"Bicycle Kitchen" redirects here. For the educational non-profit bicycle workspace, see Bicycle Kitchen (Los Angeles).
Assisted-service bicycle repair at the Sopo Bicycle Cooperative in Atlanta, Georgia
A bicycle cooperative ("bike co-op") refers to a cooperative that service bicycles and/or provide tools, training, equipment or space for the maintenance of bicycles or that transport goods or services with bicycles. Many bike co-ops have taken the form of community bike shops or cooperatives organized to give the local bike shop national scale and buying power with some operating as delivery cooperatives.
In terms of governance structure, bike co-ops can take the many forms of the cooperative model. For example, bicycle co-ops owned by the cyclists that use their services (consumers' co-operative), co-ops composed of businesses to achieve economies of scale (retailers' cooperative), or co-ops owned and managed by those who work at the business (worker cooperative).
Bike cooperatives owned by consumers
As a consumers' co-operative, community bike cooperatives are organized and owned by the cyclists who use them. Members often receive exclusive access and benefits to service and sales.
Shop time
Shop time is considered to be the use of the bike co-op's space and tools. Some bike co-ops charge users a fee per hour, for example Hub City Cycles (Nanaimo, CA) charges members $20 an hour. Needing hands-on assistance can come with an extra cost or the requirement to become a member.
Many of these co-ops also use a pay what you can model and/or pay it forward model, for example Bike Pirates (Toronto, CA) and Squeaky Wheel Bike Co-op (London, CA).
Parts
The cost of new or used parts is usually paid in addition to shop time. Some bike shops stock new items such as brake pads, inner tubes, cables and housing, and bearings, for example.
Parts may be sourced from public donations. Children's bikes could be donated when they are outgrown, and abandoned bikes are sometimes obtained through partnerships with police departments (evidence control), street cleaning firms, or from large institutions such as schools and universities. Donated bikes that need repairs can be fixed by the co-op and resold for revenue, for example as done at CoMo Bike Co-op.
Bike cooperatives owned by retailers
When a bicycle cooperative takes the form of a retailer cooperative, multiple businesses within the industry come together to achieve economies of scale to compete with big-box brands, department stores and direct-to-consumer bike sales.
In order to lower costs, retailers' cooperatives establish central buying locations, providing them with the opportunity to purchase in bulk. Retailers' cooperatives also engage in group advertising and promotion, uniform stock merchandising, and private branding.
A retailers' cooperative for American independent bicycle dealers was established in 2003 called The Bike Cooperative, which now has 300+ members across the country. Some retailers' cooperatives such as REI Co-op (who also offer bike shop services to members) and E.Leclerc sell bikes as well, however they wouldn’t be called a bike cooperative owned by retailers.
Bike cooperatives owned by workers
Bike cooperatives can be worker-owned in a bike shop that offers servicing of bicycling and/or selling whole bicycles, parts, tools, or accessories. Coop Roue-Libre in Quebec City is a unique example of a non-profit solidarity cooperative and multi-stakeholder cooperative. They not only offer the typical bike shop services, including training and workshops, but they are also involved in advocacy.
Bike cooperatives can also be worker-owned in courier, messenger, or delivery services. In these co-ops, worker-owners are riding specialized bicycles in order to bring documents, parcels or even catering orders between people and businesses within a localized area. Delivery co-operatives are being researched and identified as a viable an alternative model to corporate-driven platforms such as Uber to provide more favourable workplace environments.
A rare example of a worker-owned bicycle tire producer cooperative is Trademh, which operated in Mexico between 1995 and 2002.
Bike cooperatives and digital transformation
CoopCycle is a federation for bike delivery or messenger cooperatives that is an example of technological innovation and digital transformation within the bike co-operative industry. Their approach is an example of democratizing both work and technology.
History
Bicycle co-ops have existed for decades. Cooperative bicycle clubs in the 1930-40s played an important role in the economic development of eastern Nigeria, demonstrating both the social and economic benefits of the model.
Fahrrad.Selbsthilfe.Werkstatt dates back to 1983 in Vienna, Austria. Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative is the longest-standing registered bike cooperative worldwide and one of the oldest worker cooperatives in Scotland, established in 1977. Another example is “P'tit vélo dans la tête" founded in Grenoble, France, in 1994.
Bike co-ops started to arise in Canada and the United States of America around the year 2000, for instance AMS Bike Co-op in 1998 and San Francisco's ‘The Bike Kitchen’ in 2003.
Bike co-ops can be found worldwide. The Bike Collective Network includes a regionally sorted list of community bicycle organizations, with many of them identified as cooperatives. Another reference for looking for bike co-operatives around the world can be found by searching the International Co-operative Alliance’s “.coop world map”.
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↑Lafer, G (2005). "The last bicycle tire plant: Mexican factory workers' dream dies on altar of free trade". Dissent. 52 (3): 4–10. doi:10.1353/dss.2005.0088.
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Duregger, Michelle (30 April 2010). "The Anti-Shop". Bicycling. Retrieved 9 June 2015. The Recyclery is Oklahoma City's first bike co-op, open three days a week. Everything is free--tools, advice from bicycle-savvy volunteers, workshops, parts and frames. It's stocked by donations from community members and a couple of bike-shop employees, and is run by volunteers.
Cross, Kim (20 February 2015). "The Fixer". Bicycling. Retrieved 9 June 2015. The popular connotation is that co-ops are for urban twenty-somethings who want a fixed-gear bike. But they're more for people who don't know anything about bikes, want a community to connect with, or want a cheap and super-easy mode of transportation.
