OCBC is closed on July 5th, 2008
In observance of our national holiday, OCBC will be closed on July 5th. There will be no official Saturday morning ride, the co-op will not be open for retail, and there will be no class at 4pm. I (Peter) personally recommend going for a short ride on an extremely heavy cruiser (American, with an American bottom bracket of course), then eating a large meal of cookout leftovers and watching some baseball (on TV or in person).
The co-op will be open as normal on Monday, July 7th, and the Saturday Repair Class Series for July will start on July 12th at 4pm.
Tips for new bike commuters
We have found that more and more people who come to OCBC looking for a bike are planning to use it for regular bike commuting -- some even saying they are selling their car and need a bike for their main form of transportation. Of course, we have always seen more of these people than most regular bike shops, but this year the number has risen drastically.
"Helping people use bikes" doesn't get any more direct than helping these customers, so we advise them as much as we can while they are here, but we are always disappointed when they don't enroll in Bicycle Driver's Education (...should we offer a bigger discount, or make it free?), or take their free Bicycle Basics class (...should we offer it more often, or at different times?), or even return for their free Bike check-over (...should we go to their house and do it in their garage?). People are busy. And lately, we are very busy at OCBC, especially on Saturdays, so we are trying to streamline how we allocate our time, and have come up with a few things that will help us help the most people "use bikes as much as they can."
First, we no longer take deposits or reservations for bikes we have not already repaired; this saves us from endless bike-shuffling, and saves our customers from endless waiting for their bikes to be ready. For people who are committed to buying a bike from OCBC, we now ask that they join as a supporting member, which allows us to keep track of them efficiently, so we can find a bike that is right for them, and put it in the work queue.
Second, we are now asking new shoppers to answer a short questionnaire about their needs, so we can give them more useful education about bikes we have, or bikes they can find at their local bike shop. This data-collection is beneficial for our grant-seeking efforts as well.
Finally, we have recently included some links to bike commuter tips on our reorganized Used Bikes For Sale page. We will be adding to these, and eventually creating a separate page, so send us your tips!
As always, we welcome comments and suggestions from members and the public about these changes to our policies and practices. Email Jim@OhioCityCycles.org