Denver’s Great Community Bike Shop Expands Services to Help More Go by Bike
Bikes Together has become Denver’s ultimate community bike shop. Formerly the Bike Depot, the newly branded Bikes Together is opening a second location in the Lincoln Park/La Alma neighborhood. The eight-year-old nonprofit community bike shop provides access to bikes along with support and education to keep bikes rolling. Bikes Together programs have provided more than 3,500 bikes to those in need, facilitated 11,000 free or low-cost bicycle repairs through their Fix-Your-Bike workshops, and delivered 25,000 hours of education through camps and classes.
“We just couldn’t meet demand for our services through one shop,” says Ryan Schutz, Executive Director of Bikes Together. “The Park Hill Bike Depot was founded in 2008 to serve North Park Hill, but we’ve reached a point where people come from all over the Denver area to access our services. The second shop should take some pressure off of Park Hill Bikes Together and allow us to better serve the surrounding community, while also making our products and programs more accessible to residents in and around Denver.”
Bikes Together volunteers
The new location, dubbed Mariposa Bikes Together, can be found at 1060 Osage St. just a block away from the 10th and Osage light rail station, and will offer the same programs as the original Park Hill shop.
The new location will include a retail bike shop specializing in lovingly refurbished bikes along with new and used parts and accessories, professional bicycle service and maintenance. It will also offer Fix-Your-Bike open workshops, where anyone can work on their bike for free us- ing Bikes Together’s tools with assistance from trained volunteers, as well as classes ranging from entry-level maintenance to 6-week “Master Mechanics” courses.
Bikes Together also offers the “Earn- A-Bike” program where adults earn refurbished bikes along with a helmet, lock, and lights in exchange for community service with one of several nonprofit partners, and the “Rodeo” program where kids receive free refurbished bikes, locks, and helmets because they are kids, and every kid should have a bike.
A Bikes Together mechanic teaches a young boy how to find a hole in his tire.
All Kids Should Ride Bikes!
Bikes Together is an excellent resource if you want to start biking, connect with fellow bike riders, or simply keep your bike rolling. The Bikes Together programs are driven by more than 10,000 volunteer hours a year and donations of bikes or anything bike related. Come check it out!
