Bike Forums - View Single Post - Volunteer and charity shops

01-03-24, 09:44 AM

#16

louky

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Quote:

Originally Posted by digger

I volunteer for a community bike shop but we operate a bit differently than others, or rather, have a different interaction with the community due to our location in a very rural area. This bike shop is part of a larger experimental/environmental/learning entity...well, there's a lot going on and you can read about it here.
https://thedeaneryproject.com/

Part of that is the community bike shop called The Bike Hub but we are in a very rural area and so do not have any, or few, requests for a donated bike to be used for commuting or utility. Rather, we have a fleet of bikes we rent out at a very low cost, we can do basic bike repairs (cables, housing, brakes, hub service, chain replacement, etc) and provide maintenance and cycling safety courses. In essence, the community would pay for the part and then donate to The Deanery for my time; the goal to build up some financial resources to purchase items needed in The Bike Hub such as lube, grease, ball bearings, etc. Right now we have $150 in the bank account for The Bike Hub, clearly we do not have much money so I scavenge parts off of other bikes that are not repairable but that can only go so far.

I've read the posts above but I am still uncertain of a good website to purchase small parts that I need, I'd rather a one-stop-shop if I could and bike shops can be expensive to purchase parts although local bikes shops (65km away) do donate where they can.

I need the more consumable items such as:
Rim strips of varying wheel diameters and widths
Cable housing ferrules
shifter cables
brake cables
shifter housing
Brake housing
Cable end crimps
Headset bearing race
Bottom bracket bearing race

Can someone offer some ideas on where to purchase such items? I know I can buy of Aliexpress, Amazon, etc but would there be a more one-stop-shop option for these items?

Thank you in advance.

I am repairing bikes for the unhoused in Southern Indiana and your list of needed parts closely parallels my Amazon shopping list. In the past, when searching for these items, I have not been able to find anywhere to buy them all that was cheaper. I know that most of these parts come from China and are not as high quality as others available but I do what is necessary to get as many bikes on the road as possible. Most of the bikes I work on come from China anyway and the component quality is at least equal to what they started with. I have been buying shifter cables in groups of 10 and they often come with cable crimps and housing ends. I get the groups with 5 front and 5 rear but end up running out of rears and found that they also market them with a pack of 10 rears only. The same goes for brake cables. I buy the housings in 50 foot rolls. I use Gorilla tape in place of rim tape. I purchase handgrips in packs of 8. I haven't had to get any bearing races. I have purchased various derailleurs and shifters from Amazon with no failures or drama. My understanding is that many of these being sold on Amazon now are "counterfeit" but, once again, they are suitable for the bikes I am doing. JoeTBM weighs in on the thread and has been helpful to me. He is involved in a huge charity operation (in Florida I think). He is sourcing parts in large quantities but I am not sure he has found anyplace that beats AlieExpress. The Deanery looks interesting!

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