The Milwaukee Bicycle Collective / Facebook
Founded in 2002, the nonprofit Milwaukee Bicycle Collective (MBC) is an entirely volunteer-run, publicly accessible bicycle resource center that assists with bike repairs, offers basic mechanic instruction and provides inner city youth programming to help them develop soft skills. Every Saturday from noon-2 p.m. youth ages 9-15 can come to MBC for one-on-one training sessions on how to repair their bike or build a bicycle if they don’t own one. These youth volunteers also help with projects and chores equal to the amount of time spent on their own project. MBC also partners with Highland Community School’s third through fifth graders once a week during school hours to teach basic mechanic skills.
MBC allows community members to pay for or offer their time as a volunteer (or both) to cover the cost of bike repairs or obtain a new bike. For repairs, the stand rental is $5 an hour or one hour of volunteering. Volunteers must put in the time before MBC grants access to the stand. Similarly, a new bike can be purchased outright or can be earned through sweat equity, which means volunteering at the shop and working off the price of the bike. A volunteer should expect their time to be worth $8 per hour and may be spent working on other people’s bikes, sorting and organizing parts, helping with paperwork, cleaning, building shelves, labeling, light data entry or other tasks that are available.
MBC is always accepting monetary and bike donations. If the bike cannot be refurbished, MBC reuses it for parts or recycles it properly to help keep it from becoming landfill waste. Bicycle donations can be dropped off at the shop only (no pick-ups) and MBC does not offer trades, in part or full. Monetary donations can be dropped off at or mailed to Milwaukee Bicycle Collective, 2930 W. Clybourn St., Milwaukee, WI, 53208. For more information and hours, call 414-431-0825 or visit bikecollective.bike.
