Bike Kitchens
Photo © Tammy Strobel – RowdyKittens – CC 2.0 Generic
Bike kitchens (also sometimes known as “bike co-ops” or “community bicycle organizations”) are not-for-profit, volunteer-run bike shops serving the communities in which they reside. They provide a variety of services, from do-it-yourself repair facilities, to classes, workshops, and even for-hire repairs in some cases. Some equate bike kitchens with community gardens: public spaces run by-the-people, for-the-people, with the common good as their primary goal.
Following is a brief list of bike kitchens. Feel free to leave a note in the comments highlighting a favorite bike kitchen in your area.
- Bicycle Kitchen – Los Angeles, CA
- The Bike Kitchen – San Francisco, CA
- Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen – Sacramento, CA
- Davis Bike Collective – Davis, CA
- The Bicycle Church – Santa Cruz, CA
- Tampa Bay Bicycle Co-op – Tampa Bay, FL
- Mount Rainier Bike Co-op – Mt. Rainier, MD
- Bozeman Bike Kitchen – Bozeman, MT
- Time’s Up Bike Co-op – New York, NY
- Freeride – Pittsburgh, PA
- Bikeworks – Seattle, WA
- The ReCyclery – Port Townsend, WA
- The Bikehouse – Washington D.C.
50 Responses to “Bike Kitchens”
Don’t forget Long Beach, Ca.! There’s a bike kitchen on the corner of Atlantic and PCH. If you’re in the area, check it out! There are some good people in there!
Don’t forget The Hub of Detroit in the Cass Corridor!
http://thehubofdetroit.org/
Portland, OR- http://www.communitycyclingcenter.org/
BICAS in Tucson was one of, if not, the first bike coops. They have been around for 20 years.
http://bicas.org/
Iowa City Bike Library: http://www.bikelibrary.org/
http://bicas.org/ in Tucson, AZ!
Bici coop in Birmingham, Alabama. They even have a cx racing team!
And Community Bikes in Santa Rosa, CA!
Their website is under construction, but this page gives you the basic info.
Buffalo, NY has a community bicycle workshop where members can use shop tools to work on their bikes, or volunteer to rebuild and repair salvaged bikes to be auctioned in fundraisers or donated to local non-profits (e.g., refugee resettlement agencies). It’s run by Green Options Buffalo, which lobbies and advocates for better pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure, policy, etc.
http://greenoptionsbuffalo.org/programs.php?recordID=6
When I was in undergrad at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, I coordinated the Bike Shop. It was a student group that operated a bike kitchen on campus. I assume that it’s still there. Back in my day, it was open to the general public on a membership basis – $6 for 3 months. Not a bad deal. Prices may have changed in the last [redacted] years.
Local awesomeness = SLC Bike Collective
http://www.slcbikecollective.org/
Here in Albany, NY we have the Albany Bike Rescue which is located in the lower level of the Trinity Center at 15 Trinity Place in downtown Albany. ABR is open Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 5-8PM.
We are a community bike workshop where volunteers are available to teach bike repair skills and help to keep bikes out of the landfills. We are working to build a thriving bicycle community in New York’s capital city, one bicyclist at a time.
http://albanybicyclecoalition.com/albanybikerescue/
in philadelphia:
http://neighborhoodbikeworks.org/
krank it up!
663 industrial drive
tallahassee fl 32310
http://www.krankitup.info
“krank it up! is an open community bike shop. We provide a space for people to have access to the tools necessary to work on bicycles, the collective of volunteers are there to teach people how to work on bicycles. if you have your own bike, you can come in anytime and use the tools, if you do not have a bicycle, we have a large amount of bicycles donated by the community that can be fixed up. Our goal is to promote bicycling as a viable and truly sustainable form of transportation.”
Bike Farm – Portland, OR – http://bikefarm.org/
In Toronto
http://www.bikepirates.com/
Another one in Los Angeles
Bikerowave: http://www.bikerowave.org/
Also in Toronto:
http://bikesauce.org/
I’ve been volunteering on and off there for a year or so, and it’s been a fantastic experience. It really takes all the intimidation out of working on a bicycle, and the community building is just incredible.
(We also hosted a couple folks from the Bike Kitchen at our house when they were at Bike!Bike! this past summer, and they are lovely people)
http://www.sopobikes.org/ – Atlanta, GA
Reno
http://www.renobikeproject.com
Victoria BC
http://www.recyclistas.ca
bikes not bombs, boston, ma!
http://bikesnotbombs.org/
The Bike Kitchen at the University of British Columbia – http://www.thebikekitchen.com/
Our Community Bikes, Vancouver BC – http://www.pedalpower.org/?q=our_community_bikes
http://www.rothar.ie
rothar is Irish for bicycle…
Ohio City Bicycle Co-op, Cleveland, Ohio
Bike Saviours in Tempe, AZ
http://www.bikesaviours.org/
Bici Centro in Santa Barbara, CA….fantastic people doing a great job there.
http://www.bicicentro.org/
In Rochester, NY, we’ve given away over 2300 bikes this calendar year.
http://rcommunitybikes.net/index.html
The first of these was Bicycle Action Project (Indianapolis). Started by Charles Hammond. A wonderful fellow. Unfortunately a capitalist killed the project when he saw a chance to make money. I hope that the capitalist is eating ramen noodles now. And Charles is riding a sweet bike of nectar.
There is also the San Luis Obispo, CA Bicycle Coalition/ Bike Kitchen. I’ve learned a lot about how to work on my bike from there. If your in the area, it’s downtown behind the parking structure on morro st.
Re: Brian wrote “Don’t forget Long Beach, Ca.! There’s a bike kitchen …”
It’s called The Hub, and it’s actually at 1741 N. Long Beach Blvd, open most afternoons:
http://www.bicycleretailer.com/post-217/the-hub-opens-in-long-beach
Los Angeles also has the Bike Oven, in Highland Park, next to Flying Pigeon Los Angeles: http://www.living-room.org/bikeoven.html
3706 North Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA
Second Life Bikes, in Asbury Park, NJ, focuses on teaching local kids mechanical skills and responsibility in a working environment. After putting in 15 hours of work repairing bikes, they earn a free bike. In fact, just this week there was an article (with a video) about them in the Newark Star-Ledger:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/bike_shop_in_asbury_park_serve.html
For all those beautiful people who spend hours of their existence attempting to make the world a better place, one spoke at a time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qoalKUt0mo
Bike Kitchens rock.
To follow up on a few other commenters, the greater Los Angeles area has seen a big number of coops open in recent years:
Bicycle Kitchen (http://www.bicyclekitchen.com/) – Hollywood
Bike Oven (http://www.bikeoven.com) – Highland Park
Bikerowave (http://www.bikerowave.org/) – West Side
Valley Bikery (http://www.valleybikery.com) – Chatsworth
The HUB (?) – Long Beach
BiciDigna (http://ciudaddeluces.wordpress.com/la-bici-digna-bike-repair-space/) – downtown
Finally, it looks like there will be a new coop opening in the near future in the MacArthur Park area (6th & Lucas) – as yet unnamed.
Minneapolis has a great bike kitchen – The Hub
http://thehubbikecoop.org/
-B
BOSTON AREA:
In addition to Bikes Not Bombs – already mentioned – we have Broadway Bicycle School in Cambridge:
http://broadwaybicycleschool.com/
Providence, RI – Recycle-A-Bike:
http://www.recycleabike.org/
Calgary’s got one too –
The Good Life Bikeshop
Eau Claire Market, Downtown Calgary
http://www.goodlifebikes.ca/
Reno Bike Project
541 E. 4th Street
Reno, NV 89512
(775) 323-4488
http://www.renobikeproject.com/
As one of the “core” of Sac Bike Kitchen, thanks for posting this!! And it’s sooooo cool how many kitchens are out there!! Bike on!!
San Luis Obispo, California 93401 has a well run bike kitchen:
http://www.slobikekitchen.org/Home.html
The Boise Bike Project the hub of All Things Good here in the City of Trees.
http://www.boisebicycleproject.org
The Bikery in Seattle is a genuine bike kitchen.
http://www.thebikery.org/
Another shout out to the Bike Oven in NELA (http://bikeoven.com/). The awesome volunteers there helped me completely dismantle and restore a 1981 Bianchi roadbike. The most technical thing I’d done up to that point was change a flat.
StPaul MN
sibleybikedepot.org
New Orleans, LA
Plan B – Community Bike Project
http://www.bikeproject.org/
Velocipede in Baltimore, MD!
http://velocipedebikeproject.org/
BWORKS St. Louis
4100/4102 Shenandoah Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 827-6640
http://bworks.org
Good folk, good work, and one of their fundraisers is to resell select, refurbed bikes at very fair prices. Best place in town to buy a used bike.
Also in Toronto – Community Bicycle Network – http://www.communitybicyclenetwork.org/
Cheers!
Austin has both the Yellow Bike Project and the Orange Bike Project (University of Texas affiliated). Both super.
The Park Hill Bike Depot, in Denver, CO.
http://www.thebikedepot.org
I’m volunteering there and hopefully soon taking some mechanics classes. Nice people!