Our History
Our History
In 2005, a local high school student was inspired to start bike recycling in Boulder, saving bikes he saw heading to the landfill. He began to collect, repair, and sell refurbished bikes, donating the profits to charity.
In 2006, Community Cycles registered for 501(c)3 status and opened our nonprofit bike shop – a welcoming shop where people can repair their bikes, take classes and workshops, and volunteer.
Working with other community organizations to promote cycling , we continued to donate refurbished bikes locally and abroad. An after-school program teaching low-income kids about bike riding skills and mechanics started in 2007, and grew to become our Earn-A-Bike program.
In 2008 we began working with the City of Boulder to organize our City’s Bike to Work Day. In the first year, Community Cycles expanded the week-long event into Walk and Bike Month, a community-wide celebration of cycling, while growing bicycle commuters on Bike to Work Day by more than 50%.
From 2009-2014, we grew even more, adding the Kids Holiday Bike Giveaway where we gift over 400 bicycles annually to low-income children and families in our community. We’ve increased our staff, and taken on additional contracts and projects supporting bike commuting in our community, teaching workplace-based bike commuter workshops, installing bike parking at businesses and organizations, and launching the Bike-Friendly Business program, among others!
2015 saw Community Cycles take more bold actions to build a better Boulder for bicyclists by lobbying the City of Boulder for improvements like traffic calming on Colorado Avenue, improved biking and walking conditions on 30th Street and working with Boulder County to establish a Task Force for rebuilding the canyon roads to include wide shoulders, signage and pull off areas for bicyclists. We also helped revise the City’s Transportation Master Plan to include a stronger emphasis and a defined set of goals for getting more people on bicycles. We worked to install bike racks at businesses all over Boulder.
In 2017 Community Cycles’ accomplishments included recycling over 2,500 bikes, giving old bikes a new life, getting 250 people on bikes through our Earn-A-Bike program and teaching over 40 community workshops on subjects like bike commuting, bike maintenance and repair, and safe cycling skills.
Our Annual Kids’ Holiday Bike Giveaway is still going strong! 2017 provided bikes to 400+ needy children. Also for kids in Boulder we hosted a Kids’ Bike Day in May, teaching safe riding skills and repairing bikes for over 100 kids.
Working with local and regional governments, we envisioned, lobbied for and succeeded in having the City and County of Boulder fund a state-of-the-art, secure, bike parking facility at the Boulder Transit Center. We also lobbied CDOT to put in bike lanes on US36 from Lee Hill to Violet to improve safety. Also at City and County levels, we represented bicyclists, working to complete the Boulder bikeway system, to link communities through a regional trail network, and to negotiate cyclist/motorist conflicts.
In 2019 the big news for Community Cycles was fundraising and purchasing a permanent home at 2601 Spruce St, Unit B, in Boulder.
We are excited to own a permanent community bicycle center in Boulder, after leasing space and paying rent for the past 13 years. Thanks to everyone who has helped us get into our new building, raise the money for the purchase, and set up our new space.
With an outstanding location in the heart of Boulder and great access for all our programs this is a real win-win for the people of Boulder and Boulder County.
Community Cycles is eagerly looking forward to serving the community in this new facility.
Community Cycles’ permanent bicycle center is funded in part by the Community, Culture and Safety Tax on the 2017 ballot. Thank you, Boulder voters! Other support came from Boulder County Worthy Cause, the Gates Foundation, Hazel’s Beverage World, the Leslie Bohm Foundation, Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, People for Bikes and many other local businesses, organizations, and individuals.