Adelaide Community Bicycle Workshop

It's been 9 months since we opened the Community Bicycle Workshop! 

West Torrens Council  want for a short report, to know all is OK; BISA need a report too. Council were supposed to get one every 3 months, but didn't ask 'til now....

Both The Bicycle Institute and West Torrens asked if people who use the workshop need anything?  

Wish list time! 

My impression is, people visiting the Workshop, can nearly always get done, what they want to.  I can think of a few tools it might be nice to have . Also, better ventilation - the windows are locked and we sometimes need to let out fumes, or let in fresh air .

So - over to you; 

 -  Any  tools/equipment you needed and didn't find?   (BISA's domain) 

- building/ maintenance  issues?  (W Torrens Council). Council have been pretty helpful  , good of them to ask whether we need anything more from them.      

Cheers,

Mike.

Mike, co-ord of Bikes for Refugees who opens the workshop on a Saturday, has done some more thinking after his previous post.

What Hayhurst (I said Hazlehurst earlier) chose to raise, were really issues about  groups finding ways to share space. The space is adequate, for both, to get done what they want.    There will always be niggles, but niggles can be sorted out by friendly give and take, communication.  Like we, and most of them, had been doing for 8 months.

As Hayhurst raised these as Safety, I had to address them formally, and  do a full risk assessment. Took several hours - but produced little of substance. Safety  has been looked at fairly thoroughly already, we already had to do a hazard assessment and safe working practises, and that went to Council.

Resultsof the risk assessment for last Saturday's complaints,  need to be documented in writing. Hayhurst get a copy of the 2 page hazard assessment tomorrow.  

 Their first complaint - bikes in the way of people walking in the car park . It is perhaps irritating to find a bike in your way, and to have to walk round it. But just because something is irritating - doesn't make it a safety concern. Ie no issue. If they get fussed, they can always walk round a bike, or move it themselves out of the way, I'm sure none of us would object.

The second complaint - tools dropped on ground being a tripping hazard -- in theory perhaps.  Hazard assessment rates that,  "acceptable risk". Unlikely to occur, and if it does, consequences small.   The phrase says it all. Yes, it is a risk. But it is an acceptable one.  It is a risk that is acceptable. We require measures in place to address it; we in fact have those. A

Safety is supposed to be a shared concern, so I'm required to give Hayhurst, an opportunity to respond. I still think tomorrow we should close early - but that is to avoid aggravation and give them an opportunity to respond with the so called "hazards" removed. It is not because there are actually hazards, and the solution is to remove them (as I thought earlier).

Worth noting, the car park is presumably public land. Anyone can bring a bike onto it at any time. We have no authority to prevent them, or require them to leave. Also, if Hayhurst are concerned about bikes in the car park they can use the front door. Re opening hours, - we open with Council permission, our hours include  time after 12, and we are entitled to use that. We might have to be a bit more careful in future, to keep tools tidy - bikes clear of the door - but that is all.

 I take safety of elderly seriously. If old folks fall - eg over sporting equipment or the unsecured edge of a carpet -   worse consequences than for us, bones break and tendons rip more easily, and heal more slowly.

But  I don't appreciate it, when people invoke "Safety"  for things that really aren't safety issues. And make formal complaints, when informal early enquiries, might achieve a lot more.   

 Mike.  

There  were two complaints last week from Hazlehurst Senior Citizens Club who use the Plympton Community Centre hall after us on Saturday. The issues are basically about how people can share space, and could have been solved earlier, and informally, and in a friendly way. However Hazlehurst chose not to do that, and instead chose to raise them semi-officially, and as OH&S.

The issue was while Hazlehurst members were arriving some people were working on a bike, near the back door. The bike was leaning on a bollard; there were some tools on the ground.  

Hazlehurst believed tools/bikes near the door are a ‘safety hazard’,  ‘a tripping hazard’  and ‘obstructing the path’ for their senior citizens. Some are over 80 and cannot see well.  

As Hazlehurst framed it as an OH&S issue -  the Workshop needs to respond using that framework.

In terms of risk management, the likelihood of anything happening is small but not negligible.   Bikes, and people working on them, are large, easy to see. Tools on the ground might be a bit harder to spot.   

That said, if anything does happen, consequences are serious. Falls can be debilitating for the elderly e.g broken hips, or torn tendons, which will not heal well.

The only way we can eliminate the risk, is from now on, be packed up and gone,  before Hazlehurst turn up.   This means stopping work outside by 12, and  limiting what we do inside.  Otherwise, even with the best intentions....  sooner or later someone will leave a spanner on the ground,  and someone from Hazlehurst will stumble on it.

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This is disappointing as it cuts our time from 9-1 to 9-12. Council originally thought we could continue working after 12 and overlap with Hazlehurst. We had been doing this for some time, with no problems. Hazlehurst  folk seemed friendly; I thought any   issues could be talked over and resolved in a friendly way. In addition Hazlehurst, if worried about bikes,  have the option of   the front entrance for their frail elderly; that is entirely free of bikes, we don’t use it.

However the two rather abrupt people  who collared me on Saturday,  didn’t seem open to much friendly discussion .

So a few guidelines for Saturdays from now..

1.   we’ll need to finish bike work  at 11:50,  then  be gone from the car park by 12.  Please be punctual, I'll be locking up soon after. 

Also, in case Hazlehurst turn up early….

1. If you  work outside, please make sure you’re not blocking the door  Leave the walkway to the door clear – that’s the yellow hatching.  Please don’t lean bikes up against the bollards.
2. Keep your tools in one place and off the floor! We’ll try to get  some  portable tables..

Finally, we ought to open the workshop at another time – any volunteers?  To some extent we're victims of our own success - more people turning up - tending to need more time. Workshop is free Sat after 4, Sunday til 2. Also Mon, Tue Thu after 3:30, and all day Friday.   

Anyone interested in running another session regularly?  please contact myself, Brian Jenkins or Jeremy Miller.

This is all a bit disappointing. It seems unfair as the responsibility is really a joint one - yet it seems to be us that have to do a lot of accommodation, and Hazlehurst do very little extra.  As Hazlehurst raised it as OH&S, I've had to look into it thoroughly, and draft a response that's at least semi official. That's taken  4-5 hours of my time,  for something that they could have resolved with us, and in a more friendly way,  more effectively, and earlier, by a few minutes of friendly chat.   Still, done now, and I guess we must live with it.

Mike.

Bikes for Refugees coordinator Mike Brisco writes about the most recent project they've undertaken using the Workshop.

The Bike Workshop isn’t just about giving bikes to individuals or families, it can also tackle projects, with more reach.

Wednesday this week we took one “class set” of 35 BMX-size bikes to Augusta Park primary school in Port Augusta. This followed a request from teacher Ben Kitchin, whom I’ve known since 2008.

Schools don't just use bikes for cycling.

Ben, at his old school, Wilsden, organised bike-fixing lessons (with help of the local bike shop), and when he was down in Adelaide, we used to supply bikes for him to take back to fix. Those  were generally the ones that were  too damaged to be worth our while doing up, but the school had resources for help, and parts. Ben got a lot of mileage out of them. The pupils learned mechanics and riding. Ben also  encouraged achievement in other areas. Like Hogwarts -  the school had four ‘houses’ and pupils earned points for the house they were in.  Every  2 weeks  the house with most points, held a “prize draw”, and the pupils who'd helped put their house on top, all got entered. The prize was of course one of the bikes - so the pupil  got to take home a bike they’d probably helped build.

Ben is now at Augusta Park. He can't run bike mechanics classes, as his helper from the local bike shop, had retired. Last time we spoke, Ben asked about a “class set”  of 30 bikes to ride on the nearby BMX track. They'd need fixing up and delivering.  It seemed feasible for the  Community Bike Workshop to attempt. If it came off, would be worthwhile: bikes recycled; lots of kids get to try cycling; etc...

How the Community Bike Workshop went about the project

It took 8 months to collect those bikes!  We get few  BMX size bikes donated, people hang on to them, or ride them to destruction.  We did get some unexpected help - the type of help you normally only see, at  a community enterprise. BMX enthusiast Ashley did us  “2 for 1” swaps –   e.g taking a 1980s bike, which interested him for its design -  finding for us,  two modern bikes in exchange. Thus increasing numbers, and removing old-looking bikes the kids might not  want to ride. Students at Wiltja College Adelaide, also ran a “scrapheap challenge” and built   10-12 rideable bikes, from spare parts  (see blog earlier). 

By Easter we had  35  bikes: the class set of 30, plus 5 spares.  Some of these got fixed up at the Bike Workshop. Others, I did   over the Easter break, with a bit of help from two young friends, Harry and Cassie. The bikes included: almost new Haro BMXs  –  4 strong, well used Mongoose BMXs;  children’s bikes for general riding, e.g Raleigh ; mass market brands, eg Kent and Huffy. A good mix of styles and sizes. 

Delivering the bikes

Wednesday,  Brad Budgen and I  hired a truck to take the bikes  to Port Augusta.  Deputy Principal Phil Oliver met us, and took delivery. We gave the school a letter, stating that the bikes had been checked;  and were  in our opinion, OK to ride. Then back to Adelaide the same evening.

We hope the bikes will be useful for Ben and for Augusta Park School. Ben promised to let us know how they go & send photos. If /when news arrives, I’ll pass it on.

Project costs:

The bikes represent  $2,000 in value donated to the school. That's based on second-hand price of similar bikes, people’s time to check and repair and test, plus delivery costs ie truck hire.  Actual cost to us: $210 for repairs plus $440 truck = $650 total; a little under $20 per bike  supplied and delivered. 

Maybe more schools might offer cycling lessons, using  recycled bikes?

If they can use recycled bikes - it's very feasible. Currently, if a school wants to offer cycling, it has to buy the bikes new: maybe  $2000 minimum.  The Bicycle Workshop supplied them for a fraction of that cost. At the same time, we had a bit of fun, people learned about bike repair, and a lot of unwanted bikes, got recycled and put back into use.    

Thanks!

Good to see the Community Bicycle Workshop, completing another project!  my thanks to all who helped .  

Volunteers at the Bike Workshop, who give up Saturday mornings, to check and fix bikes . Harry and Cassie also helped with repairs, and road tested the bikes.  Special mention to Ashley (above); and the students at Wiltja Residential College (above).  Brad  shared the truck driving. Thanks too, to  all who donated the bikes, too numerous to mention.

We had a couple of really nice comments on our group page on Adelaide Cyclists after the weekend. No excuses now not to come down and see what's going on.

In 6 months many volunteers have helped “Bikes for Refugees” at
Plympton – for which we are eternally grateful.For the volunteers,
all they generally see is the bike, not where it goes … so I wanted
to write about how we know there’s a need – and what we do with the
bikes after Plympton..

In Adelaide, several welfare organisations help refugee families
settle in the community. Some arrange housing; others, furniture;
others help with money and bank accounts. Organisations can include
e.g Australian Refugee Association; Red Cross; Dept of Family and
Community Services; Baptist Care; Anglicare; STTARS; Circles of
Friends. There are also volunteers from the community. Each family
gets their own worker, who visits several times, asks what help they
would like, and make sure they are OK.

At some stage, the welfare worker finds out they would like bikes –
it’s a common request. The worker takes details (gender, age, height),
emails or phones me, and I write out an order in the Bikes for
Refugees order book. That way, we know, the bikes are something the
family actually wants – the demand comes from them. We also know,
when we fix up a bike - we are meeting a real need, one that the
community itself identified. That tends to work better than e.g us
fixing up bikes because we are idealistic about cycling – then
offering them to people, who might not actually want them, but don’t
want to offend us by saying "no thanks". .

At Plympton, I keep a range of bikes on hand, and fill orders from
those. [Anyone who visited Plympton, will have seen these bikes,
cluttering the workshop, and now the shipping container!] That way we
can consider each person’s needs individually. We have a chance of
sending a bike that will suit – rather than them having to accept,
whatever people happened to give us on the day, because that’s all we
have. So we aim to pick bikes to order, from stock on hand Usually
the bike has had no work done on it, so a volunteer will give it a
thorough check, service, and test-ride. But sometimes when we get
bikes donated, and have spare time, we fix them up, and return them to
stock ready to go out later.

At the end of Saturday’s session, I take the fixed bikes back to my
house, to organise pick-up . It is usually the welfare workers, who
deliver the bikes to the families. It works best, for the family, if
the bike comes from someone they know and trust . To arrange a
pick-up, I lock bikes outside on my veranda, and text through the
lock combination to the welfare worker, who can then call any time and
pick it up. If we have several orders from the same organisation – I
might do a trailer run to the city - to save the organisation staff
time and petrol

After that, the welfare worker can deliver the bikes on their next
visit to the family. They usually drop us a note, saying how things
went. I ought to put some on the website some time. That, plus the
fact that further orders follow - lets us know things are working, and
it is worth our while to keep going.

We also keep records of all this - each bike is recorded individually;
the work and testing done on it is recorded; as it who it goes to.
Again at some stage I might post more about this on the blog....

Some recent orders (1 order = 1 refugee family or 1 household..)

- 4 teenage boys, 17 years old, 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 7. (we
picked out 4 steel frame MTBs )

- 27 year old man, 6 foot tall, thin athletic build – (I think we
had a larger frame hybrid or racer, on hand)

-1 bike, to get to the City to attend English lessons ( we were lucky
to get a very good bike donated t – it went straight to him).

-5 for one family – 1 men's bike, 1 teenage son, 1 teenage daughter, a
boy aged 3, a girl aged 4.(We sent a range of sizes - hopefully
everyone could find something to ride!)

Easter Saturday, 7th April  -   Workshop will be open 9 am  to 12 noon, special Easter session.  

So it's maybe a good time to do the repair you've been putting off since Christmas? Also, "Bikes for Refugees" needs one or two volunteers... the Red Cross need 5 bikes for a newly arrived family. We have bikes picked out, but they need a service.

Also, reminder - Next Tuesday 10 April, Don Nairn's Drive Train Workshop (gears and chains).

Workshop : 34 Long Street, Plympton. Ample parking round the back.

More information, Mike Brisco, tel 0435 02 16 81.

Another post, to show what's been going on at the  Workshop.

Few months back Wiltja Boarding College asked us to run a bike-building event, something for their students to do one Saturday. We would supply bikes; the boys would help fix them and fixed bikes would go to a worthwhile cause.

I wasn't sure. The  Workshop is set up for people bringing their  bikes in to us, to work on at Plympton. We did have a lot of spare parts and frames - but usually takes a lot of work to build something of those - and I wasn't sure how much of this, the students could do themselves.

On the other hand  Wiltja's idea fitted another project we were running. "Bikes for Refugees" also gives bikes to primary schools in Port Augusta. One school, near a BMX track needed a "class set" of bikes. I had rashly agreed to supply one. A "class set" is 30 odd bikes.  I had been collecting  BMX-size parts, tyres, wheels,  frames, handlebars and broken bikes but still needed to build, and test, and check them. The BMX scrap-heap was clogging up the shipping container at the workshop.

Sat 17th  - Tamba and I drove the BMX "scrap-heap" to Wiltja.  I was thinking the students would get maybe 3 or 4 bikes out in the time they had but we would see.

Wiltja students are from the far north of SA. They board in Adelaide to attend secondary school. They were a bit shy at first but soon were blowing up tyres, trying brakes, changing tubes, looking for parts to make the bikes go. Lots of noise, lots of activity. By lunch, a few students were riding bikes around. Over the afternoon, the site became messier and messier, with parts and bits everywhere. But  more students were riding round on bikes. 

At 3pm, the staff called it a day, and we started to pack up. Picking up parts to put back in the trailer I realised they were mostly junk;  broken parts the students had removed. They would go in the bin not back to Plympton.  And of the "BMX scrap heap" - well, there wasn't much left! The students had made it all into bikes!  So  we brought back  13 or 14 very rideable bikes, and well road-tested. Rather than, as I'd feared, a heap of parts and pieces, to go back into the container for now, and still needing work. 

The students were great, and we couldn't have done a better job ourselves!

Also - the things that young people build, are different from the things adults build, even if they use the same materials. I think the Port Augusta kids will like the bikes, the Wiltja students created.... The finished bikes still need a bit of work, but should l go to Pt Augusta hopefully this Easter.

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Some thoughts for  the Workshop. First, this event really worked. The students enjoyed building, and we hope, had a sense of achievement, having turned a pile of scrap, into bikes they could then ride around and have fun on. It was good for us as they did a better job of bike building than we would. 

The Workshop may get asked to do more off-site activities in future so I'm  putting together, 6 or 7 sets of basic tools, so we can do that, without leaving the Workshop short.

Will be on at the Adelaide Community Bicycle Workshop, 34 Long Street Plympton.

On the April 10 from 7:00pm. This is the Tuesday after Easter.

Chains and gears can tend to polarize people as to the best way of doing things. This will be a basic course. The workshop host Don does not claim to know everything about gears and chains or the solution to every possible problem but a group knowledge sharing session can help to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

RSVP by reply please or call or text Don on 0432185227 . We only can take a limited number of people but if there is demand it can be repeated.

Photo by Flowizm/ Flickr.com/CC

Support Adelaide Community Bicycle Workshop – donate timber so we can build shelves and storage racks.

Since the workshop opened last August, we had a lot of great donations, of bikes and parts. We recently got a 6m shipping container to store donated bikes, parts and spares but we desperately need  to fit it out properly so stuff is neatly stored and it’s easy to find what you want.    

The plan: floor-to-ceiling storage shelves down one side;  Other side a hanging rail to take 20-25 bikes hung from their front wheels, pedals off, handlebars turned sideways. This leaves a wide walk-way for access and it'll be easy to see what there is and get to what you want.

The shelves are designed to be built of recycled timber or off-cuts - and this is where you can help. Do you have any off-cut pieces in the garage you could donate for us to recycle?  

• For shelf supports:  “4 x 2” structural timber (actually more like 70 x 35 mm) , anything 1.5 m or longer.  
• for shelves:  plank, chipboard, (melamine coated or plain), MDF, thick plywood,  even T&G floorboard  - strong, solid, at least 60 cm in one dimension, can be cut to 60 cm broad. Doesnt need to be all the same! Salvaged Chipboard / veneer board from wall units or cupboards is fine.
• for bike hanging rail: solid steel or iron bar.  Wooden pole, min 30 mm diam would also do. Min length 2 m; total length, 8-10 m.

So check your garage or shed for off-cuts you have left over. Those unused pieces can become a solid part of Adelaide’s cycling scene. Your timber gets recycled – the workshop gets better – and saves money to spend on bike tools for you to use.

If you have some timber to donate - love to hear from you, post here, or contact me on 0435 02 16 81

Mike