Idea - bike hackerspace in london?

[cwah]

hello all,

I'm currently in the process of finding a new room in london, and it may sound like a crazy ask (as usual my asks are all crazy), but I have so many bike tool at home it's taking too much space on my living area.

I'm in the process to sell as much as possible, but at the same time, I still need quite a lot of tool to be independent. Especially when bike shops are all useless and very expensive...

I've seen sometime in london some warehouse home sharing space with lots of artist and DIY guys gathering all together. Maybe we could have the same in London.

That would save a lot of my space at home, and should be beneficial to all londoners for:
- Not having tooling at home, just pop to the hackerspace for any repair work
- Having a set of spare always available at great price rather than having to wait 1 month shipping from china. So it would have latest cheap throttle, light, motor spare, controller, charger.
- Access to specific ebike tools such as battery spot welder, battery discharger/tester, motor opening tools, soldering equipment, etc
- I already have most of them.... so no need to buy new...

I found this workspace at £399 / month:
http://www.workspace.co.uk/london-commercial-property/studios/south-east-london/leathermarket/LM08.0B.4/

Somehow, it does feel too cheap to be true.

However, is it something that would be of interest to any member here? Share the rent for an ebike hackerspace?

 

[D8ve]

Not for me but good idea Cwah.
You might find cheaper for a garage though?

 

[cwah]

Yes garage would also be an option. But not cheaper as it is london.

 

[flecc]

Yes garage would also be an option. But not cheaper as it is london.

Central London yes, but here in my estate in the London Borough of Croydon we have loads of garages empty with owners and agents unable to let them. One cropped up next to my own garage which I used in addition for three years at £200 a year privately rented. I gave it up exactly three years ago and it's been empty ever since.

The price you could only dream of in the central boroughs.
.

 

[Woosh]

Hi Cwah
The idea is good, I like it. .
Here's a suggestion:
I rent some garage space somewhere in central - east London with electricity and put perhaps 4 or 5 of my bikes as demos in there. You get to use the space for free whenever you want in exchange for showing potential customers my bikes.
How about it?

Hatti

 

[cwah]

Thanks Flecc, I have been thinking about what you said until Hatti answered. The only issue with Croydon is that it's quite far from central london.. and I tend to go over there and work there too... but at £200 a year.. I would just snap it immediately!

Hatti, that's a great suggestion. And life saver too! Do you have already a specific place to rent in mind, or is it just a starting point?


Somehow I have this little idea that maybe it could be something as nice as a hackerspace. I've been to the one in Hackney and I've met many great minds there:
https://london.hackspace.org.uk/
It was hugely successful (thousands of members) and cool.

 

[flecc]

Thanks Flecc, I have been thinking about what you said until Hatti answered. The only issue with Croydon is that it's quite far from central london.. and I tend to go over there and work there too... but at £200 a year.. I would just snap it immediately!

I did that deal privately with the previous owner, she's sold so it's in agents hands now and they would ask a lot more. However, since they've never been able to let it for the new owner, I'm sure the new owner would accept an offer in preference to continuing with nothing.

The snag for you is the distance of course, since I'm on the outskirts of Croydon. It's either a circa 15 mile cycle ride with the last half hilly at times, or a train + tram + bus journey from Victoria or London Bridge. Also if you haven't got one, you'd need a generator since there's no mains laid on.
.

 

[mike killay]

Living in the sticks (Wales second city!) I am envious. The nearest real bike shop to me is probably in Bristol (in a foreign country!)
It would be great if in years to come, a sort of DIY service centre, accompanied by electronic gurus could emerge.
I can foresee workshops of electronic specialists able to repair the myriad of devices that we already have and that will no doubt increase in future.

 

[cwah]

Yes Flecc, it's not possible for me to live so far.. I'd get crazy with more than 1 hour commuting time each way..

Mike Killay, there is already a place full of electronic specialist... it's the Hackerspace in London. There is also one in Paris. These are nice and full of engineers. You can talk technical without looking like a geek

But.. they are not e-bike professional.. Last time I brought my spot welder for repair over there, no one wanted to touch it ahah.


So ebike space would be great. Hatti I think there may even possibility of ebike rental (although I work now), but I wouldn't mind try to rent them out. There is maybe a market with all these tourists in london!!!

I keep looking for garage in central london but it's damn hard to find anything decent. There are some open air car park but it's pointless.

Maybe a possibility is to rent a ground floor flat with a room dedicated for bikes? but it can easily lift the rent to over £500 a month... and the room would be tiny. So I don't know if that worth it. I keep looking..

 

[flecc]

I keep looking for garage in central london but it's damn hard to find anything decent. There are some open air car park but it's pointless.

Maybe not? We've got houses on my estate which cannot have any building on the garden land, but one added a half size shipping container. They don't need planning permission since they aren't fixed, and the half size ones are size of a parking bay and can be securely locked.

You get my thinking? An old one purchased and added to a rented open air car parking space might just be ideal as a workshop, 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 9 feet tall.

I've no idea of cost, but this Google page has loads of firms selling and renting used ones. There's also this advice page on how to buy one.
.

 

[trex]

cwah would need light and power.

 

[flecc]

cwah would need light and power.

I'd already mentioned that for garages Trex, suggesting he use a generator since they are so cheap now. If he wanted quiet Machine Mart do an own-brand low-cost encased 2.2 kW one with dual 13 amp socket outlets. It also has a 12 volt charging outlet so he could have 12 volt lighting off a car battery for when the generator wasn't running.
.

 

[D8ve]

Last time I checked I could get one for just under £2k delivers brand new!
Second hand or even one shot from China could be under £1k

 

[cwah]

Maybe not? We've got houses on my estate which cannot have any building on the garden land, but one added a half size shipping container. They don't need planning permission since they aren't fixed, and the half size ones are size of a parking bay and can be securely locked.

You get my thinking? An old one purchased and added to a rented open air car parking space might just be ideal as a workshop, 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 9 feet tall.

I've no idea of cost, but this Google page has loads of firms selling and renting used ones. There's also this advice page on how to buy one.
.

That sound amazing, but I'm not sure to what extent it could work in london? Can you imagine the landlord renting his parking space seeing a container in front of his house?

Or in many of these underground parking space in london, I can't see them either allowing a container inside...

Or this parking space:

https://www.yourparkingspace.co.uk/locations/show/20477649#show-street_view

Can you see a container in one of the busy street in london?

I guess not. Maybe I can find somewhere in zone 3 to do that. But zone 1-2 I doubt about it.

 

[the_killjoy]

I must admit that a container does look a not unreasonable alternative to building a secure garage/shed ~ as long as you can camouflage the ugly b*rstad.

 

[cwah]

ok we just need to find somewhere in central london that would accept a container for long time...

I guess it's going to be mission impossible

 

[flecc]

I wasn't thinking of a space in someones garden, on a street, forecourt or underground, I was responding to your mention of open air car parks. I agree the centre no longer has the old bomb site open air car parks it used to have.

A few years ago when working in Central London I used to park daily on an unsurfaced open air car park on the end of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, before they built the extension to the gallery. With a high planked fence around the whole park, they would have accepted a container in a corner.

Such luxuries are gone, but just into the less salubrious inner boroughs there might just be a chance. Also bear in mind a quarter size container if a smaller space crops up, they are only 10 feet long by 8 feet wide so still big enough for bike jobs, but often need some work to make secure.
.

 

[cwah]

Yes, again it's quite probable I can find something like that around zone 3. But zone 1-2 it would be difficult. Even parking space are shrinked.

 

[selrahc1992]

hello all,

I'm currently in the process of finding a new room in london, and it may sound like a crazy ask (as usual my asks are all crazy), but I have so many bike tool at home it's taking too much space on my living area.

I'm in the process to sell as much as possible, but at the same time, I still need quite a lot of tool to be independent. Especially when bike shops are all useless and very expensive...

I've seen sometime in london some warehouse home sharing space with lots of artist and DIY guys gathering all together. Maybe we could have the same in London.

That would save a lot of my space at home, and should be beneficial to all londoners for:
- Not having tooling at home, just pop to the hackerspace for any repair work
- Having a set of spare always available at great price rather than having to wait 1 month shipping from china. So it would have latest cheap throttle, light, motor spare, controller, charger.
- Access to specific ebike tools such as battery spot welder, battery discharger/tester, motor opening tools, soldering equipment, etc
- I already have most of them.... so no need to buy new...

I found this workspace at £399 / month:
http://www.workspace.co.uk/london-commercial-property/studios/south-east-london/leathermarket/LM08.0B.4/

Somehow, it does feel too cheap to be true.

However, is it something that would be of interest to any member here? Share the rent for an ebike hackerspace?

Its a great idea, reason I voted depends is because my work is often preceded and followed by anebike in pieces I couldn't reasonably leave in a hacker space and because I have little bits of time between unsociable houred shifts to do work and travelling far would be too difficult - however, for serious single pieces of work it sounds a great idea. For me it would make more sense to chip INA nominal amount of rent than market products I couldn't really vouchfor

 

[cwah]

any chance I can offer this guy to put a container in the underground parking space? lol
http://www.gumtree.com/p/parking-garage-offered/parking-bay-avaliable-/1108048861