Helping the would-be cyclist to flip over

[Karthick Gururaj]

Just sounding off here.. Is it an idea to consider for the cycle shops to (together) setup a pool of "good cycles" that anyone can lease for a month or two (of course, with security deposit - etc) at a nominal price (say, 1k or even lesser per month). Provide a very low risk dry-run environment for those who wish to start cycling. The aim should not be to make profit, but recover enough to cover running costs of such a cause. There are many avenues for the whole community here to participate - e.g., by donating our cycles when we upgrade.

This works by reducing the tip-off point for every potential cyclist...

Like any system, I certainly can think of many ways to abuse this - but if the upsides justify the downsides, then maybe it is still a workable idea.

- Karthick

[Alex J V]

Interesting concept here. But my general opinion is there is a reason why capitalism works. When you buy from flipkart, you are not thinking whether they will make a ton of money, you are thinking whether it solves your problem. Anyone who is taking responsibility for doing this should enjoy the process of doing this and definitely should make money. If the person/initiative does not make money, the person will loose interest over period of time (say 2 years) and this will eventually stop which is not good the guy and not good for the community. If you think this initiative should only exist for less that 2 years then probably it will work. But if you think this should last for a long time, then I think this should be run "for profit" with the right attitude. 

Alex

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[Ali Poonawala]

hi Karthick and Alex
interesting post..
even more interesting comment !
regarding any project..there is an idea, a dream.. and there is implementation, personnel labour logistics etc.
some projects are not for money but emotional/devotional gains. If they serve a need..money is not an issue. Mother Theresa is one such example.
Crux is..need for the cause snd zeal for the cause !

[Prashanth Chengi]

Doc, at the risk of dragging the thread out-of-context, Mother Teresa was a beautiful example of spinning money while pretending to do something altruistic!  
Now, coming to Karthick's suggestion, I do think he's asking for too much; firstly, if the charges are as low as INR 1000 per month, and for a 'good bike', why would I want to buy it at all? I could use it for two years, paying 1000 bucks each month and not have to worry about depreciation etc.  For the store which purchases a brand new bike, it won't even be able to reclaim the money they spent on the bike, unless it stays in demand in excess of two years, which is highly unlikely. 
I agree with Alex's observation that if you are expected to provide a good service, and are expected to stay motivated to keep providing the same high level of service, you can't do it if you are not turning a profit.  It's simply exploitation, otherwise.

/Prashanth

[Alex J V]

@Ali - If you look at the Maslow's pyramid of needs - people become altruistic and stuff when they have already achieved financial stability. Abdul Kalam wanted to be known as a teacher - but that is at his later stage of his life where he is looking for a higher need because his financial stability needs are secured.  Point being emotional gains/devotional gains work after a point. Bill Gates can afford to do it. Zuckerberg can afford to do it. Someone else can make it happen. The higher probability is that the person who runs this initiative will have to somehow cover his a**. 

@prashath - I agree. Not being judgemental here, but it is a known fact that Mother Terasa made the catholic church significantly wealthy. Also ya Rs 1000 per month is does not make economical sense. I am pretty sure that most members will pay a lot more to try out new bikes without owning one.

Alex

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[Karthick Gururaj]

I wasn't too clear here..Sorry. Mainly on intent, but also on execution. But let's first agree to leave Mother Teresa out from this discussion, whatever your views are.

So to restate the intent - get more of the "upper middle-class" commuters (who can easily afford a car) to start using cycle for commute. That's it.

And to be even more clear, the intent is not to provide cycle for free to "poor" commuters (a worthy goal in itself, but not something we are interested here). If the cycle is not replacing a car on the road, we are not interested. There is no altruism involved.

I hope we can agree that:

a. We as citizens of Bangalore stand gain if more commuters switch from carbon/noise/traffic rich commute (i.e, cars) to carbon/noise/traffic poor commute (i.e., cycle/walk). There is a direct and immediate benefit, and also the satisfaction of "leaving a better world" to our children.

b. Also, LBS stand to gain from increased sales

Hence, it is not extra-ordinary or non-capitalist to assume that we/they will be willing to contribute (money or time or expertise or ...) to realize the benefit. Think about the promotional activities done by many LBSs. Decathlon provides cycles for free during "Cycle day" events. BOTS organizes group rides, provides bike support for few events. I'm sure other LBSs are also involved in similar ways. These are all selfish acts people! Selfish in a very good way, the best way possible.

There are indeed lots who are already working towards the very same intent. I know Mayank organizes many workshops in corporates. I guess 'go green cycling' also in active here. Cycle day events are very regular now and are fantastic in spreading general awareness, Anil has been a permanent fixture here. Dr. Ali and others are really working at fundamentals - to teach cycling.

What I'm described below is just one more step. Imagine a workshop at some corporate. What if towards the end of the workshop, we can offer cycles to all those attending to try for 2 months? They get helmets, locks and lights along. Their only responsibility is to ensure safety of the cycle for the 2 month duration. Will they accept?

We want them to decide YES. So we must keep the reasons for them to say no to a very bare minimum.

Would it help to increase the conversion rate? I think so..

IF we agree on the above, we can discuss specifics of execution and the details on how to thwart the smart alec who wishes to use the cycle perceptually by paying 1k for 2 months; how to handle periodic repairs; how to source cycles, how to handle different sizes, why LBS must be interested, why we as commuters must be interested - etc.

- Karthick

On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 12:35 PM, Prashanth Chengi <prashant...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Opendro]

My opinion is that 1000 per month is possible if the cycle provided is of moderate cost - say, within 15K. I would be interested to lend a couple of them :-D

In fact, bikes should be simple ones so that the borrowers won't have too much trouble in getting used to.

[Ali Poonawala]

karthick
It makes  100 % sense..
Since this is your dream.. I would encourage you to make a beginning..by first inviting ideas and more ideas about how to go about it.. do ground work and come with figures.
one simple thought is..  can one make this part of corporate social responsibility allowable/desirable activity ? that can provide funds
get corporates to give incentives to cyclist..
Let us work on it Karthick !

[Karthick Gururaj]

Opendro - we could also look at sub-5k and sub-10k cycles, like mybike and mybike-7s.

Dr. Ali - thanks! Let me draft a short document and share it here for feedback/comments/suggestions.

- Karthick

[Opendro]

True. Max rent 10% of cost per month should be good. We should probably start with a simple google spread sheet where everyone is free to rent.

[Aravind M S]

Corporate workshops are very good way to start. In fact, i started active cycling after one such corporate workshop by Mayank. 

Many corporate people have this doubt whether cycling is feasible in this kind of traffic (at least, with the colleagues i have spoken with, most have this apprehension). Corporate workshops can help a great deal in mitigating this apprehension from the minds of the few.

Regards,

Aravind.

[Karthick Gururaj]

Hi Aravind,

Thanks! Mayank - if you are reading this, your comments are very much required.

- Karthick

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

Forcefully including Mr Mynk. (Just started reading this thread ;) )