Hey everyone,Here at Back Alley Bikes, we’ve fallen behind on the website updates. This summer has gotten really busy. So to remedy our lack of web presence I figured that I would give you an update on everything we’ve been up to!
Building Improvements
Office – So maybe not exciting to most folks, but our friends at Vast 24/7 helped hook our office up with an updated computer (after one decided to bite the dust literally and figuratively) as well as network our info so we can work more efficiently.
Okay, so maybe this is only exciting if you work in our office. However, a great update for sure.
Ceiling – This past winter we got some work done on our roof. If you’ve been here in years past you may remember that sometimes it would rain inside just a little bit. Well that is a thing of the past. Because of this leaking part of our ceiling was a bunch of hanging plastic to hold the leaks. This caused a very dark looking workshop.
Now that the roof is no longer leaking, we had a Boy Scout Troop donate their time and resources to install a new hanging ceiling in Back Alley Bikes. This has enabled us to control the climate in the space easier as well as distribute light around the space much better.
Workshop – Those folks over at Shinola surprised us in early summer by donating us a large chunk of change to upgrade our workshop. You can read more about that here.
Warehouse – It seems as if our warehouse is pretty neglected. Our workshop had a bunch of improvements donated to it, but what about our huge warehouse? I mean look at this place:
I mean, we’ve got our bike donations going. Heather made some new bike racks for the walls to help clear up the amount of bike parts sitting around on the floor…Things aren’t that bad.
However, we haven’t had adequate lighting since we moved up to our present space around 2003. In other words, the lighting in the warehouse has been out of shape for the past 10 years of our existence!
So now steps in JMC Electric Contractors. As I speak they are donating time and materials to make our warehouse more functional as far as lighting goes. So after a decade of strung together rigs, JMC is bringing us into the light!
So hopefully I’ll have photos of the finished work soon, but you know…they are donating their time, so no hurry. Thanks again to JMC!
All we need is for someone to fix our windows and we’ve got a good thing going!
Programming
Youth Earn-a-Bike/Youth Drop-In – This is our main program and therefore the busiest. It is what we are known for! For the first time in our history though we are offering our Youth Shop Programming 5 days a week! That is 18 hours each week, up from the 3 we offer in the winter. Not too bad.
Youth Ride Club! – Yeah, we made our youth rides a club this year. This is still a new program that we are working out. Last year we averaged around 2 youth per ride. This year we are seeing about 5 youth per ride. The last two weeks we’ve had 10 and 7 youth on each ride. Things are definitely picking up there! Ride!
Main Library Teen Program – We are back at the Main Library in the HYPE Teen Center for their “bike tech” program. Once a week we introduce youth to the world of bicycle culture and help them get their hands dirty with some mechanical work.
Kid Bike Give-a-Way – We are currently building up bicycles for Gompers Elementary on the West Side. They have 70 youth too young to participate in our programming so we are building the bikes up for them. We’ve delivered about half of those bikes this month so far and we are still building.
We’ve got another 50 or so bicycles we will be building for the Children’s Hospital of Michigan for August. So our volunteers are in full bike building mode right now.
Mechanic-in-Training – Our MIT students have finished their classroom time and now are working in both The Hub of Detroit and Back Alley Bikes. We are proud of the four folks we chose this year and are excited to see them show off what they have learned. You can read more about them here.
Adult Mechanic Class – As usual, we are offering our adult mechanic class two days a week in the summer over our usual one day a week. So don’t miss out on that. The Friday class only goes through the end of August.
Staff – We haven’t always had staff at Back Alley Bikes. But now that we do, it increases every year. Including our MIT students, we have 9 people working programming at Back Alley Bikes. It is my goal to get a family photo before the summer is over. I’ve got some time. I believe I can do it.
Other Events
Progressive Dinner – Our Progressive Dinner Fundraisers have returned. We have two under our belt so far this year (our May and July rides). If you missed out, we have our final ride happening on September 15th. You should register for that.
J-Cycle – We will be helping out with the Jewish Historical Tour coming up on August 18th.
Birmingham Bicycle Fest – We’ll be at the Birmingham Bike Fest.
Tour De Troit – Detroit’s biggest organized bike ride. You can’t deny it. See you there.
Tour De Ford – Yeah, that name sounds familiar. The annual fund raising ride for the Henry Ford Hospital. See you there.
And really you’ll probably see us other places around town as well.
Okay, now I’m tired thinking of all the things we’ve worked on. Oh well, so much more good work to do. We’ve only got 208 bikes out to youth so far this year. We’ve got a ways to go, but it’ll happen. We’ve got a good community of people helping us along the way. We can do it together!