Supporters Help Community Spokes Pedal Back to Life Bike Program Gets New Chance, Name

By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 23, 2007; VA03

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR200708...

Late last year, when Community Spokes, an Arlington program that helped teenagers learn to fix bicycles, was shuttered, many of its fans feared it would never return. The county's Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources said it didn't have enough participants to justify the cost of maintaining the program.

But a group of supporters banded together to find funding to reopen the program, and it is back up and running under a new name, Phoenix Bikes.

"There were so many people who saw the value in the bike shop and didn't want to see it go away," said Roberta Jeanquart, one of many adults who lobbied to reopen it and the mother of a student who was involved in the program.

With outreach in local middle schools, including lunchroom tire-changing competitions led by veterans of the program, enrollment has risen to about 25 students, she said, mostly boys in middle school or early high school.

As part of the program, which started in 2002, donated bikes, some in bad shape, others whose tires just need air, are turned over to students. They refurbish the bikes to give to community programs or sell at low prices to the public. Participants come after school and learn from a full-time director and a part-time bike mechanic. The students also fix bikes belonging to the public for a small fee. After working a prescribed number of hours, participants earn a bike of their own.

With its reopening, the program has expanded beyond bike maintenance, Jeanquart said. "Now it's not just fixing, but also how do you run a bike shop . . . the marketing, the bookkeeping."

The program costs about $100,000 per year to run. With enough seed money from Arlington County to operate for about seven months, the program reopened in March in the same cement-block shed in Barcroft Park that it had used before. The arrangement is temporary, and supporters must find a new location soon, as well as more funding to continue after October. Eventually, Jeanquart said, the goal is to establish a nonprofit bike shop.

Arlington County Board member J. Walter Tejada (D) said that after he heard the program was in peril, he worked with county staff to find funding. He said he is committed to helping it survive.

The program works especially well in Arlington, Tejada said, because so many residents ride bikes. "This is too good to have it die," he said. "We're going to keep it going."

The program's director, Colin Dixon, is an avid cyclist who rides 25 miles a day between the District and Arlington. Lee Johnson, a professional mechanic, gives the students special instruction in more technical skills.

Jeanquart's son, Tommy Palmer, 16, has become one of the program's senior members.

"There's a few new guys here, and I'm just helping them out," Palmer said, adding that he would like to become a certified bike mechanic. "I want to apply to work at a bike shop."

Julio Rodriguez, 14, started working at the shop after he visited with his brother, who was buying a bike. Now, in addition to learning repair skills, he's honing his biking talents.

"I'm learning tricks for the BMX," he said. "I learned a 'J Bunny Hop' -- like on the edge of a sidewalk, you jump up, and like you do a 'J' in the air."

Jeanquart said the program's new name, Phoenix, signifies a new beginning. "We're rising up from what was Community Spokes and bringing it back to life."