Bike Saviours is the place to go and learn how to repair a bike or rebuild one. Shop manager, Patrick Gilbery, explains how the shop works. The goal is bicycle education and they teach people how to build and repair bicycles, from fixing a flat to a full rebuild.
An hourly fee of $4 is charged for the space, but if the fee can’t be managed, a work trade can be arranged. The trade consists of working on your bike and then helping around the shop for half the amount time as you worked on your bike, and Bike Saviours calls it even.
If you don’t have a bike the shop has a build-a bike program. Kids and big kids come in, find a bike that works for them, and Bike Saviours walks them through a full rebuild. When the bike is finished, the cost is $60 and they take the bike home.
The shop has 10 work stations with a tool board and every tool needed to work on a bike. A volunteer mechanic helps with everything they need to learn and do. As people work through the process of rebuilding a bike; everything is taken apart, adjustments are made and Bike Saviours makes sure the bike is in top shape when it is finished. Parts can be swapped out; different saddles, different handlebars or different peddles. The bike becomes a custom build.
Bike Saviours doesn’t have an age limit but kids need to be accompanied by an adult. The shop has used bike parts for sale. Parts can be used in the shop or purchased and the work done elsewhere.
As a 501C3 non-profit, the bikes at the shop have been donated by the community. The community is very important to mission of Bike Saviours – bicycle education.
Bike Saviours is located at 1930 S. Roosevelt Street, just north of Broadway in Tempe and about a mile from ASU.
Come in, work on your bike, get a new bike, or donate a bike that is not being used. Stop by open shop hours and see what Bike Saviours is all about.
