By 6 o'clock on Wednesday evening, the parking lot shared by Bed-Stuy's New Testament Church of God and the 123 Community Space looks like a junkyard. Wheels, cranksets, frames, tools, and chains are strewn in piles over about twenty parking spaces. Several bicycles stand upside down as nine-year-olds wielding wrenches work out their kinks. A few teenagers help the younger kids balance their bikes while they finish up.

A handful of kids enrolled in this free summer bike repair workshop are still hard at work when the Church lets out a few minutes later. This summer at the 123 Community Space, a collectively operated community organization just over a year old, they have learned how to repair salvaged and donated bikes and to build new bikes out of old parts. Their summer program is operated under the auspices of the Freegan Bike Workshop.

Wesleyan alum Quinn Hechtkopf '06 has worked with the Freegan Bike Workshop for two years. Ze began volunteering when the Bike Workshop was based in Manhattan and assisted with the move to its current location, in the basement of the 123 Community Space in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. This summer ze has organized and supervised a free summer program bike repair for young people in the neighborhood. Kids enrolled in hir 8-week class learn about every aspect of bicycle repair and maintenance.

Quinn, who has helped coordinate the Bike Workshop for a year, started the program in June with a grant from the Concerned Citizens Council of New York. "The kids get to keep all of their tools and they'll be able to volunteer with the Freegan Bike Workshop once the school year starts," Quinn says proudly, while testing a set of new brakes that LaToya has just installed. "These need some tightening up, but you did a great job overall," ze tells her with a big smile. She laughs as ze struggles to break. Quinn waves at people exiting the Church. A few church members walk over to pick up their kids and converse with hir. “Y’all are making a wonderful mess over there!" the Pastor shouts above the crowd of chatting congregationalists. “Thank you!” Quinn hollers back.

Quinn hopes to see the free summer bike repair program continue in the future with the support of both outside funders and fund raisers held at the 123 Community Space and related organizations. Hir house and community venue at 15 Thames Street in the Bushwick/E.Williamsburg area of Brooklyn (just off the Morgan Ave stop on the L train) hosts events such as the Freegan Fashion Show and dance parties to benefit the Freegan Bike Workshop. All funds from these events go directly into paying the rent for the Bike Workshop at the 123 Community Space.

The Freegan Bike Workshop has become an influential model for others seeking to start bicycling-related organizations. These organizations are typically involved in several areas, from direct service work and instruction to bicycle advocacy to amending local provisions related to bike lanes and safety. Many people seek out members of the Freegan Bike Workshop to ask questions about how it all works. Quinn recently hosted Cris Shirley, a current undergraduate student at Yale University, at the Freegan Bike Workshop to give hir a tour and provide useful information about the process of operating a volunteer-run shop. Cris has visited many bike workshops on the East Coast this summer to learn all ze can about starting and maintaining such an endeavor in New Haven. Cris received a grant to start the New Haven Bike Collective, which is now up-and-running and located at 235 Grand Ave. The new Collective’s mission statement is a thought provoking and inspiring blend of practical and prefigurative elements:

“The New Haven Bike Collective strives to help promote bicycles as a fun, safe, and accessible form of transportation in the Elm City and beyond. We are a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization that believes in bicycling as an effective and sustainable way to build a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. Our primary goals are to salvage and resurrect unwanted bikes, and offer them to our community through our earn-a-bike program. We provide a welcoming space to learn about safely building, maintaining, and riding bicycles. We are committed to being anti-racist, anti-sexist, class-conscious, as well as queer and gender-inclusive, and aim to actively work to oppose all forms of oppression. The New Haven Bike Collective endeavors to empower our community with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to transform New Haven into a premier bicycle-friendly city. We are always accepting donations of bikes, bike parts, labor, non-perishable food, and expertise.”

Quinn and the nomadic members of the Freegan Bike Workshop are excited about the prospect of both producing and influencing the next generation of bicyclers and volunteer-run bike shops. Quinn and many other recent grads of Wesleyan University also hope to see Wesleyan continue on the same path with the development of volunteer and student organized bike shops, collectives, events, and services in Middletown. Many organizers of the bike repair workshops springing up around the United States express similar dreams that their organizations will not only provide a needed service to their immediate communities, but will form part of a web of active, vibrant centers of bicycle culture.

*Gender neutral pronouns (ze, hir) have been used to denote the assumed gender queer identities of individuals mentioned in this article.
*Names of children under 18 have been changed to protect their privacy.

For More Information:

123 Community Space
http://123communityspace.org/

Freegan Bike Workshop
Freegan Bike Workshop - Every Wednesday & Saturday
Learn how to turn found bike parts into working bicycles & build your own bike. For more info call Quinn at (727) 424-2868. Workshops are Wed. from 6-9pm, and Sat. 2-7pm. At the 123 Community Space in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn at 123 Tompkins, G train to Myrtle-Willoughby. Media WILL be welcome on Wed. with appointment, but the Sat. workshops are media free.

New Haven Bike Collective
http://elmcitybikecollective.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

Listserv: NHBikeCollective@lists.riseup.net