Back Alley Bikes began in the summer of 2000 by employees of Detroit Summer, a "youth program / movement to respirit, redefine and reimagine Detroit from the ground up." The original purpose of the shop was to provide transportation to the youth in the summer intensive from the different projects planting gardens and painting murals all over the city. However, from the begining Back Alley Bikes had a community focus. Two days a week during the summer months, any community member could come in and earn a bike or learn to repair the one they already had. By the summer of 2003, the shop had outgrown it's space in a small room in the Detroit Summer youth center and moved to the back of the same building on Cass avenue, gaining the alley entrance, and growing into the name it already had.
In the following years, the programs at Back Alley Bikes became increasing popular with neighborhood residents, and use of the shop grew. Meanwhile, Detroit Summer as a program changed in scope and direction, and they no longer need bicycles to get around. A collective of volunteers refined and managed the programs at the shop, all of which we free to the public, from 2003 - 2007. The programs included adult earn a bike, youth earn a bike, adult repair classes, bike art workshops, "Mechinics In Training," a stipended summer program for older youth to learn while they work in the shop, and "Community Drop-In", in which anyone could come and work with a mechanic to learn how to repair their bike. The shop was able to remain open year round with the donation of furnace repair work, and in 2004, Back Alley Bikes began giving bikes to children too young to earn their own during the Holiday Bike Program. In addition, shop volunteers coordinated a bike ride for youth with the Sister Cyclists, a local bike club, and several rides per season with Trips for Kids, a national program to take city youth mountain biking. The shop volunteers also repaired and donated bikes to local organizations such as the Lenox Center, which uses the bikes for special olympics contests.
To afford the supplies which were constantly needed by the shop and to make building repairs, Back Alley Bikes volunteers applied for and recieved a grant from the DALMAC fund, as well as one from REI. In addition, they began to repair bikes to sell in the shop. There was also fundraisers, which included bike themed movie nights, and one year a gourmet dinner called Bike Soup. Also, every year since 2003, Back Alley bikes has hosted a Bike Art Auction, in which local artists have contributed paintings and drawings diplaying their love for the bicycle, as well as sculptures and functional items made out of bike parts, jewelry, and tshirts. Most notable have been the bike-parts rocking chair, bike history shadow puppet show, and bike-blender in which bike-powered smothies are made! The Auction gets better and better every year, with live music and food.
By the winter of 2007, the programs at Back Alley Bikes had become too much work to continue to be mananged by a group of volunteers, and all free programs were temporarily suspended. In the spring of 2008, they began the process of seeking funding to continue the free programs while designing them to be more sustainable. Also, they opened a retail shop called the Hub of Detroit, in itself a much-needed resource in the city. In this way Back Alley Bikes, with its long history of capacity building in the Cass Corridor community, can continue to be a source of empowerment for years to come.
Source: The Hub of Detroit
