle path ride to check what works and what doesn't , then on the repair stand and do what is required to make bike safe to ride and nice to ride.

If any doubt with tyres replace , if cables are sticky or rusty then replace , true wheels as required .Make sure all the gears select freely in both directions,

Then ride test for between 50 & 100 miles in total.

What to stock inner and outer cables , inner tubes , brake blocks , pads and various spokes .

If a bike doesn't or can't be made to reach standards then strip for spares or sell on as spare and repair

 

[Jameshow]

First thing for me is too make sure seat posts and quill stems are both free to move and adjust .
Then a quick visual and if all looks ok a gentle cycle path ride to check what works and what doesn't , then on the repair stand and do what is required to make bike safe to ride and nice to ride.

If any doubt with tyres replace , if cables are sticky or rusty then replace , true wheels as required .Make sure all the gears select freely in both directions,

Then ride test for between 50 & 100 miles in total.

What to stock inner and outer cables , inner tubes , brake blocks , pads and various spokes .

If a bike doesn't or can't be made to reach standards then strip for spares or sell on as spare and repair

Test ride for 50- 100miles

Andy would never be seen in the workshop again!!

 

[Andy in Germany]

Test ride for 50- 100miles

Andy would never be seen in the workshop again!!

I did fo a moment wonder what my boss would say if I took up @biggs682's suggestion.

 

[Big John]

Hi Andy. I think you know by now that I work in a sort-of-similar-place to yours. We differ in that our main staff are provided by the probation service along with the odd volunteer or two. The boss is a Cytech qualified bike mechanic and he supervises the guys working on bikes, dishing out advice when anyone gets 'stuck'. He checks completed jobs, does any additional tweeks and finally signs off the worksheet. We use a trade supplier for most of the consumables/components we stock. The decision 'Is it a fixer-upper?' is down to the boss but his only criteria is years of experience. If it's considered beyond repair it's stripped of all useful parts, which become our used stock to either sell to customers or use on refurbished bikes. We not only sell refurbished bikes but we service and repair bikes too. I've done a wheel building course and have a few years experience now of building wheels so i get the building/truing jobs which I either do at work or at home as I'm retired and only work one day a week at the charity.

Not sure if any of what I've said is of any use and there's so much else I could write down. All I'd say is don't overstretch yourself and don't take on work that you know you should turn away. The boss at our place is a cracking mechanic but he has no idea how to say NO to customers. We end up working hours on a bike for peanuts simply because we should never have got involved in the first place.

I think the comments above about stuck seatposts are excellent and it's bang on. Even if you can unstick a difficult one it's never a five minute job. The comment about test riding a refurbished bike for between 50 and 100 miles I can only assume was made in jest. If you know of a professional bike mechanic who test rides his customers bikes for maybe 6 hours I hope he's charging for those hours spent in the saddle 😉

 

[Andy in Germany]

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I'm interested that the seat post is often the first place to check; we hang bike by their seat post so I'd always notice if they were jammed, and our bikes tend to come with a seat post, even though many are "scrap".

We get new parts wholesale so cables come in boxes of 50 and outer cables on a great 50m drum. I have a basic price list for used and new parts and we charge customers retail prices on anything new that we build onto the bike. This keeps the accounts department happy but it also pushes the price up, hence my question about what is absolutely necessary.

For used parts we build onto a bike I tend to add 15€ to the cost; this means we sometimes make a loss and sometimes a profit.

I've been surprised how many bikes have severely worn chains and rear cassettes/blocks. My own experience is that most of the time I have to change both cassette and chain and the replacement has to be new, which costs the customer about 40€ straight away.

My biggest time killer at the moment is stuck and damaged bottom brackets, and dynamo lights: Dynamo systems are great when they work but there are so many reasons for them not to work and I have to go along finding them. I'm working on a "test station" so I can test all the parts quickly instead of trying to guess why a light isn't working.

It looks like ultimately the only way to deal with this will be getting more experience and getting the parts more organised so I can replace things quickly when they don't work.

This I can do as long as the company is willing to carry the shop for a while.

 

[Andy in Germany]

First thing for me is too make sure seat posts and quill stems are both free to move and adjust .
Then a quick visual and if all looks ok a gentle cycle path ride to check what works and what doesn't , then on the repair stand and do what is required to make bike safe to ride and nice to ride.

If any doubt with tyres replace , if cables are sticky or rusty then replace , true wheels as required .Make sure all the gears select freely in both directions,

Then ride test for between 50 & 100 miles in total.

What to stock inner and outer cables , inner tubes , brake blocks , pads and various spokes .

If a bike doesn't or can't be made to reach standards then strip for spares or sell on as spare and repair

Thanks for this, I try to be sensible about replacing cables and not automatically replace everything, but if it's damaged or rusty I don't like trying to sell it.

 

[Jameshow]

Do you do customer servicing? Might be a way if making quick cash for the project.

A cassette and chain replacement might only take 10mins but you could charge £25 labour?