Affordable bikes for all: This non-profit is giving Lexington riders tools for success
On a Sunday afternoon Rufus Godbey watched intently as a mechanic made adjustments to his bicycle, explaining all the while what he was doing and why. When the work was done Rufus took it out for a spin and said the bike was riding much better. And the 14-year-old said he’d learned something – “a little bit, I’m trying” – about bicycle mechanics.
For the lesson and the work, Rufus’ mother, Jennifer Connor Godbey, paid $4, the hourly cost to rent a fully equipped workstation at Broke Spoke community bicycle shop where experienced volunteer mechanics are on hand to help and teach.
A non-profit, Broke Spoke’s mission is pretty simple: Help people “gain better access to better bikes.”
That means making both purchase and repair affordable and empowering people to keep their bikes in shape themselves, said Brad Flowers, one of the organization’s founders and current president of the board.
Like many community bike shops across the nation, Broke Spoke relies on people who donate bikes, bike parts and accessories. The volunteer mechanics donate their time to rehab the bikes, selling many for something in the range of $100. People who can’t afford even that price can pay them off in “sweat equity,” by volunteering at the shop, Flowers said.
Anyone is welcome at Broke Spoke but many of its clients are people often called “silent riders,” not kids having fun or recreational cyclists in clubs, but people who need reliable bikes for transportation to work or school who can’t afford a car. Some are from the men’s Hope Center just down the Legacy Trail, some are students and others are immigrants.
The origins of Broke Spoke, Flowers said, go back to a program founded in 2005 that worked to provide bikes for refugees in Lexington. By 2010, the effort had evolved to what is now Broke Spoke in a small building on Limestone near Al’s Bar. About a decade ago the organization moved to larger accommodations in the building that houses West Sixth Brewing, with a door opening onto the Legacy Trail.
The founders wanted to create good relationships with for-profit bike shops in town and in the early days met with them all to address any concerns they might have about a “low cost” non-profit competitor.
“They’re pretty essential to us, really,” Flowers, said, often donating parts or excess stock. And Broke Spoke offers an affordable entry point for recreational riders who sometimes find their way to bike shops when they want to upgrade.
Learn bicycle repairs
Like everything else, Broke Spoke took a hit during the pandemic and is currently open to the public only on Sunday afternoons. But Flowers said the organization is taking steps to expand.
One is a program to train people in the basics of bicycle maintenance to develop more trained volunteer mechanics. The other is hiring a shop manager, the organization’s first full-time employee, to help expand hours and outreach.
“We’re getting to the point where there’s really more demand than our volunteers can keep up with,” Flowers said.
On a recent Sunday afternoon the demand was evident as the shop buzzed with people working on bikes and looking for something to buy.
Luke Box managed the traffic, logged people in and checked them out and made sure everyone found either the mechanic or the bike they needed.
“We live close by and it’s such a great resource,” said Jennifer Connor Godbey. She bought a bike for herself that day, for $100, and Rufus’ had come from Broke Spoke a few months earlier. Younger sister Maris got a flat fixed that afternoon and was soon back out tooling around on the Legacy Trail.
“A flat tire is the number one reason people stop riding their bike,” Flowers said. It’s Broke Spoke’s mission to fix those flats and get people back on those bikes.
How to donate a bike
Emerging from the pandemic, Broke Spoke is trying to expand to connect more people who need affordable, reliable transportation with bikes that work. To do that, it needs two things: more donated bikes and more money.
“We want to connect those bikes in garages and back yards with people who need them,” said board president Brad Flowers. For the shop manager they’ll hire soon, “we will need sustainable donors,” and will be applying for grants and doing more fundraising.
Broke Spoke’s economic model for the first decade-plus of its existence has been largely self-sustaining as volunteer mechanics rehabbed donated bikes that were then sold, with the money earned plowed into rent and other expenses.
With added hours they’ll need more knowledgeable volunteers to help repair bikes so Broke Spoke has had a series of month-long repair courses to train people interested in learning more about bikes and helping the organization. The June session still had a couple openings.
As for people wanting to donate bikes, Flowers emphasized that higher quality bike, what they call “bike shop bikes,” even if they’re ancient are “much more maintainable long-term” than cycles that come from big box stores.
As a non-profit, donations of both bicycles and money to Broke Spoke are tax deductible.
Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop
Where: 501 W. Sixth St. Suite 130
Hours: 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Contact: Email info@thebrokespoke.org
Online: thebrokespoke.org, Facebook.com/BrokeSpoke