Sidewalk bike repair shops in NYC
The New York Times has a great article on the sidewalk bike repair shops that are starting to appear in New York, probably as a result of more cyclists and a growing market.
I’ll never forget sitting in a cafe in Mexico City and watching a delivery boy with a flat tire make a call on a pay phone. About ten minutes later a fellow in a blue apron showed up in a cargo bike loaded down with tools (including oxy-acetylene!), patched the tire, and the delivery boy was back on the road.
–Erik Ryberg
August 28th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
While this is not quite a mobile repair stand the U of A has established a semi permanent bicycle station on campus. Is is situated on the mall in front of the science library just west of the main library on the south side of the mall. They are open every tuesday and wednesday morning from 9-noon. They will be registering bikes at all times, they have plenty of maps and safety info and they have a bike stand with some tools to help folks out with simple repairs. They also have two pumps on hand. A nice start I think. The U also later this fall semester is going to get a bike share program up and running starting with 10 bikes. Again not Paris or New York but steps in the right direction. An attempt at feel good friday news.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Thanks for that link, I really enjoyed that with my coffee this morning.
September 5th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
http://www.goddessheart.com/bicyclebus/1986News4.htm
November 15th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I enjoy your site. Here is a somewhat related story published in the Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada)Chronicle Herald. I copied it from the Halifax Cycling Coalition site.
From the Herald Community Section
The cat you need when your bike brakes seize up
http://thechronicleherald.ca/HCW/1146083.html
HALIFAX — I’m bicycling up Chebucto Road when my rear brakes seize up.
Then I remember the small group of people who appear to have set up a sidewalk bike repair shop this past summer on North Street, near Gladstone. I make it up the hill, brakes complaining, and then stop for quick repairs and a chat.
Ten minutes and $5 later, I’m on my way with the brake problem solved by a friendly young man with grease-covered fingers who’s wearing a beret and calls himself Alex the Alley Cat.
“I’ve been fixing bikes for a good 10 years, just kind of casually as a hobby, and I started the business in the spring,” Alex Dardanne-Tremblay says in an interview a few days later.
“I’d already collected quite a few bikes for myself and for some friends and one day I decided I should just put them out front and try to see if anybody else wants them.”
Besides fixing brakes for two-wheeled journalists, the 27-year-old teaches people how to repair their own bikes for the costs of whatever work they need done.
“I really enjoy just showing people how to do things. It’s really nice to get them on the road and they feel more confident with what they’re doing.”
He tries to use recycled parts and aims to charge between $15 and $20 an hour.
“But sometimes it just takes a bit longer and I feel that I need to just make up for it, so I don’t charge people extra.”
The crowd of people working on bikes in front of his North Street apartment eventually irked his landlord. So last week, Alex decided to move a few blocks east on the same street to a place near Fuller Terrace.
“But it’s not going to be a shop front. I’m just keeping a workshop and storage for the winter,” says Alex, who also works as a line cook in a local high-end restaurant.
“I’m hoping to find a different location for the spring so we can set up properly. . . . Somewhere in the same neighbourhood would be nice. It’s got a lot of foot traffic and I’m already kind of established here. So that would be ideal.”
He likes the idea of working right beside the street.
“It made me much more accessible to people. They didn’t have to wait in line at the bike shop. They could just put some air in their tires or tighten something up quickly and get back on the road.”
The roadside repair gig is “a great learning experience and I want to use it as a stepping stone to grow my business knowledge and also my bicycle knowledge,” he says.
“I’d like to create some bikes in the future that are a little more to my specific liking, something more custom.”
He’s working on setting up a website. But for now, he says would-be customers can reach him via email at Alex-thealleycat@gmail.com, or by phone at 981-6219. But he cautions customers will have to set up an appointment. “I just have to go part-time for the winter. There’s not enough business to hold me over,” he said.
“There are only a couple of wild monkeys that still ride all year-round.”
His handwritten business card bears a little kitty paw print — a throwback to a two-year period when he lived in Montreal that ended two years ago.
“I started a similar shop on a slightly smaller scale when I was in Montreal and I was actually working out of a back alley and there were alley cats everywhere,” Alex says.
“So when I was fixing bikes I was surrounded by cats. I’d been wearing a tail and somebody gave me that nickname. That’s what I’m calling the business now. It might change if other people are working with me. But if it’s just me then I think I’ll keep that name.”
Oddly enough, his new location in an alley near Fuller Terrace has its own share of felines. “It’s full of bikes and there are a couple of cats running around,” he says with a laugh.