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Community DIY Garage Dublin Launched
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14-08-2017 2:36pm#1Hi all,
We've launched a community DIY garage in Dublin.
It's called 'The Sprocket Collective', and it's a not-for-profit DIY workshop and community garage located in the heart of Dublin city. We provide a shared environment, stocked full of tools and equipment, in a secure central location.
We want to enable you to learn, to work on and maintain your own motorcycle in a manner that is affordable, accessible, and inviting to everyone.
Members have their own key & alarm code and can access the space 24/7, store their bike, and use all of the tools. Plus free tea, coffee & snacks.
At the moment the space is run like a co-op, with the membership fee paying for fixed costs. As more people join, costs will go down. Several members have already contributed lots of tools etc for communal use, so big thanks to them!
There are no employees or anything, and we're not here to make a profit. In fact at the moment we make a loss every month haha, which is covered by myself & some very generous members paying extra, so we'd really love to have more people involved.
If you'd like to come down and visit, you're more than welcome! Pop us an email at thesprockethq@ gmail dot com
More info is on our website thesprocket dot co & you'll find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too.
If you've any questions just ask
Thanks 48
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TheSprocketCo wrote: »Hi all,
We've launched a community DIY garage in Dublin.
It's called 'The Sprocket Collective', and it's a not-for-profit DIY workshop and community garage located in the heart of Dublin city. We provide a shared environment, stocked full of tools and equipment, in a secure central location.
We want to enable you to learn, to work on and maintain your own motorcycle in a manner that is affordable, accessible, and inviting to everyone.
Members have their own key & alarm code and can access the space 24/7, store their bike, and use all of the tools. Plus free tea, coffee & snacks.
At the moment the space is run like a co-op, with the membership fee paying for fixed costs. As more people join, costs will go down. Several members have already contributed lots of tools etc for communal use, so big thanks to them!
There are no employees or anything, and we're not here to make a profit. In fact at the moment we make a loss every month haha, which is covered by myself & some very generous members paying extra, so we'd really love to have more people involved.
If you'd like to come down and visit, you're more than welcome! Pop us an email at thesprockethq@ gmail dot com
More info is on our website thesprocket dot co & you'll find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too.
If you've any questions just ask Thanks
I wish you all the best with this.
Sounds good and fair play to all involved.0 -
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Well this is a bloody brilliant idea!
Well done to all involved in getting it up and running and fair play to those taking the hit while you're finding your feet.
I don't live in Dublin anymore but I will be passing on the info to all my friends up there.
Best of luck 0 -
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TheSprocketCo wrote: »Hi all,
We've launched a community DIY garage in Dublin.
It's called 'The Sprocket Collective', and it's a not-for-profit DIY workshop and community garage located in the heart of Dublin city. We provide a shared environment, stocked full of tools and equipment, in a secure central location.
We want to enable you to learn, to work on and maintain your own motorcycle in a manner that is affordable, accessible, and inviting to everyone.
Members have their own key & alarm code and can access the space 24/7, store their bike, and use all of the tools. Plus free tea, coffee & snacks.
At the moment the space is run like a co-op, with the membership fee paying for fixed costs. As more people join, costs will go down. Several members have already contributed lots of tools etc for communal use, so big thanks to them!
There are no employees or anything, and we're not here to make a profit. In fact at the moment we make a loss every month haha, which is covered by myself & some very generous members paying extra, so we'd really love to have more people involved.
If you'd like to come down and visit, you're more than welcome! Pop us an email at thesprockethq@ gmail dot com
More info is on our website thesprocket dot co & you'll find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook too.
If you've any questions just ask Thanks
Great idea, once you pay your membership how long can you leave the bike there as your working on it?
I.E if it's up on a lift and gona take a week is that ok..
Also if you decide to bring your own tools can they be left without others going near them? Whether its a note on them or whatever0 -
Really Really hope this works out, its a fantastic idea. But of course all it takes is one or two individuals to destroy the good work done by many.
Thanks! We'll do our best to make sure that doesn't happen. Place is fairly locked down with CCTV, PIR sensors and what not, and we've a critical eye for who comes through the doors.Well this is a bloody brilliant idea!
Thanks! We like to thing soMax Headroom wrote: »Great idea...looks a bit "tight" if you don't mind me saying....how many members can it handle...?
Aye, the shots don't do it justice. We need a wide angle lens or something. There's also another room towards the back and parking out the front. Come down and have a look sure!
Number of members it can handle depends on a few factors - does every member want to store their bikes there 24/7? Are they all driving Goldwings? And so on.
Space hasn't been an issue so far. If it does become an issue I'll be a happy man! ha
But so far we've had one bike 'parked/stored' inside, one being power washed in the space out the front, and 4 inside being worked on simultaneously, and nobody got in each others way.
If space becomes a problem then we'll address it, but its not an issue at the moment and I'd say it won't be until we pass 10+ members.
We're in constant contact with places like Woodstock Moto Co., Cerberus Motors, and Moto Garage Chicagoland, as well as others. They're all providing advice and guidance and are a really sound, helpful bunch.Great idea, once you pay your membership how long can you leave the bike there as your working on it?
I.E if it's up on a lift and gona take a week is that ok..
Also if you decide to bring your own tools can they be left without others going near them? Whether its a note on them or whatever
Good questions! Once you pay for 'The Master' membership you can store your bike there 24/7 without exception. If it's gonna be up on a lift for a week, I'd say throw it in the whatsapp group and see if anyone thinks they're also gonna need the lift that week. Prob wouldn't be an issue. If there's that big a demand we can get another lift.
And yep, you'll have your own storage with your name on it that others won't touch.0 -
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Max Headroom wrote: »I agree with this..to a degree...it looks a bit hap-hazard....its o.k looking all retro and "The Bike shed" looking but this just looks like some guy with a garage...soz....:o
Thanks. Any feedback is good.
I'll grab a better pic later. Maybe make a video.
I only had access to a DSLR for one day, the 3rd day after we signed a lease - so I agree it looks unfinished, because it is. Don't own one myself, and it's quite hard to get a decent shot on a phone. I'll see if I can borrow one again. 0 -
Peanut2011 wrote: »Wow, great idea. This will appeal to any self made mechanics who don't have the space at home to do it. I would find this very appealing but looking at the membership fee, and I know to provide this + insurance and security is expensive, you would want to be living very close to it and be using it often for it to pay off
I hear ya, but we figured since bike world charge 100 quid a month just to store your bike and nothing else, that we were providing a good deal. Esp considering our central location. Reckon people in the city with apartments and the like who don't have anywhere to store their bike would find it great - especially if you want to own 2 bikes or an extra project bike, which living in a flat myself I can tell you is a pain in the ass
If more people joined we'd lower the price. We're only interested in breaking even really. But it's hard to lower the price starting out. I'm already paying out of pocket every month to keep it open, and there reaches a point where I'd just be paying for people to use a garage.
And generous as I may be, I can think of much better things to spend my cash on
Also in fairness, if you were there for at least one full day every month, it'd work out at less than 10 euro an hour, which I think is pretty reasonable.0 -
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Though the local scumbags already know it's not a good idea to advertise the storage location of several unattended bikes and tools.
Haha yep! That's exactly why we've no location up at the moment
EDIT: I've just added a map to the home page that gives a rough location. That should hopefully help prospective members get an idea of where it is, while keeping the location safe enough.0 -
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thegreatiam wrote: »I would love to be able to take some kind of short term, (day|week|) deal. I'm sure if you can figure it out price wise there would be loads of people interested.
a day donation of €20 for use of the facility, or something like that. you could use the donated funds to buy some equipment etc.
We did think about that, but were advised against it by the owners of other community garages. I like to vet everyone that comes in, and it'd be hard to do with day passes as it'd mean I'd have to go and meet them first and then give them access. I have a day job so I may not be available.
I also don't think a week deal would work, because it's only 60 for the month for our lower tier membership, so at 20 a day it'd only be good value if you knew you'd definitely only be there for one day a month, but if you're going to be there for the week sure you might as well pay for the month.
We might consider a day rate, but I'd be against someone having their own key for just the day for security reasons. So that means if you wanted to do a day pass you'd need to have a member present - in which case does that mean that member is then responsible for that person? What if they want to leave before the day pass person is done? Etc.
If we can figure out a way for it to work then we will. But until we get access control systems that work via an app or something like that, where we could give and remove access remotely, it'd be tough to do at the moment.
Also I'd be wary of how well someone coming in for the day might treat the place. Not saying yourself, but ya get me
What might work is that if an existing member wants to bring a friend or something like that, then we could do a day pass for them.
Will have a think about it. Thanks.0 -
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TheSprocketCo wrote: »We did think about that, but were advised against it by the owners of other community garages. I like to vet everyone that comes in, and it'd be hard to do with day passes as it'd mean I'd have to go and meet them first and then give them access. I have a day job so I may not be available.
I also don't think a week deal would work, because it's only 60 for the month for our lower tier membership, so at 20 a day it'd only be good value if you knew you'd definitely only be there for one day a month, but if you're going to be there for the week sure you might as well pay for the month.
We might consider a day rate, but I'd be against someone having their own key for just the day for security reasons. So that means if you wanted to do a day pass you'd need to have a member present - in which case does that mean that member is then responsible for that person? What if they want to leave before the day pass person is done? Etc.
If we can figure out a way for it to work then we will. But until we get access control systems that work via an app or something like that, where we could give and remove access remotely, it'd be tough to do at the moment.
Also I'd be wary of how well someone coming in for the day might treat the place. Not saying yourself, but ya get me
What might work is that if an existing member wants to bring a friend or something like that, then we could do a day pass for them.
Will have a think about it. Thanks.
Yeah, totally.
It's a minefield alright. Only really works if there is someone on site all day.
Bring a friend or 'trusted' status would help.
Long term goals though0 -
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stewygriffin wrote: »May i suggest that members must show proof of ownership of bikes that are brought to the workshop.
Just for legalities sake.
Stewy the last thing you did to your bike yourself was stick a bit of air in the tyres, I wouldn't worry if I was you. Youd pay for someone to stick a shiny dustcap on 0
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