![]() ![]() Most of them missing parts, some decades old. Inside a fenced enclosure decorated with murals and brightly-colored wheel rims, there are hundreds of bikes. When someone walks in the shop looking for a bike, volunteers send them “out back” to a side yard. “It’s not like a free bike shop, but we’ve got everything they need.”Ī volunteer helps a local child choose a bike to rebuild. “We’ve got the parts, we’ve got the tools, we’ve got the expertise, but we don’t do the work for them,” says Giorgi. They moved to an honor system, which has worked for them ever since. Originally, the founders developed a system of accountability for volunteer hours by using cards and color codes, but it proved too complex. The shop has run the same basic process for years. ![]() You could go in and you could just do stuff in exchange for bicycles. And they had a place that was similar to this called RIBS, Recycle Ithaca’s Bikes. “I was living briefly in Ithaca, where I was mountain biking a little bit. The idea is not new, but when Giorgi founded the non-profit almost 15 years ago in his own side yard, it was unheard of in this area. That’s why we’ve earned this reputation for teaching slowly and kindly and having fun.” “It was always meant to be inclusive and never exclusive,” Giorgi says. ![]() Join a community, learn a skill, better your health, get transportation - regardless of whether or not you can afford it. It’s an idea founded on friendship and acceptance. “When you exchange money for something, it kind of spoils it a little bit sometimes, if it’s something you love.” For the love of cycling “Basically, it’s about volunteerism,” says founder Richard Giorgi. You’ll earn your keep - and your bike - by giving your time to the shop and those in it. ![]()
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