Hi,

We have adults take a one hour BikeWell class covering safety, maintenance, city design and shop flow/expectation.

They then do 4 hours of service helping us in many ways, depending on their skills and our needs.

They then choose a bike from the warehouse and we help them fix it.

That is our simple build-a-bike program.

11-15 yrs of age: class + 2 hours of service.

10 yrs of age and younger- no class nor service required (yet appreciated).

BikeWell is offered 3 times a week, with no sign up. We have 3-10 people per class, with half to 2/3rds of the attendees intent on making a free bike.

This system has worked well for 20 years, with nearly 20,000 build a bike participants. The first 10 years there was no requirement for the class or service- that was optional.

Other tid bits: people keep track of their own 4 hours; projects can be stored for up to 2 weeks in the 'People's Projects' room; we have trained volunteers and interns helping with all steps (we have 2 staff- myself and Emily, our programs director).

City of Missoula gives out free bike lights, we try to provide locks, helmets are free, and any of our build a bikes can be purchased $30 as is- we'll help fix them.

We have a large outdoor area called the 'bicycle forest' (formerly the 'bone yard'). These are box store bikes and broken frames that can have parts 'harvested' off of them.

We have lots of space to make this work. It can get quite busy here (up to 200 people a day in the summer), so we stress patience for all. Passing thru Missoula? please visit!

Bob Giordano, Free Cycles Missoula, mist@strans.org http://www.freecycles.org/

Quoting Judith Feist judith@backalleybikes.org:

Any workshops out there have Adult Earn-a-Bike programs? How are they run? Are they successful? Do they differ from your regular volunteers?

I'd like to get something started here and wanted feedback on other folks' programs.

At FMCBW we had a program where folks could buy a bike out right and then work on it during open shop times (if anything needed replacing that was included in the price), OR they could volunteer 15 hours (i think) and we'd get them a bike and help them fix it up (same thing, replacement parts where included, if needed).......We have a bunch of adult bikes and, depending on the shape they are in, we'll fix 'em and sell them at the Hub, or minor adjustments are done and we sell 'em cheap at our monthly garage sales...

Personally, anytime I see a full suspension out in the wild I want to leave a note on it that they could trade it in towards an Adult bike that we'd help them fix up....but that might be just me...

Also, Happy Spring all! I hope you're well!

-- Judith C Feist Co Director, the Hub at Back Alley

*"*Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root'"- Angela Davis

"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." -Gloria Steinem

I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world...It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.~Susan B. Anthony