Community Bike Shops - Part 3

Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to visit a handful of community bike shops around the United States. This is the third of five posts to show the shops I've seen first-hand, even if I stopped by when they were closed.

Community bike shops (also called community bike projects or co-ops) tend to be non-profit organizations with brick-and-mortar locations that serve the specific bicycling needs of a community. Some have large budgets and paid staff, others are completely volunteer-run. Most shops have a mission statement, which is the best way to learn about what they do and how they operate.

The general model:

• Reduce the barriers of entry to cycling by taking donated bicycles and parts to be salvaged, rebuilt, and sold at very affordable prices;
• Empower people with knowledge of how to repair and maintain their own bikes with either classes or DIY shop space and tool libraries;
• Host events; either for fun, education, or fund-raising; and
• (From my experience) they also function as safe spaces for people to learn and hang-out.

The shops I've been to are geographically distant from one another, but the similarities are evident. I highly recommend seeking out a co-op bike shop in your neighborhood or the next time you are traveling. Supporting them with a purchase or donation is a great way to share the love of bikes with others.

Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative

Alexandria, Virginia

From their website: Vélocity strives to "grow and empower a more inclusive biking community through affordability, education, and embracing the fun of riding."

 

I stumbled upon the non-profit Vélocity Bike Co-op while visiting my mom in Alexandria in March 2018. We were out for ice cream in the upscale Del Ray neighborhood (Tacomans would equate this area to their Proctor neighborhood.) Rents are higher here and it seemed an unlikely place to find a non-profit bike shop. Even though the shop was closed, a set of night owl volunteers let us in to have a peek.

It's a relatively small space, covered with everything bike-related from floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall. Bikes for sale would normally be outside on the sidewalk during business hours, but they were inside for the evening and it was a tight fit to maneuver our family inside. With spring just around the corner, the volunteers were working hard to add more used-bikes to their inventory.

My mom hit it off with the volunteers, explaining our interest in their shop based on our own bike co-op in Tacoma, 2nd Cycle. You may recall that my mom enjoys riding bikes, too, and once I even shipped her a folding bike through the mail while she was stationed overseas.

 

We quickly learn that they warehouse their overstock at a separate location and focus on using this storefront for DIY repairs, parts and accessory sales, as well as some classes. Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we thank the volunteers for their time and efforts and leave a cash donation. They gave us a water bottle and an area bike map in return.

With the smell of old tires and grease still fresh on my mind, I make time the next day to tune-up Mom's Kettler city bike that she picked up while stationed in Germany. I was planning to take advantage of the Mount Vernon Trail, which partly runs along the Potomac River from Alexandria to Arlington and would connect me to Washington, D.C. Mom offers to babysit that evening and I set out after dinner for a 15-mile round-trip to the Lincoln Memorial.

Only a few miles into the ride, the bike starts gear-skipping. It had been fine earlier on a test ride. Isn't this always how these things happen? It's now dark and I can't seem to locate the exact problem. Deciding to press on, I find a gear that seems to minimize the skipping. No sooner had I reached the Lincoln Memorial and taken a photo, my phone died. Great. Good thing the volunteers at Vélocity hooked me up with a paper map! The trail is not well lit, but I feel better about finding my way back home with the map in-hand. Somewhere around the Ronald Reagan Airport, I pull over again under a bright lamppost along the trail to take another look at the skipping issue. It's driving me mad. With the bike flipped over I can now see a damaged link in the chain that's sticking. I soft pedal back to Mom's house, knowing exactly where I'll be heading the next day.

Back at Vélocity, we grab an open work stand and point out the damaged chain to a volunteer. The rest of the chain isn't worn out, so he points us to a bucket of old chains and suggests finding a similar one and harvest a link. This works great and is essentially a free repair. In the daylight, we spot a few Vélocity ball caps that we can't live without and make another donation to cover our shop time. It was great to fix the bike ourselves in the neighborhood, just like we would back home in Tacoma.

Stay tuned for the next installment as we check out more community bike projects.