Community Cycles' Earn-A-Bike program teaches maintenance

By Kaitlyn Curtin, For the Camera
Sunday, March 2, 2008

A 10-year-old girl pumps up a bike tube and holds her ear close to listen for leaking air. Irania Gordillo, with help from volunteer teacher Josh Brown, is showing a group of 10- to 14-year-olds how to patch a flat tire during a meeting of the Earn-A-Bike program at Community Cycles.

The group, crowded into the Community Cycles shop in North Boulder, is eager to learn about the bike tools hanging around the garage. While seven are in attendance on this day in late February, 12 kids from the Family Learning Center in the San Juan Del Centro area of Boulder are enrolled in the after-school program in which kids get to work on bikes and keep one at the end of the eight weeks. "I like getting a bike and racing it with friends," said Irania, who is taking the program for the second time to fix her bike chain.

Brown, today's teacher, says the bikes give the kids freedom to explore places outside the neighborhood.

"I want to show the empowerment of a bike and the liberation it gives, that you can leave the neighborhood and go just about anywhere on the paths around Boulder and not on the roads." he said.

During the class, Irania and the group work on map reading and navigational skills. In one exercise, they are instructed to find their houses and choose three places to ride within a two-mile radius. They also go on a practice ride to learn about bike safety, including hand signals and which side of the path to ride on.

"It's really cool to see a row of 12 riding on the path and when my hand goes out in the front, all the other hands follow when we are turning left or something," Brown said.

At the end of the program, the kids receive the bikes, along with cargo racks, helmets, seat pouches, bike locks, bells, patch kits, tire tools, leg straps and light sets. The prizes and accessories are donated by companies including GO Boulder and Clif Bar. Last week, the program received a $2,500 grant from the Beanstalk Foundation in Denver.

"Instead of just giving bikes, we give skills," says Rich Points, the director of Community Cycles. Through the program, the organization has given away 50 bikes in two years.

Brown says the most important skill he is trying to show the kids is the ability to teach others.

"I can teach a class of kids how to change a flat, but if I can teach the kids how to teach someone how to change a flat, then they'll take that knowledge back home with them and teach maybe their parents or other kids and siblings," he says

As the class ends, the kids mount their bikes ready to ride back to the Family Learning Center as the sun is setting over Boulder.

Brown asks, "How do you signal a right turn?" and in unison, all the kids stick out their right hands

If you go

Community Cycles is accepting donations, including bikes in any condition. The group also needs working locks, lights, reflectors, racks, baskets, helmets, bike magazines, etc. For more information, call 720-565-6019, visit www.communitycycles.org, or e-mail Josh Brown at josh@communitycycles.org.