Category: Shop News

The May shop schedule is as follows:

Sundays – May 5, and 12 – Noon to 4 PM (closed May 20 for 3-Speed Tour of Lake Pepin and May 27 for Memorial Day weekend and shop remodeling)

Tuesdays – May 7, 14, 21, and 28 – 7 PM to 9 PM (but please check again because we may need to close on May 21)

Thursdays – May 2, 9, 23, and 30 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed May 16 for St. Paul Saints opening day)

We have given away 145 bicycles so far this year.  This past Sunday we gave 42 bicycles to Unity Church.  Their members will fix the bikes and take them to an Indian reservation.  We are excited to be a part of that.  We also met a lot of folks at the Coon Rapids Green Expo and the Mother Earth Fest.  We expect to see some of those people at our store.  We are making plans to remodel our store.  This will happen in stages.  We hope to do stage one over the Memorial Day weekend.  The plan is to upgrade our bathroom.  The big job will be later this summer when we plan to remove the drop ceiling and ugly lights and replace them with something a little more old-fashioned looking.  We will likely close for two weeks around State Fair time, stay tuned.  If you have not been to our store yet, we hope you will take the time to come and visit us soon.

 

The April schedule is as follows:

Sundays – April 7, 14, 21, and 28 – noon to 4 PM

Tuesdays – April 2, 9, 23, and 30 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed April 16)

Thursdays – April 4, 11, 18, and 25 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Please note that we may begin offering hours on Fridays through the busy season, but have not decided on a start date.  When we finalize the schedule, we will post it here as well as on our web site calendar.

March was a busy month, for repairs and for sales.  As of today (3/27) we are just a few dollars below $2000 in sales for March!  That will be one of our biggest March totals ever.  The weather is only now starting to warm up.  We figure the place will be jumping in another week or two.

We are having a little less success in getting people to come and pick up their bicycles.  I’m not sure why this is so.  It could be due to the weather not being warm enough.  Hopefully more people will show up when they get the call that their bicycles are ready.  Meanwhile our Facebook “likes” are up to 622, which is moving us steadily toward our goal of 1000 by the end of 2013.  We are a little behind last year’s number of bicycles given away to date.  We are at around 71.

We do plan to continue our partnership with Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness and are in the process of setting up a class schedule for them.  Also, we are preparing to sign a 3-year lease for our shop, so we won’t be moving, at least for three years, unless we get kicked out.  Thanks to all our customers, we are able to pay the rent, so getting kicked out is not too likely.

If you have never been to our shop, please consider stopping in to meet us.  For those of you who have been there, but it has been awhile, please stop by and see all the changes we have made.  Stuff is organized a whole lot better, and we have a lot of nice road bicycles for sale.  Of course, once the temperatures warm up, those will sell quickly, so if you have been in the market for a road bicycle, don’t wait.

Here is hoping for warmer weather and lots of bicycles given away in April.  We hope to see you at the shop.

Here is the March shop schedule:

Sundays – March 3, 10, 17, and 24 – noon to 4 PM  (closed March 31 for Easter)

Tuesdays – March 5, 12, and 26 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed March 19 so we can go dancing)

Thursdays – March 7, 14, 21, and 28 – 7 PM to 9 PM

We have already given away over 50 bicycles this year.  However, we are actually a little behind last year’s give-away total.  For some reason we are having difficulty getting people to come in and get their bicycles.  Hopefully we can get more bicycles out the door.  The good news is that we made rent in February and a little more to make up for the slow month in January.  We had a great time at the Swap and sold a lot of stuff.  Our volunteers are amazing – a huge thanks to Bill, Kendra, Tom R, Tom Y, Zach, Scott, and Anne.  At least a couple of these wonderful people show up every time we are open, as well as provided help with the Swap.  They have sorted a lot of stuff, cleaned the place, fixed many bicycles, and helped us to have a good time.   We can’t say thanks often enough, but we will try.  Thanks so much.

The February shop schedule is as follows:

Sundays – February 10, 17, and 24 – noon to 4 PM (closed February 3 for Twin Cities Bike Swap)

Tuesdays – February 5, 12, 19, and 26 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Thursdays – February 7, 21, and 28 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed February 14 for Valentine’s Day)

We will be doing the Twin Cities Bike Swap at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Sunday, February 3 from 9 AM to 2 PM.  Admission to the swap is $5.  We will have all kinds of cool stuff for sale at our tables, plus there are lots of other vendors there with great bargains.  There is usually Peace Coffee to drink, a snack bar, and lots of people to meet, so put this event on your calendar and come see us.

We are up to 21 bicycles given away so far this year.  We have a long way to go to get to our goal of 1000.  We are getting a few new “likes” on Facebook every week, so we have a good shot at getting to 1000 “likes” by the end of 2013.  We have been celebrating all the various national (fill in the blank) days at the shop.  I think the most fun was Hat Day, when one volunteer came in sporting a nifty straw hat in frigid temps.  He ended up winning our prize drawing for all those who wore hats to the shop that night.  We also celebrated one volunteer’s birthday at the store, and in general had fun.  We also have reorganized the back parts shelving and it is much easier to shop.

Thanks for ongoing support from our volunteers and our customers.  We wouldn’t be in business without all of you.  Come see us, either at the swap or the shop.

We plan a full shop schedule in January.  It is:

Sundays – January 6, 13, 20, and 27 – Noon to 4 PM

Tuesdays – January 8, 15, 22, and 29 – 7 PM to 9 PM (Closed January 1 for New Years Day)

Thursdays – January 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 – 7 PM to 9 PM

We gave away 755 bicycles in 2012, our biggest year yet!  We have set an ambitious goal of giving away 1000 bicycles in 2013.  Also, we will attempt to grow our Facebook page to 1000 likes in 2013.  Our 2012 revenue was enough to pay all the bills, as well as buy some stuff for the shop.  We purchased new shelving for the back and will begin reorganizing the space on January 6.  We also plan to have more fun than ever in 2013.  One way we plan to do this is to celebrate all the various National (fill in the blank) Days.  For example, January 6 is Bean Day.  We will post these on our Facebook page.  Our volunteers have a lot of fun at our store, and you can be a part of it.  Stop by any time that we are open and we will put you to work doing something.  It may be mundane, but you will have fun doing it.  We will need more people, because we will be adding another city to our recycling efforts, and one of our once-a-year collections is now monthly.  We expect to get a lot more bicycles than in the past.  Come join the most fun bike shop team in town!

Shop hours for December are as follows:

Sundays – December 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 – Noon to 4 PM

Tuesdays – December 4, 11, and 18 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed December 25 for Christmas)

Thursdays – December 6, 13, 20, and 27 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Lots of great things are happening at the shop.  On November 24 we held BLITZ! where we repaired bicycles for the Holiday Wishes program.  This is an annual event and we have a great time.  We finished a lot of bicycles, but there are still a number of them left to do.  We are waiting on the program to give us the height/gender/bicycle preference information for the adult recipients.   We plan to deliver bicycles the week before Christmas.

The bicycle count for 2012 now stands at 720!  This is a new record, and the record grows with every bicycle that we give away.  We gave 211 kid bicycles to Free Bikes 4 Kidz at their collection, plus another dozen to the Bike Ambassador program at Jefferson Elementary School in Minneapolis, along with a lot of people coming in to pick up bicycles.  Our wait list is just about caught up, so the list remains open.  If all the bicycles on the list get done, we will continue repairing bicycles to have ready for the spring rush.  We also have done a good job of cleaning out old stuff and so we have space available for bicycle donations.  This is a good thing, because we usually get a large batch of adult bikes from Free Bikes 4 Kidz, and we will be adding a 6th city to our recycling efforts.  Also, Lino Lakes now is a monthly pickup, so we are growing.

If you have never had the opportunity to visit our store, we hope you will be able to do so.  It is exciting to watch customers come in to pick up their bicycles, and always fun to snag a great deal on some odd-ball bike part that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.  Even if you just come to hang out awhile, you are always welcome at Mr. Michael’s.  Hope to see you soon at our store.

Our November Schedule is as follows:

Sundays – November 4, 11, 18, and 25 – Noon to 4 PM

Tuesdays – November 6, 13, and 27 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed November 20)

Thursdays – November 1, 8, 15, and 29 – 7 PM to 9 PM (closed November 22 for Thanksgiving)

Saturday – November 24 – 10 AM to 4 PM – BLITZ! for Holiday Wishes Program

It is getting toward that time again – the BLITZ! for the Holiday Wishes Program will be here soon.  This is where we have a marathon session to repair as many bicycles as we can to fill all the orders for the Holiday Wishes Program sponsored by United Way and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  We don’t know how many requests we will get yet, but it usually is around 20 bicycles.  Come help us make someone’s holiday dreams come true and help us fix bicycles on November 24.  If we get them all done, we will work on our orders, and if we manage to get all of those done we will repair bicycles for future orders.  I think the record is fixing around 20 in a day, but that was several years ago before we had a store so I don’t have records.

As for records, we have surpassed last year’s bicycle give-away total.  Last year was 678, this year we are at 696 and will easily break 700!  Every bicycle that we give away bumps the record up higher.  This would not have been possible without our terrific volunteers – Bill W, Tom Y, Tom R, Tom L, Marie J, and Kendra M are our core group, with occasional guest appearances from Bill C, Sean S, and Bob H.  We appreciate them so very much, and so do all the people who receive bicycles.

Looking ahead, we have offered our services to Free Bikes 4 Kidz to help clean up at their warehouses after they finish giving away a few thousand bicycles.  We did this way back in January in the east Metro and it was a blast.  I will post here and on our Facebook page when these events will happen.  We go to the site and tear apart all the junk bikes left behind and salvage any parts we can reuse.  This makes moving out so much easier for the FB4K folks, and gets us a bunch of goodies.  You don’t need to be an experienced bicycle mechanic to do this, just be able to use hand tools and you can handle this.  We don’t know if dates will be in December or January, so watch this space.

Thanks for your business.  We really appreciate it.

The October schedule is as follows:

Tuesdays – October 2, 9,216, 23, and 30 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Thursdays – October 4, 11, 18, and 25 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Sundays – October 7, 14, 21, and 28 – noon to 4 PM

We plan to be open all of our regular hours for the month of October.  Other events include recycling events on October 6, 13, and 20 at Coon Rapids, Fridley, and Blaine, respectively.  Contact me if you want to volunteer for one of the recycling events.  Volunteers travel to the host city and help us collect bicycles.  We tear down those we cannot use and harvest parts.  We load the good stuff in our trailer to bring back to the shop to repair.

In addition to the recycling events, we also plan to haul a load or two (most likely two) to Free Bikes for Kids.  They do an annual give-away at Christmas and have set a goal of a few thousand bicycles.  We also plan to work with them again this year on warehouse cleanout.  More on that in the December update.

The bicycle give-away count is up to 417.  We have around 30 requests still on our list.  Requests are still coming in about as fast as we are getting the bicycles done, so the list will remain open for now.  Our volunteers make all the difference in our ability to keep up with the workload.

Save the date for our annual Holiday Wishes Blitz.  It is always on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is November 24 this year.  We generally work starting around 10 AM and go until we get good and tired.  Mike brings his famous home-made apple pie, plus we usually have at least one pumpkin pie.  We also provide lunch and, as always, BEER.  There is brewery-quality root beer for those who choose not to consume alcoholic beverages.   This is always a fun day, and for a good cause.  Hope to see you soon at one of our events.

 

First, the schedule:

Sundays – September 2, 9, 16, and 30 – Noon to 4 PM (Closed September 23)

Tuesdays – September 4, 11, 18, and 25 – 7 PM to 9 PM

Thursdays – September 6, 13, 20, and 27 – 7 PM to 9 PM

The bicycle give-away count is up to 352.  We are fast closing in on our minimum yearly goal of one a day (365).  Of course, we will try our best to exceed the 678 that we gave away last year.

The shop is busy whenever we are open.  Lots of people are coming in to look at parts, pick up bicycles, or bring in repairs.  Our volunteers have been very dependable and are the main reason that we can stay reasonably caught up.  The wait list reopened on August 15 and there are currently around 30 requests on it.  We are teaching another class for Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness on September 1, and we will also be collecting donated bicycles for their program during their Sofas and Spokes event on September 15.

A huge thanks to Bill W., Tom Y., Marie J., Tom R., Kendra M., Tom L., Liam G., Sean S., Raymond W., and everyone else who has donated some time to help us fix bicycles (and enjoy drinking a beer with us now and then – either the hard kind or the root kind).  We couldn’t possibly serve as many people as we do without this fantastic crew.

We are currently looking for a very special person to volunteer to clean the shop a couple of times a month.  If you have wanted to help out but held back because you are not a mechanic, this job is for you.  You will be held in high esteem for rendering this service, and also enjoy full beer privileges.  If interested, come by the shop and we will put you to work.

Until next time, get out there and ride those bicycles!  Stop by and see us while you are out there.

The shop will be open in August as follows:

Sundays: August 5, 12, 19, and 26 – Noon to 4 PM

Tuesdays: August 7, 14, and 21 – 7 PM to 9 PM (don’t know yet about Aug 28)

Thursdays: August 9, 16, 23, and 30 – 7 PM to 9 PM (Closed August 2)

It has been a busy month at the shop. We have received a lot of bicycles and our garages are stuffed full.  We are looking for ways to reduce inventory, especially of kid-size bicycles.  We also have given away quite a few bicycles.  The 2012 total is now 280 bicycles given away.  Our volunteers have been helping us whittle down that wait list.  We should have just about the entire list cleared by August 15 at 9 AM, when we reopen our wait list.  We will take up to 60 people before closing the list.  Once we get below 25 people, we will again open our list.

On Saturday, August 11 between noon and 2 PM, MMRB will host a bicycle safety rodeo at the Merriam Park Community Center.  Come on down and ride the course to win a prize.  Also enjoy live music by the Lex-Ham Community Band and free ice cream from Izzy’s.  This is a fun event, so make plans to be there.

We can never thank our volunteers enough, so a huge thanks to Bill W., Marie J., Tom Y., Tom R., Tom L., and Kendra M. who make up the core of our regular volunteer group.  We know we can count on you, and that is priceless.  Want to join the fun?  Come by the shop any time that we are open and we can put you to work.  We are reorganizing the shop and have plenty of stuff to sort.  There’s beer.  ‘Nuff said?