>>1811003>>1811170>>1811291>>1811514It's kinda funny. There are two cycling co-ops in my city, one is 80% popular the other is 20%, and I've volunteered at the 80% one for almost a decade.
Recently, there's an uptick in people that are clearly not building bikes for themselves, but they're in it to flip the thing. I don't know if it's because of 'scarce availability' for some components, or they're feeling the inflation squeeze, etc.
But it's half-shitty that they're leveraging the co-op to get consumables for... less than cost. There's a few local businesses (big ones), that donate to the idea, and we buy some things in bulk (tires, tubes, chains, cables, etc). It's all from China, but acceptable quality for a basic commuter bike.
When we pay for it, it's cost minus donations, co-op pays the rest. At POS, we charge a flat rate to encourage people to fix their shit. It seems like it would work: charge less than the LBS, but you do the wrenching. And in a sense, it does--I can't recall the last time the co-op went in the red after utility bills, toilet paper, etc (co-op owns the building).
But I'm about done with it. It doesn't seem to help "the people that need it", but rather, flippers w/ basic repair skills that see the arbitrage oppurtunity. I'll see a 'repeat visitor' in the shop working on something, and later that night, the same bike on CL/Facebook/Nextdoor, sort of "shop cost" + $150, or $200.
I asked one of my riding buddies about it, and he said I'm sour because someone else seized the opportunity. But I'm just not into the spirit of it.
And before you ask, yes, I use Arch Linux (no I don't call it GNU/Linux).
Anyone else see this in their area?
(Not my pic, just here for your attention.)
