Local bike shop expands, adds partnerships
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Since Louisa and David Stone started Bicycle Recycle, many bikes that might otherwise have ended up in the junkyard have been repurposed, given a new life and sent back out on the road.
In the Pajama Factory, the shop has moved into a new 2,500-square-foot room, which almost doubles its floor space.
"We just moved from a small space. This is a new space for us," Louisa said. "It enables us to work with a lot more people."
She emphasized the storeroom is new, but the mission is still the same.
The idea for the shop came to them on one of their travels, when they saw similar shops around the country.
When the shop opened in 2014, its mission stated that bicycles "can make our community a better place to live."
Since then, the Stones have accomplished that mission by teaching others bicycle repair techniques using the shop's tools and recycled parts. They
also offer maintenance courses where attendees can learn how to make simple repairs.
Visitors to the shop can use the supply of used bikes to build a new bike or they can buy a bike that has been restored by one of the volunteers, at a nominal cost,
Half of the area is occupied by a work space where the bikes are repaired. One wall of shelves is filled with bicycle parts gleaned from donated bikes too old or too rusted to be repurposed. And, now with the larger space, there are huge windows on the parking lot side so passersby can see what the shop offers.
Donations
To obtain the bikes for recycling, the Stones put out a call to the public.
"People have them in their garage and think, 'Why is that still sitting there?' Half come that way," David said.
Some have come in from the Old Lycoming Police Department and Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Donations can't be rusted and if they can't be fixed, they're used for parts.
One bike, David said, had been on the bottom of a creek for weeks.
"We said no thanks. It had a fishy smell to it; we didn't think anyone would buy that," he said with a laugh.
One event they began was a bike tour of the city called the Tour de Bill. People started saying they liked biking but didn't have a bike, Louisa said.
Bicycle Recycle sells bikes for between $20 and $100 via Craigslist.
"Kids' bikes are generally $20. Forty is a bike that isn't generally that good, but it's rideable," Louisa said.
Bikes have been sold to the YWCA, which Louisa said obtained a grant to purchase them. They have been donated to Stevens Primary School, which has programs for students who are working to improve their behavior and grades. The school also raffled bikes to benefit the parent-teacher organization.
Justice and education
In the spirit of its mission statement, the shop works to be a community service and attracts visitors from across northcentral Pennsylvania.
Penn College student Sam Pham works at the shop. An aviation major, Pham sees a correlation between working on bikes and aviation maintenance. He pointed out that the Wright brothers, aviation pioneers, ran a bicycle repair business. Working in the helicopter industry is in his future, Pham said.
For the last two months, the shop has partnered with Justice Works to enable youth to do community service. While bicycles are repaired, refurbished and polished to their former glory, youth who have made bad choices are given a new sense of purpose at the shop.
Jacoby Benway, 13, said he has worked with his brother, a mechanic, and definitely enjoys "learning new stuff" at the shop. With a total of 24 hours to serve, Benway recently finished his eighth hour and said he doesn't mind coming to the bicycle shop to work.
According to Terrance Blanton, the benefits of youth filing their community service with the Stones is two-fold. He said they learn a skill and they pay back their debt.
"They love it," he said of the youth. "Previously, community service was doing jobs like picking up trash," but working at the bike shop is more like a mentorship.
"They can tell people that they work on bikes, which are then donated to schools," he said.
"We have, over the years, worked community service with people, but this is the first time we've worked with one group," Louisa said. "We have our volunteers train these guys to work on bicycles.
"We teach them how to maintain bikes. We don't even know if they are cyclists," she said.
One young man has been there since the program began, "but he comes back. It's an atmosphere he likes to work in while he does his community service," Louisa said.
"These aren't heavy-duty criminals; these are just people who have done something stupid. They're kids," she said.
Working on the bikes is really cool, said Nate Tawney, who is almost 14. He likes "seeing how they all work."
Blanton said he enjoys working with the bike shop too: "It's been a great time."
He said Louisa lets him know if there's an event in which the youth might want to participate.
"It's building community relations," he added.