[GusDog]

Anyone's department have an EMS bike team? I could use some info. THX.

[oldstyle]

We have them, mostly at special events downtown where the crowds and traffic make responding in a vehicle difficult. They carry a small EMS bag and a radio.

[demaster]

I developed one for my department just 2 years ago..... I couldn't find any information online. SO I ended up pulling a lot of stuff from the Police Bike teams. What information are you looking for? My bike team has full BLS gear, and some ALS supplies (we are only a EMT-B and EMT-Intermediate level service). Let me know what you need specifically and ill get you some of my research.

[GusDog]

Thanks demaster -

Any info you could share you be helpful. Are your team members IPMBA certified? Were you funded by any grants or outside funding? What was your total start up cost w/ bikes, gear, uniforms, training, etc? And what has you annual cost been to keep it going?

Our planning was going pretty well until we hit a financial snafu, now the whole idea is being re-examined. FYI we are an ALS service and will probably be running the bikes in different configs to allow ALS/BLS teams, BLS only, and 1 bike BLS.

Thanks again!

[demaster]

We purchased 5 Trek 6700 (3 in one fiscal year and 2 in the next fiscal year). I believe the whole start up cost was 7-8 thousand. The biggest expense was the bikes and the bike panniers. We are a volunteer service so for insurance reasons, all I had to do was come up with a training program where the members of the team had to meet a minimum requirement.

We are not IPMBA certified. It's a long debate, but it was not going to be cost effective to send the team members to the course. I looked into housing a course at our station, but it was going to be over $800 a person (and you have to get a minimum number of people to attend the training, plus hotel, food, and transportation for the instructors).

Here in Connecticut, there are no set standards in which people who are riding a bike have to meet. I would look into what your state regulations are.

My training program mirrors the IPMBA standards and include a 2-3 hour power point presentation (which I made) and a written test. Next is a long (10-15 mile) bike ride. After that I have different stations set up to simulate different skills that will help with riding in crowds (4 corner drill, emergency stopping, curb hopping, and descending stairs).

As for uniforms, there are so many choices out there, I looked at almost all of them. We wear white shirts and black EMS pants, so we decided to go with the Blauer Polo that looks exactly like our uniform shirts, and dark navy blue Mocean bike shorts (with extra padding in the butt). Our uniforms were about 1,000 for 10 people.

We did get donations from surrounding companies, and we also had a lot of money from a former member who died and his family wanted the money to go to the bike team.

Any other questions let me know. I forgot to say I did take the Police version of the IPMBA course when I was dispatching so I just used the stuff I learned from that course and put it into my "course".

We got out panniers from http://www.rbfab.com/packs/bike-panniers.cfm,
and our bikes from http://newingtonbike.com/. We got our uniforms from http://www.horwitzuniforms.com/. I will look to see if i can find the itemized budget for the last 2 years in my office. But for now hope this helped ya out.

[GusDog]

Great info demaster, Thanks!