About
Who We Are
The Bike House is a community-based bicycle repair co-op in Washington, DC. Our mission is to build a place where all people can learn about, work on, and enjoy bikes.
We do this by providing free bicycle maintenance services and education through our weekend clinics, mobile bike clinic, and beginner and advanced mechanics classes.
Our Story
The Bike House started in the spring of 2009. At the time, DC hadn’t had community-based bike space for several years, and a few different groups were working separately to build one. When these groups caught wind of each other, all it took was a few ads on Craigslist, some phone calls and emails, and a few weeks of exciting discussion to plant The Bike House seed.
Getting Started
We held our first clinic at a fish fry behind the People’s Media Center on the first hot day in June of 2009. Of the eight volunteers that day, only one of us would admit to knowing anything about bikes. The rest of us fuddled with air pumps and marveled at the strange machines before us. We all need to start somewhere. We learned though, and by the time we moved to the alley behind Qualia Coffee a few months later, we had a core of about 15 volunteers with a growing knowledge of bike maintenance and teaching tools.
Our First Year
The summer of 2009 brought many good things. We bought our first set of tools and stands, taught over 250 people how to fix bikes, and, most importantly, we built a core group of volunteers who were committed and excited to get The Bike House off the ground. In the Fall, all the mechanics took a one-month mechanics class taught by a volunteer from another shop, and we all learned some new tricks about bikes and teaching. Based on this experience, we encourage all volunteers to take our four-week New Mechanics Class, which we built off this model.
Our Second Year
In 2010, we set many of the systems in place that you see today. We designed a new website, logo, and written materials, started youth clinics at the local recreational center, and taught our first classes for new mechanics. We made the Qualia clinic a better space by building the orange bike stand for our tools and also designed a mobile trailer to take the show on the road. We also had a lot of fun, and threw a huge fundraiser party in the Spring, a group ride to Haines point in the Fall, and a bike trip slide-show by a bonfire as the weather turned cold.
Third Year
[We're working hard fixing bikes. We'll get to this soon!]
Fourth Year
We hope you’ll join us in making this the best year yet!