Clifton CC

Following on from the discussion that took place at the AGM I thought I'd float an idea that could be of use to a wide spread of members and might save them money - this might be especially relevant to newer and junior members.

Rather than individual members having to purchase specialised tools when performing maintenance tasks, could the club obtain a limited number of items to loan out when needed? I'm thinking in terms of specialist tools which are needed for occasional tasks, not everyday items. Examples might be BB spanners, chainset tools/extractor, chainwhip, cassette lockring tool, bike-specific torque wrench, wheel truing thingy - the sort of thing that an individual member might use rarely and thus would be unlikely to own.

Some club funds would be needed to buy a selection of most often needed Campag/Shimano items although it may be that members have some tools they could donate to a central repository - the idea would require a quartermaster to keep the tools and 'sign them in and out' when needed for use by members. Loaners would undertake to replace lost/damaged tools.

I also wondered if a similar model might serve for a small library of cycling books - training guides, maintenance manuals, biographies etc might also be of use/interest to the general membership.

I appreciate that there are pros and cons but it seemed an idea worth raising at least.

Two great ideas Dave
Top post

Good idea. I suggest concentrating on the expensive stuff e.g torque wrenches. I've got a one and now find it invaluable but they are expensive to buy. Ditto wheel truing stand.

Arthur wrote:Good idea. I suggest concentrating on the expensive stuff e.g torque wrenches. I've got a one and now find it invaluable but they are expensive to buy. Ditto wheel truing stand.

Seconded. Some of the smaller stuff (lockring tools, BB tools, crank removers) is either (a) easily affordable or (b) falls into the 'I'll borrow one off a mate' category. But having the expensive and/or cumbersome stuff available via the club on a loan basis is a very sound idea.

Dave

Good idea Dr Dave

Another area worth considering maybe junior training and coaching for racing /time trialling etc. We have a lot of juniors/young riders who have great potential.

Just another suggestion.

Also maybe general road safety.


Dave Cook

cake and Condoms!

dave c wrote: Also maybe general road safety.

City of York Council do a good scheme already for this.

http://www.york.gov.uk/news/latestNews/PR237

Coaching is something that's been discussed in the past, and I think it's a good idea. No need to limit it to just the juniors though!

Arthur

"Coaching is something that's been discussed in the past, and I think it's a good idea. No need to limit it to just the juniors though!"

I'm sure there's an opportunity here to do something with St.Johns - the series of evening talks a couple of years back was excellent and something like that coupled with practical sessions and some opportunity for one-to-one or small group consultation would be good. It could either be with someone from YSJ or with a more specialist but less local coach, making use of power and performance data from the facilities there. This could involve some payment from participants but could be subsidised for young riders as part of the club's way of encouraging them into challenge/competition.

What's needed IMO is for someone to take ownership of this, decide how much is available and then put something concrete into effect. Can the treasurer take this forward, or mandate someone to act?

IMO what we need are specific costed proposals. For example does "coaching" mean fund the training of a club member to become a coach, or does it mean pay an existing coach for their time. Who is the coaching aimed at - our existing top riders or people aspiring to race?
I think the tools and book "library" is a good idea but what tools/books, how much would they cost, where do we store them etc.
Lets use this forum to capture as many ideas as possible and then we can decide where to allocate any surplus funds. Also don't forget that we may be able to receive grant funding for some items. Some ideas around this were discussed at the last comittee meeting.

A library of tools/books is a really good idea in theory - but brings up the usual problem of storage. Who holds on to them and who keeps track? We have a good stock of race equipment - signs, bibs, stopwatches, numbers etc which are fairly scattered and often pretty difficult to keep tabs on!

Unless a good storage solution for all our gear can be found I think this is a non-starter - is there anyone out there who has a bit of time and a big empty garage?

Not intended at anyone in particular but, ideas and why they won't work sounds familar. I think we ve got the T shirt when it comes to talking our way out of things.

How about good ideas (already plenty above) and how to meet the challenges they present!

example, we spent a year 2006-2007 discussing many things one of them being 'coaching' I think we decided it was a good idea but we did nt have any funding to train a coach, now we have the money! But

My post wasn't intended to be negative - its a valid question that might hopefully generate a suggestion from someone about solving the storage issue.

I would be cautious about buying a torque wrench for lending out, unless you spend a couple hundred quid then they aint worth buying. Ive bought cheap ones for 60/70 quid before and they come with a caliberation certificate but when tested are miles out, first time you leave one wound up for more than an hour or so then it becomes inaccurate. Anyone putting there faith in one which is out of caliberation could end up doing some damage to an expensive carbon frame etc.

Dont mean to put a downer on this, the tool idea is a good one, just not the torque wrench.

Andy - surely thats an argument ior the club getting one?