Community shop recycles bikes and helps bring lifestyle to Reno
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007 @ 12:09 am
There are two workbenches at the Reno Bike Project’s workhouse, one for the volunteers and workers to fix bikes and another for the public to use for the same purpose.Founders Noah Silverman and Kyle Kozar started the Reno Bike Project last fall to cultivate a bike community in Reno rather than make money by selling bikes.
Unlike other bike shops, the Reno Bike Project sells only recycled frames — every one of the Reno Bike Project’s 200 or so bikes was donated. They’ve sold bikes for as much as $200, but they’ve also traded a fixed bike for a broken bike so a homeless man had a way to get around town.
“The real goal of this place is to get people on bikes by making biking as affordable as possible,” founder Noah Silverman said.
the Reno Bike Project is one of many different forms of bike culture centers across the country. Tucson, Ariz., supports a community bike shop called BICAS and the Community Cycling Center provides a place for children in Portland, Ore. to go after school and build bikes.
Silverman, originally from Reno, and Kozar worked at bike shop similar to the Reno Bike Project in Bellingham, Wash., called The Hub Community Bike Shop. They moved to Reno with the goal of spreading the idea.
“Reno’s a pretty hospitable city,” he said. “Relatively small, relatively flat. It gets cold in the winter, but it’s still sunny.”
The Hub got its origin in a different bike project in Bellingham called the Free Yellow Bike Project, which began in 1997. Bikes were donated, fixed and spray-painted yellow, then put downtown for the public to use.
Kyle Morris, a worker at The Hub, said the Free Yellow Bike Project failed.
“People were smashing them or owning them,” he said. “It’s better to provide people with their own bikes. It can be their personal steward.”
So in 2002, the Free Yellow Bike Project got a makeover and became The Hub, creating a place for all bikers to come and talk shop.
“It was as much a social place as a work place,” Silverman said.
That open-door policy is something the Reno Bike Project wants to foster.
“When people come in, we size them up,” Silverman said. “Then they can pick out a frame and we’ll build it for them.”
When Silverman and Kozar first started the Reno Bike Project, they were working out of Silverman’s garage and relied on e-mail and word of mouth to get the shop off the ground. 
“We talked to a lot of people about how to get money, trying to find people who were interested, getting bikes, bringing that community together,” Silverman said. “It didn’t feel hard because we were really excited.”
Soon the project picked up speed, gaining support and volunteers.
“A year ago, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Silverman said. “It gained momentum really quickly and took on a life of its own without us realizing it.”
Silverman said volunteers started doing things to help the project on their own. Aside from helping in the shop and donating bikes, volunteers also built their Web site and keep track of their financial records and grant money.
“We’re pretty much 95% volunteer and 5% paid staff,” Silverman said.
Morris said there are many reasons bicycling communities have developed, partly because he thinks the West Coast has a more progressive set of people.
He also said community bike shops are successful because of the community, not necessarily the shop.
“There are many, many wayward souls out there looking for things to fulfill the void,” he said.
“You’ve got the whole hipster generation here,” he said. “Biking is the thing to do, the alternative culture. It’s a cult following. And then you get college students involved, who often move. That’s a good weed to spread.”
The biking culture has spread like weeds. The Yellow Bike Project that begot The Hub was copied from similar programs in Vancouver, B.C., Austin, Texas and Portland, Ore. The Free Yellow Bike Project in Portland was started by Brian Lacy and eventually joined up with The Community Cycling Center.
Morris said most of these were probably based off a similar project that started in Amsterdam in the 1960s.
“I think my generation started to take things more seriously and wanted to make some change in Reno,” Silverman said. “If change was going to come, they were going to have to do it themselves.”
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© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Great article! Thanks.
Find out more about what the RBP can do for you, and what YOU can do for RBP at our website @ http://www.renobikeproject.com. Or email us @
We hope to see you @ Bike-out or Strike-out on November 10th!
Ride ON!!
-M
October 24th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
[...] The Nevada Sagebrush » Blog Archive » Community shop recycles bikes and helps bring life… - ?The real goal of this place is to get people on bikes by making biking as affordable as possible,? founder Noah Silverman said. [...]