Do-it-yourself shops are back

Volunteer-run resource centres find new locations for fixing bikes and building community

Bike Root a do-it-yourself bike repair shop resurfaced in a permanent location on the University of Calgary campus in April after losing its original space four years ago.

Bike Root operated out of an inactive loading dock in Murray Fraser Hall from September 2008 to August 2010 but had to move out when the loading dock became active again once construction on the nearby Taylor Family Digital Library was completed. Jay McIsaac shop co-ordinator says they always knew the space was temporary and after the shop moved out it bounced between locations — from a storage container to a garage in the rented-out house of a Peace Studies professor — before securing a permanent location under the parkade of the art building.

Bike Root offers tools and bike parts (with the exception of hydraulic breaks) to patrons who need them. Volunteers are stationed at the shop to act as mechanics and assist the inexperienced though they won’t do the work for you. The point McIsaac explains is for people to learn practical skills that they’re going to use all the time which is different than most of the education taking place on campus — and is also what he finds most rewarding about being part of the Bike Root team. “A lot of the learning [at U of C] is cerebral it’s not hands-on necessarily.”

Bike Root is run entirely by volunteers. In the first two years Bike Root had about 40 people fulfilling duties from mechanics to administrative and IT. Now they only have about 10. Bike Root has also been primarily run by students the only exceptions being McIsaac who is a designer and machinist in the science workshop at U of C and Tara Doyle who is an enrolment services advisor for the university.

Doyle came to Alberta from Newfoundland with nothing but five bags and her bike and says she was looking for a shop like this because she was a “little bit spoiled” at home where her dad did all her bike repairs and she didn’t learn the skills herself. She says that although she does all the administrative and marketing jobs Bike Root can throw at her she ultimately wants to volunteer as a mechanic.

McIsaac admits he was not a bike-savvy customer either — when he first came across Bike Root he didn’t even know how to change a flat tire. He laughs when he says that two teenage girls who volunteered there had to teach “the old guy” how to change a flat. He’s been involved with the shop ever since adding that he was “one of the people stubborn enough to not let the club die” after it lost its old space.

The original Bike Root also offered bikes that shop members could borrow for free. Since reopening it has yet to resume that service because all 40 of the loaner bikes were stolen. McIsaac says sometime between the winter break and April someone broke into the shop leaving nothing but a pile of poo on the floor. McIsaac says Bike Root eventually wants to have loaner bikes again once it acquires some new ones and a secure space to store them.

Bike Root will continue to operate throughout the summer but hours are limited so check its Facebook page. Watch for Bike Root at different events and festivals in the city with its tune-up tent.

Some of the original Bike Root members now work at Good Life Community Bike Shop a resource centre that started around the same time and provides similar services to the public at large. Although Good Life has some staff founder Jonny Barrett says volunteers are the business’s life blood .

Good Life also strives to be inclusive. Many of its dedicated volunteers for example live at the Drop-In Centre. The shop also hosts a Gender Equality Magic (GEM) Night — it used to be called Women’s Wednesday but Barrett says they didn’t want to exclude the trans community. “We changed the name of it but it’s still the same goal of creating a space that actively challenges the idea that a shop’s often a macho space which ours isn’t.”

Good Life relocated to the Mission area on Fourth Street S.W. last fall after its temporary space in Kensington was slated for demolition. The new space may be smaller but Barrett chooses to see that as a positive explaining that a smaller space is less intimidating for new people.

Good Life is open Tuesday to Sunday and hosts workshops and special events throughout the year ( goodlifebikes.ca ).