Stepping into the main work room of the Community Bikes Shop for the first time is like discovering a hidden treasure trove. Bike frames of every size and color hang in rows from the ceiling rafters, while metal nuts, bolts and screws gleam from their boxes along the shelves. It is a place of fascination and potential, where bikes that are a work in progress stand beside others awaiting repair or the right inspiration for a new project. The shop — a volunteer-run, non-profit organization — is dedicated to helping people maintain their bikes or build new ones, said former shop manager Thomas Canu, a fourth-year College student. “Our mission is making cycling accessible, [providing] environmentally friendly transportation and recycling bicycles.”
The Community Bikes Shop is located in an old garage reminiscent of a warehouse, off West Main Street — right on the edge of Charlottesville’s project neighborhoods and public housing. The shop’s founders wanted bikes to be “really accessible for the people who need them,” Canu said. Because the shop is staffed by volunteers, it is open only from 2 to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, when anyone can come to the shop and learn about bike maintenance or how to build a bike, Canu added.
This has been an increasingly popular activity among University students, said current shop manager Will Jacobs, a second-year College student. The procedure for bike building is that visitors come in and pick out the frame and parts, and then volunteers help them assemble it. The shop cannot guarantee that it will have a certain size or style, or how long it will take to build a bike, Jacobs added.
It is difficult to build a bike in one day alone, Jacobs explained, so participants are encouraged to come back as often as possible to work on their projects. Generally, the process takes about two shop periods, or roughly six hours.
In return for building a bike free of charge, participants are asked to spend about four hours of their time in the shop volunteering and helping new bike builders work on their projects. Donations also help the shop continue to purchase necessary parts and maintain its mission, Jacobs added.
“We do expect [participants] to give back in some way ... [through] whatever they can do,” Canu said. Volunteering in the shop can be a different experience every weekend, he noted, especially when the weather is nice. The shop does not have running water or heat, which makes it difficult to use year round, Jacobs said.
Since its opening in fall 2002, the Community Bikes Shop has continued to meet the changing needs of the Charlottesville biking community, Jacobs said. Part of the shop’s original mission focuses on recycling bikes and mentoring youth, Jacobs said. “When I first started [in fall 2006], there were definitely a lot more kids. The shop in general has become so much more popular in the last year or so,” Jacobs said.
“There’s really been an explosion in Charlottesville with cycling ... especially within the U.Va. community,” Canu said. He noted that there has been a significant increase in the number of University students visiting the shop during the past year.
“I’ve seen more University students coming to use it,” said Matteo Favero, a current shop manager and Charlottesville citizen. “It’s really growing.”
The shop and its volunteers have worked to accommodate the demands of the increasing visitors, he said, which has drawn attention to the issue of helping some of the younger visitors.
“Now that there’s an increase of the shop’s potential, we’ve had to separate the kids from adults .. .as they both have different needs,” Canu said. Working to address those needs with a limited volunteer staff has been a challenge, Jacobs agreed. “It can be very difficult when you have kids that need one certain set of instruction and adults that need another,” he said.
Currently, the shop rules do not allow children younger than 18 years old to participate without a scheduled program, Favero said. The shop organizers, however, are exploring ways to continue mentoring children and meeting their needs while keeping the shop running normally. Working with the kids has “definitely [been] a part of the mission and it still is,” Jacobs said.
One of the easiest ways to get children into the shop would be through structured groups, like school groups, Boy Scouts or other organizations that come with adult supervision, Favero said. Without a supervisor and additional volunteers, it would be difficult to make the program work. Like several of the volunteers, Favero said he enjoys working with the children who come by the shop to fix their bikes. “I know a lot of them by name,” he said.
Unfortunately, many of the children — ranging from 7 to 18 years old — from the surrounding neighborhood do not have an adult supervisor who can accompany them on a frequent basis, Favero noted, but the volunteers at the shop do not want those kids to be left out. “How do we help them?” Jacobs said. “That’s a lot more difficult.”
Other than working inside the shop to help people maintain their bikes, the Community Bikes Shop also has worked to provide bikes for many locals in need of alternative transportation, Favero said. Last November, Favero and other volunteers worked with a group of middle school students and their teacher Captain Brian Garriss from the Fork Union Military Academy to build bikes for refugees who were brought to Charlottesville through the International Rescue Community, Favero said. The completed bikes then were given to refugee families in the area, including nine refugees from Burma. With the help of translators and other volunteers, “everything went very smoothly,” Favero said. “Afterwards, we all rode through town together.” Now, the IRC has a written form that incoming refugees can use to request bicycles, and the volunteers at the Community Bikes shop will build and donate them, Favero added.
The services provided by the Community Bikes Shop would not be possible without the dedication and willingness of its volunteers, Jacobs noted. He serves as the program director for the Madison House volunteering program that partners with the shop, which is “just a way for students to find out what Community Bikes does and to figure out a way to volunteer there.” Other service groups also come and help in the shop, like Alpha Phi Omega and other University organizations, he added. “It is these groups that are really helping us to move forward in terms of improving the shop space and working on long-term tasks,” Jacobs said.
As the shop continues to grow, Canu said its potential will not necessarily be limited to its current mission. “I see it changing a lot,” Canu said, adding that there are a lot of promising projects in the works. Favero noted, however, that “the future of it really depends on monetary flow,” emphasizing that donations and even small contributions like paint or light bulbs for facilities maintenance can make a difference.
“As an organization we’ve come a long way,” Jacobs said. “Physically, in the shop, in terms of how we’re managing the shop and improving our storage and our efficiency in being able to help people ... That’s the most exciting thing.”
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