Ability Bikes Ghana Shipping Party - complete!
The container contents were:
150 BMX 20" bikes
370 Adult and adolescent mountain bikes
17 extra wheels
7 extra one-piece cranks
Shipping party pictures HERE
Blog entry describing the arrival and unloading fo the container HERE
Pictures of the bikes arriving and being unloaded HERE, along with other pictures of our partners at the Ability Bikes project in Ghana.
Some of these photos (photo#1, photo#2, photo#3 & photo#4) show the building of a bamboo bike, a project helped by the efforts of Craig Calfee.
The quality was probably the best we have ever shipped. There were many Diamondback, Specialized, Mongoose and Haro bikes in perfect condition that we could have easily sold.
We estimate the value of the contents of this container at around $25k in Chicago.
All bikes except the last 17 bikes had their front wheels removed and packed above the bikes. Many, but not all, of the bikes had their pedals removed (and tied to the frame).
eMail from David Branigan, on July 13th 2009, reporting the arrival of this container ...
"The Container is IN as of last Friday. We processed all paperwork Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and brought the container up in the evening. Saturday morning, we unpacked, organized, and sold 237 bikes to local bike sellers. Today, we made payments toward our loan from Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, and also to the landlord.
Our storage space is packed to capacity with about 290 bikes, and we're going to start building and selling individually like mad and bring in money. We also received all of the formal coop registration paperwork this morning, and will finalize it on Wednesday. The coop registration will take about a week or two with a bribe - otherwise much longer. Then we get the tax id number and can clear containers in Ability Bikes Coop name. The business is reaching a level of significant stability. Soon, Ability Bikes will rent a larger storage space to enable the business to pack a full container and expand the workshop space, taking on new member mechanics.
BNB is sending a container to arrive in September for which Ability Bikes will pay shipping, and Re-Cycle is sending a container to arrive sometime in November or December, free. This container will then enable Ability Bikes to prepay shipping on subsequent containers.
Ability Bikes sends a major thanks your way, to all the Working Bikes folk and volunteers, for helping to capitalize this business. We took lots of pictures, and lots of video of the container clearing, unloading and bike sale. I'm going to continue the filming for the remainder of my stay and put a film together to share with y'all.
We'll send a more detailed description of the event by the end of the week and some pictures.
Peace-
David Branigan"
We will load 500+ mountain and BMX bikes for Emmanuel's Ability Bikes Project in Ghana. The film "Emmanuel Gift" described this individual and the Project.
The shipment will be the first shipment from our new location at 2434 S. Western Avenue ...
You can get to our new location by taking the Pink line to Western and 21st or taking the Metra to the Western and 16th, or taking the Western bus to 24th. or riding on California and then East on 24th.
Click here for a Google map.
