Me and the Detroit Bicycle Community:

The Story of Carlisha

by Carlisha Johnson

I got my first bike when I was 8.  It was a blue Huffy.  I was so excited to be able to ride it. I sadly was only able to about four times before it was stolen one night off of the balcony of my mother’s apartment. After that I kinda gave up on riding bikes. I was a little hurt and decided that if there was nothing to steal then I wouldn’t feel that way ever again.

Some years past and we moved a couple of times. We ended up staying off of Mack and Gratiot.  I was downtown one day in the heat of summer bored. I called my friend David to see if he wanted to hang out. He told me he was at this place working on bikes. He invited me to join him.

One bus ride later I was walking up the steps to Back Alley Bikes! Here I ran into Jack who was kinda just running around back and forth haphazardly helping everyone. It was a little funny. I eventually got settled in and began building me a bike. I decided I wanted a blue road bike with 27″ rims and all black tires. Though I never rode a bike with drop bars I decided to keep them (couldn’t hurt right) (I fell off the bike like three times).

I finally found it. This was the place I WANTED TO BE!

I could come here and lose myself in all the shifters, take a mental bath in the cranks, all while making new friends. I was delighted when asked if I wanted to work there. I leaped at the opportunity. I knew that even though my personal like was falling to the dumps, I could come here and have some consistency. That bottom brackets, hubs, and Darrin’s attitude would always stay the same.

So that’s my story. The Hub of Detroit is my second home. Angie, Jack, Jason, Darrin, Shayne , Joey, and Na’eemah are all part of my family and they will hopefully be apart of my daughter’s.

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Carlisha Johnson was a Youth Earn-a-Bike participant and a Mechanic-in-Training.  Now she is a mechanic in The Hub’s retail shop, a collective member and a full time momma.