Offering free classes and parts

The Bozeman Bike Kitchen Assists Youth and Community

By Alison Grey, 10-24-07

When Taylor Lonsdale and Emily Harrington were researching community cycle centers across the country to help create a model for their own, they came across the Missoula Free Cycle Web site. Their first piece of advice: Have a space before you have bikes.

For its first year, The Bozeman Bike Kitchen, a free place to build and repair bikes, was operating out of Harrington’s driveway. As more donations came in, they were quickly outgrowing the space and needed a place to store their growing collection of bikes, bike parts and tools.

This summer, the center found a home on a plot of land where every Tuesday evening, the doors have been opened for every member of the community to build and repair bikes.

The organization operates out of a small shed that sits on land owned by the Bozeman School District, just behind an old house that is used by the Bridger Alternative School.

More than a bike shop, the organization hopes to promote bike advocacy through fostering the budding relationship with the Bozeman School District and local students by possibly integrating bike safety and mechanical education, especially those at risk of not graduating, in order to have a place to pursue a life-long skill and gain confidence.

“Besides learning new skills, they work as a team and walk away with a sense confidence in themselves and a sense of place,” said Lonsdale, a self-described bike geek who commutes to work on his bike year-round, even in the depth of winter.

The school district has allowed the group to use the property and the land surrounding it, free of charge. It’s a budding relationship and whether the school district will allow the group to operate here in the foreseeable future, is yet to be determined.

The center is similar to other cycle centers around the country in that it advocates bike transportation and providing the resources and knowledge for every member of the community, despite their income level, to have the means to own their own bike.

Still, The Bozeman Bike Kitchen, run by an eclectic and diverse collection of bike enthusiasts, has evolved into its own unique organization that goes beyond bike mechanics.

Ben Donatelle, a bike mechanic at Summit Bike Shop, is on the board of directors and is one of the group’s visionaries working to develop ways to reach out to area youth.

“By promoting an alternative means of education for kids, you can reach a lot of the kids that might otherwise slip through the cracks,” he said, noting that learning a new skill, like bike mechanics, not only teaches students a skill that could result in a job someday, but also gets them excited about something, and hopefully, helps motivate them to stay in school.

There is also a vision of working with students to help create a community center on the plot of land, complete with an organic garden, focusing on sustainable and healthy living.

“A key part to us becoming a true community center, will be having all aspects of the community here,” said Lonsdale, noting that this includes bike enthusiasts with expensive bikes looking to volunteer their time, to young people garnering potential job skills, to people without the means to purchase a bike coming to build their own out of scrap parts.

The organization is also partnering with local organizations, like the Bozeman Food Bank, to help distribute bikes to people in the community who simply can’t afford one.

In May this year, the Bike Kitchen hosted a recycle drive, where people brought unwanted used bicycles, parts and accessories — regardless of the state of disrepair. Some 500 bikes were donated.

With winter on its way, the kitchen is closing until next spring. The building, with missing windows and no installation, is in no state for winter use. Ultimately, the group would like to have a year-round operation, having a home marks an important transition from their beginnings in a driveway.

“This organization has grown out of a group of very different individuals and our love for biking,” said Donatelle. “We’ve come together and become a really neat, organic network of people that are united through the love of the bike, all hoping to promote more of it on the road and in the community.”

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