July 13, 2007

Back Alley Bikes

Jack, Detroit bike courier and Back Alley Bikes mechanic, contemplates where to place his newly acquired You'd look hotter in a helmet sticker.

Back Alley Bikes is Detroit's free bike shop and community center. A little bit more about them, from their website:

Back Alley Bikes is a collectively-run community bike space that aims to repair bikes, provide education and empowerment, promote creative expression, and address issues of our time with bikes as a tool of transportation and liberation.

The shop was started by Detroit Summer volunteers in 2000 to provide transportation for youth involved in community gardening and mural projects. Since then, the shop has grown to fill a void in the Cass Corridor and greater downtown area as a neighborhood bicycle community center. Currently, our main projects are as follows: Community Drop-In, Adult Earn-a-bike, Back Alley Bikes Academy, Youth Earn-a-bike, Women and Transgender Night, Mechanics-in-training, Bike Art

Some of the helmets they fit and give away to youth.

Gears galore!


The bike junkgle - hundreds of donated bike are stored in the back of the shop, ready for fixing up by the community

The bike art room - an opportunity to take unusable bike parts and transform it into art (notice the tire chair in the background)

Working on fixing up an old bike in the shop.

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