23 April - More bikes

Good evening,
Bikes are still trickling in from our Spring donation, we received about a dozen more today with promises of more to come.  This is good because they are going out even faster.  We have a big backlog of customer repairs and rehabs, as well as a hal-dozen bikes to put out on the showroom (if they don't disappear before then).  Thought you might be interested in a few informal metrics we track for information. 
- We get approximately 1000 bikes every year, a third are repaired for local use, a third shipped overseas and the rest stripped for usable parts and scrapped.
- Customers typically pay our asking price for bikes (or more).
- We've had several tinkerers come into the shop that just need our pool of parts for home projects or inventions.
- Bike recycling generally brings a gross income of $6-10,000 per year
- Other income is from editing websites, teaching bike safety to school youth and other freelancing.
- About half of our volunteers come from WVU (CCE students and students  who volunteer on their own
- The rest of our volunteers are members of the community who share our passion for sustainable transportation right here.
- We give away bikes to area environmental groups as a way of getting more volunteers.  They pay the recommended price for their bike by sending their volunteers to work with us for $10/hr.  We get a better appreciation for their purpose, and get to know their people.  They are able to raise more money.
That's all the time there is tonite.  Hope to see you at the Friends of Deckers Creek "Spring Meltdown" at the Brewing Co from 7-10pm tonite. 
Have a great weekend.
Nick