By Mark Collins
Monday, May 4, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. — It's a Tuesday evening and more than a dozen people are gathered in and around two garages in a central Boulder business district. They're getting their hands greasy, assembling brake systems, adjusting gears and fixing tires on mountain and road bicycles at Community Cycles.

Last year, Community Cycles and its dozens of volunteers refurbished and distributed or sold more than 1,600 bicycles.

"We're just trying to keep (bikes) out of the waste stream and keep people riding them," says Josh Brown, development director at Community Cycles.

The shop, which runs a handful of programs, many of which serve under-served populations in Boulder, has recently received a boost from Eco-Cycle. On Earth Day last month, the local recycler began accepting bicycles and bicycle parts at its Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM).

Residents can now bring their unwanted bikes to CHaRM, and chances are they will end up at Community Cycles.

"The basic ideas is Community Cycles will come once a week (to CHaRM) and go through the bikes and bike parts, and take what they can use -- which they say is just about everything that's not broken," says CHaRM Director Dan Matsch. "The stuff that they don't want, we will recycle in scrap metal."

Eco-Cycle has accepted metal bike parts at its scrap metal recycling at CHaRM for years, but had to disallow public harvesting of the bike parts due to insurance regulations.

At CHaRM, bike parts mean any portion that is integral to the bicycle, such as seats, pedals, handlebars and wheels. CHaRM will also accept metal cargo racks and baskets.

Community Cycles offers programs intended to give riders a hands-on education. Its Earn-A-Bike program asks people to volunteer 15 hours at the shop. The final hours are typically used for people to put together their own bike.

There are programs for children, fix-it nights, and a rolling tune-up program, where volunteers visit neighborhoods and tune up bikes for free. Community Cycles recently started The Wrenching Wenches and Handy Trannies Night on Mondays, designed to serve women and trans-gendered people wishing to learn bicycle maintenance.

"We're really commuter focused," says Liz Wolfert, who's been a volunteer at Community Cycles for more than two years.

Wolfert points to a bike with thick tires and a carrying rack, and adds, "We have a lot of bikes that you can use to get your groceries or commute to work."

All in the name of promoting earth-friendly transportation.

Contact Mark Collins at 303-473-1369