Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Don't Have a Bike? Still?

These days the bike culture in Boulder is pretty well developed. So well developed, in fact, that there are several ways to get bicycles for free. That's right, absolutely free. One of course is if you're a student at CU, in which case you are eligible for free Buff Bike rentals (two days free). However, as most people in Boulder are not students, the biking community has devised another way to own your very own free bike. This method is the "Earn-A-Bike" program at Community Cycles, (http://communitycycles.org/) in which the soon-to-be owner of a bike donates 15 hours of their time learning and practicing bike mechanic skills on old bicycles donated by community members (the 15 hours can be completed over the course of however long the volunteer needs...so don't say you don't "have the time"!). At the end of your 15 hours, you take home a completely free bicycle, one that you either picked out from hundreds of really cool, super vintage bikes, or one that you built after picking out your parts. Even if you don't want to spend the time volunteering, you can still purchase one of the bikes at Community Cycles for an extremely moderate price as they are all used, but still awesome. So as I said, if you don't own a bike in Boulder, but want one, it's not because you're a poor student or because you're too busy at work to take the time to go get a free bike. Come to think of it, there isn't a reason...

1 comment:

RydenSwirl said...

Hey Pennie,

What if I don't know anything about fixing bikes? Can Community Cycles really teach me in just 15 hours?