Need Help Aquiring Solid Single Speed Bikes for Rental (Worksman)

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yoothgeye

yoothgeye

I build stuff.
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Hey guys, I haven't been around in a while, church work has me swamped as well as volunteer work at the schools.

I just got a call from a guy on the city board, they are making some repairs to our local canal trail (used by runners, walkers, and bikes). The grant they got for local fitness includes providing some rental or borrow bikes. He wants to start with about 20 bikes, all single speed coaster brake bikes for ease of maintenance. I suggested Worksman because they are USA made and heavy duty. He asked if I could source any used bikes.

Do any of you have any placed local that rent decent single speed bikes and may rotate out some stock and be willing to sell to our city?

Anyone know of any programs to help get decent bikes at a discounted price for a city?

Thanks.
 
If they had the money, a bike share system would be the ideal solution. Boise is getting one from Social Bicycles in the next month or so.
 
Bike shares come is variety of types, but basically a system that allows people to rent bikes from a unattended station using a credit card or smartphone. Users can rent by the hour or become a member to allow daily useage for a yearly fee. Boise Green Bike fees are here http://boise.greenbike.com/#memberships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system

The biggest downfall are the bikes/hubs are typically more expensive. Boise Green Bike will be 3speed Nexus, shaft driven with GPS units at a cost of $1300/bike. Then you also have the maintenance and operation expenses. Most bike shares need some subisidies/sponsorship to survive.
 
What's your budget? If the grant didn't provide much cash, you might want to just accept random donated bikes and fix'm up piecemeal.... that's what the co-ops by me rely on. If you have a decent budget, i'd just contact Worksman directly. Maybe start with 10 bikes instead of 20; for all you know, the bikes may see very little use. In my experience, these things often make more sense if you start out slow.
 
I'm not the budget guy, just a consultant on proper bikes, but I imagine it's not much since he was asking me to see if I could find used bikes.
 
Check with the beach bike rental shops. Seems like I see some of them rotating their inventory every now and then.
 
Not trying to take potential biz away from IndChuckz but Yooth is only a few hours south of Va Beach. I was going to recommend the same thing lastplace29er did above. I see the boardwalk rental guys selling off their previous year's bikes pretty frequently. They're gearing up for the season now and need to off-load their old bikes. Back in the late 70s Worksman seemed to have the market cornered here for rental bikes. Not anymore. But I'm glad to have a Worksman tandem that's a relic of the beach rental bike era!
 
If it were me, I'd throw a beef-n-beer, raise up a few grand, and buy a dozen new Worksman cruisers. I get it that, unless NC is far more laid-back than NJ, the city board cannot be expressly connected with that kind of fundraiser, which is why I'd set up a cause with the right buzzwords but without mention of local gov't. Get some donations for a Chinese auction, get the thing going, and then "donate" the proceeds as an individual to the board. A friend of mine used to do some local music festival and she'd fund it with beef-n-beers. She typically made anywhere from seven to ten grand, doing that, and the proceeds would go towards planning and implementing the music festival. That's not even CHARITABLE, but ppl still paid b/c they like beef and beer and the chance to get stuff cheap.

I'm a repeat Chuckz buyer, and it's awesome that he offers these frames and parts from used industrial bikes to folks like us, but i think that shipping and the overall rusty condition of the parts would kill the deal for a cruiser fleet being offered by the city for the canal. Get some new ones and take care of them...
 
J&B Importers bike company, Sun, also wholesales heavy duty single speed cruisers
 
Boy, if funds were unlimited, the NYC Citi Bike program is amazing. I don't know who makes these bikes but they are beyond industrial, with bullet proof shrouds on the mechanical, non removable adjustable seats and was told cost a lot (thousands each). They weigh a lot but the quality components make riding very easy. I just walked up to a Kiosk, put in my credit card and viola, a bike was unlocked. You can leave it at any Kiosk that has an open station, where your credit card automatically locks it in bank vault like security for the next person. Your deposit is returned to your card with the return of the bike. I had a good time riding all over the place in Manhattan watching all the sites including the jogging women in Central Park. This is the ultimate and no expense was spared.
 
While I've yet to use the NYC Bikeshare, I've read a lot of accounts online that complain about availability of bikes, and the state of disrepair they're sometimes found in. Of course, some folks will complain no matter how good they have it, but if NYC spent thousands on each of those bikes, they got ripped off. In my experience, when "no expense is spared", you're not going to be running Nexus 3speeds. (Nothing against Nexus 3 speeds, but they're a budget choice, which makes sense for a program like this. What doesn't make sense is using bikes that supposedly cost so much.) I haven't found a concrete figure on what each bike cost NYC, but I do know they take a cool grand out of your account if you keep the bike over 24hours or if it gets lost/stolen while out on your card. Buying a cruiser like this should cost common folks $300 or so, and i'd expect that the Citi Bike program could've/should've gotten a bulk discount. After all, they started with 6000 bikes, and plan to double that by 2017.

Anyway, here's the bike up-close, with some info:
citi-bike-meet-the-bike.jpg
 
I've been working in nyc for a while now, I always check out the citibikes when I walk by them. I don't think I have seen a 100% full or empty station. I've never seen busted up un rideable bikes either. I have seen the mechanics maintaining them, and I've also seen them transporting them, I guess from a station that had a lot, to one that had less? Probably why I have not seen empty or full locations. The one spot I was working at, they had a bike with a trailer, on the trailer there were about 3 citibikes. It's a cool setup. The bikes do look really heavy duty. Even the little basket setup looks crazy strong. They have a blinking led strip on the basket. I have no idea what they are worth but I can only imagine what they paid for them.
Kind of funny, I was in a bagel shop this morning and saw a steamfitter with. Rrb sticker on his hardhat.
 
I forgot they have a built in generator that blinks light when you ride, probably in the front wheel. I don't think they got ripped of, you have to see it and ride one. I can't explain how tough they are built, you have to see it to appreciate it. Everything that could be vandalized or broken from misuse is shrouded in heavy duty metal. Even the he chain guard seems to be made out of plate steel, riding over a rock would only scratch it.
 

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