The Bike Kitchen

Across the alley from me, in a house that lay dormant for a long, long time, sits The Bike Kitchen. It's a volunteer shop that welcomes people to bring their bikes and to learn how to fix them up. You can also get miracled by The Bike Kitchen by a fixed-up or rebuilt bike that has been donated. 

This Bike Kitchen is a departure from the pretense you'll find in some bike shops. They'll never snicker or roll their eyes at your curled under handle bars, your ancient ten speed, or tell you this bike isn’t a good enough bike to bother fixing. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone with the skill level or the cash from having the very best ride a bike can offer. I also believe biking's price of admission shouldn’t require a tricked out, custom-built, titanium frame. 

Growing up the rule in my house was that nobody got a bike before we were ten years old. At ten I got a baby-blue dirt bike with white rimmed tires and a banana seat. My mom found an ad in the Thrifty Nickel that said something generic like “girls bike”. We went over to the seller’s house, walked over to the side door of his garage while he wheeled the bike onto the lawn. He dusted off the seat and batted off the cobwebs from between the spokes. It was twelve dollars. And it opened up a wider world to me. Libraries, swimming pools, friends’ houses and flat out farther reaches of my neighborhood were within a short ride.

The Bike Kitchen has a broader field of vision than the semi-pro or racing enthusiast and sees people like me. Twenty-some-odd years after my banana seat dirt bike days I still ride. I’m not particularly fast nor accomplished as a biker but that was never my aim. Cycling is fun, it’s healthy, it’s environmentally conscious and a cheap way of getting around town.

The Bike Kitchen operates by a philosophy that anyone that wants to be biking should be able to for free. Yep. Free. No money is required. Financial donations are welcome. The more valuable donation, though, is your time. And the volunteer base that sprawls across the front lawn with wheels and pedals and wrenches in the air is pretty amazing. People volunteer their time helping others fix their bikes, or fixing up donated bikes to give away, or helping in the backyard vegetable garden.

I don’t mean to be coy about this so I’ll just say so out-right: The Bike Kitchen is a really great neighbor.