i'm not sure how it is being run these days, but back in the day it was sliding scale, and you didn't need a bike to access it (as in, you could swap your bike for a bigger one, but we would also just give kids bikes at whatever price the family was able to pay). we also held weekly kids bike repair days, because as i'm sure many of you know, kids bikes are often in quite a state of disrepair. 

i think that overall the project was really successful early on largely due to a few factors: 
1. we had a constant supply of kids bikes and a solid volunteer base to fix the bikes 

2. we secured ongoing operational funding (i know this can be difficult, but the right funder is likely to eat up this "sustainable" low-barrier approach to getting kids on bikes) 

3. we collaborated with local orgs and other community bike shops to keep the kids bikes flowing and promote the program 

4. being featured in local news really helped get the word out, after that we got a lot of traffic just from word of mouth 

again i can't really say what's going on these days with the kids bike library (maybe someone at the bike kitchen can chime in?), but happy to answer any questions! it was a really beautiful project to set up and run, and i strongly recommend trying to make it happen in your city :) 

happy riding and wrenching to all of you out there! 

<3 aida