Organizing Used Parts
in the DIY Bicycle Shop

By Casey Mirch

Presented at Bici! Bici! 2013April 12-14, 2013Hosted by Spokeland

Wouldn't it be great if a client could...

Find a part they need quickly

Find their part onceAvoid trial & error

Avoid surprises: fit, compatibility, hard-to-see damage

I, and clients, spend huge amounts of time looking through badly-sorted parts bins, setting aside more or less obviously unusable or irrelevant parts. Inexperienced clients have even less knowledge about what's good and compatible, and there's not always a skilled volunteer to look through bins with them.Then there are those days when the part you thought would work turns out to have some damage you didn't look for.

Too bad our parts come to us...

Incomplete

Worn

Damaged

Everyone can think of many examples on their own.

Too bad our clients and volunteers...

Come and go...Resulting in inconsistent of sorting/organization

Don't necessarily know a lot about bicycles...So unusable and incomplete parts wind up with good parts

E.g., seatposts: how would you organize them into two buckets? Integrated vs. straight? Complete & straight vs. incomplete & sketchy? Smaller vs. bigger diameters?How many other volunteers might choose a different system?

What happens to a new used part?

Evaluation: first, throw out the junk.

Sorting: spend the time to investigate, organize, and stow what's good.

In actual practice, both jobs often fall to the client looking through bins.

Aids to Evaluation

Use simple language
Ohio City Bicycle Co-op Wiki, Shop Manual
http://ohiocitycycles.org/wiki/

Acknowledge Ohio City Cycles' site for the basic ideas of evaluation and sorting.Having a wiki is a cool thing. Very collective/cooperative.

Aids to Evaluation

A wiki is great, but the shop environment is inherently low-tech.

Provide information where clients can see it.

Salience!Who ever looks at the bookshelf or the shop manual in the corner?

Aids to Organization

(Again:) Provide information where clients can see it.Provide informative signage/labeling

State your norms for sorting

Keep instructions close to parts

Include charts and diagrams where appropriate

Every part looked at gets put back in the right place or the wrong place.

Proposed: the Part Guide Card

Explanatory text and diagrams for context

List elements to inspect and verify

List variables affecting compatibility and fit

Additional tables and diagrams for needed detail

Pass around samples.This approach isn't specific to any particular domain. I offer a general framework for approaching any part.Inspect table is for evaluation: separating things worth sorting/trying from junk. That should be aimed at clients of all knowledge levels. The most safety-critical, deal-breaking, and common issues should be at the top.Variables table is for sorting/organizing. The most essential variables should be listed first. It's OK if that gets into detail and esoterica; it may lead people to the things they didn't know were there to be learned.

Possible Variations on the Part Guide Card

A non-laminated sheet without narrative text to affix to major parts

Highly abbreviated inspect + variables labels to affix to smaller parts or tags

Procedure Guide Cards near tools or fixtures to describe mechanical operations

Frames, forks, etc., are complicated and may be worth the time to write variables on a card.Labels might suit cranks, handlebars, derailleurs, etc. Durability is an obvious challenge.Examples for procedure cards: truing wheels, tethered to truing stands; adjusting hubs, hung near cone wrenches or bench vise.

Other ideas

Zip-tie an example of a part to the outside of bins. (Or glue examples to small part drawers.)

Spokeland's chain-and-spoke wheel hanging fixtures work pretty well.

Add your own ideas!

Open up for discussion of other ideas and feedback on suggestions herein.

Resources

http://ohiocitycycles.org/wiki/

http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/ (Contribute!)

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

Ohio City Cycles' site was a model for much of this presentation.BikeCollectives.org is a wiki to which stakeholders in any bike collective are welcome to contribute.If you want to know about variation in bike stuff, Wikipedia has it. Plus, good quality diagrams available for your reuse under Creative Commons licenses.