AUSTIN: Free Bike Repair Help, Cheap Parts
Too broke to buy a car? Too broke to even fix your bike? Man, you really are broke. Check out the Austin Yellow Bike Project.
According to their home page, “The Austin Yellow Bike Project (YBP) is a community supported ALL-VOLUNTEER 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing human-powered transportation for the people of Austin, running a community bike shop, and educating kids and adults. People-power is a way to limit the traffic congestion of a rapidly growing city. It also provides a sane, inexpensive, and sustainable alternative to the reliance on motor vehicles. Our project promotes cleaner air, land, and water, while encouraging people to meet their transportation needs through an active lifestyle and community participation.”
While they won’t just fix your bike for free, they will provide you with the tools to do it. If you don’t know how to fix a bike, don’t worry. Volunteer mechanics will guide you through the process. They also have cheap used parts for sale, and if you volunteer, you can get stuff for free.
Have you ever seen an old bike, spray-painted yellow, that wasn’t locked up? Did you have the urge to steal it? Well, you should have done it. That’s exactly what they’re for.
That’s one of the coolest things the Yellow Bike Project does. According to their website, “Yellow Bike volunteers fix donated bikes up into simple, one-speed machines and then paint them yellow and release them to the streets.” If you see one of these bikes on the side of Guadalupe, feel free to ride it, and leave it at your destination. Just don’t lock it up, or expect it to be there when you’re ready to go. These bikes are for public use.
Community bicycle programs exist in different cities around the world. The idea for free community bicycles began, appropriately, in Amsterdam, as a part of a series of White Plans, which were proposals for social reform by an anarchist subcultural movement called Provo in the 1960’s. However, if you’re in Amsterdam, don’t try to take the yellow bikes there. They aren’t free at all, as I found out.
The Yellow Bike Project has two locations, at 2013 E. 51st Street (map) and at 3101 Guadalupe St. (map) behind Wheatsville Co-op.
Click here for the shops’ opening/closing schedules.
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