Toledo City Bicycle Co-op is on the road again

Volunteer William Rowlett removes a tire from a rim to be repaired. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Twelve-year-old LaRail Greenlee examined his patient from a number of different angles. His manner was quick and confident but also perplexed.

"How in the world did you mess this up?"

The symptoms were acute: the poor bicycle in front of him needed new rims and had problems with the front brakes. Its owner, Allen Owens, 16, of North Toledo, offered up a diagnosis: BMX stunts.

LaRail, an Old West End youth, wasted no time in getting to work on it. As a volunteer at the Toledo City Bicycle Co-op over the last two years, he s picked up all kinds of skills to help save bikes from an early death. That s the whole point of the nonprofit group, which formed three years ago in the Old West End.

"We re teaching young people that bicycles are not to be thrown away but rather to be repaired and reused," said Robert Hannon, 50, a co-founder of the co-op who lives in the neighborhood.

In that spirit, the group is working with the First Church of God to give away dozens of refurbished bicycles today. Unlike a similar event in the spring, this one will honor Robert Brundage, a long-time activist and robbed of his bike in June and died of his injuries.

The bicycles will be lined up in the early morning along Collingwood Boulevard between the Collingwood Arts Center and Central Avenue, free for the taking. There also will be bicycle workshops from noon to 4 p.m. in the First Church of God parking lot at 3016 Collingwood.

The co-op s workshop is nearby, housed in the basement of St. Mark s Episcopal Church, 2272 Collingwood. Despite its tidiness, there s a mad scientist quality to the place. Boxes of parts are peppered throughout the room bike seats in one, helmets in another and racks of rubber tires hang from the wall.

It s a small space that gets smaller on Sundays and Mondays when the group s volunteers converge here to go to work, joined by drop-ins and sometimes spilling outside. Some come to learn, hang out, and lend a hand on donated bikes in need of repair before being reintroduced to the community; others are in desperate need and looking for a place that will help get them back on two wheels.

The co-op asks for at-will donations in money or time for used parts, and it charges wholesale prices for new ones. "We allow people to earn anything that s used without having to pay any cash," said co-founder and Old West End resident Andy Stepnick, 28. But there is a catch: "We re going to ask you to learn some things and pass it on."

Any repair work costs $10 an hour, but it can be paid off by volunteering, which can be an empowering experience in itself.

"People walk out proud," Mr. Hannon said

Partially funded by a Toledo Community Foundation grant, the co-op s offerings come at a time when the economy and environment have pressed cycling to the front of many people s minds. Its build-a-bike program allows people to learn how to build a bicycle from the ground up and then keep it.

Current participant Stacy Jurich, who commutes around downtown on her bike, said she became interested in the co-op in general as part of her personal mission to learn how to fix things.

"I started out not really knowing anything, and they do a really good job of making everyone feel welcome. It s very inclusive to everyone of all ages," she said. "I had a 14-year-old showing me how to fix a tire. ... The next time I had someone maybe 20 years older than me showing me how to do something else."

One volunteer, John Bell, 54, looked to the co-op when he needed a bike after his was stolen.

"They let me pick out another bike ... and ride away with it," the Old West End man said.

Now he continues to help out because he enjoys teaching people and wants to promote more non-automobile transportation.

Mr. Stepnick already does that by riding his bike to work. He said bicycle co-ops are popping up all over the country and there s a national conference later this month in Minnesota. The value of such co-ops is clear, he said.

"We want to enable people," he said. "If you want to help people out, you can always look at things that are abundant that will help people, and there are a whole bunch of broken bikes."

Contact Ryan E. Smith at:

ryansmith@theblade.com

or 419-724-6103