Fostering community through bike maintenance
If you ride a bicycle in the city but can’t afford to bring it to a bike shop for expensive repairs, you’re in luck. Time’s Up! will teach you how to fix your bike yourself.
Mechanic Dustin Wade works on a bike at Time's Up!'s Brooklyn space.
On March 1 the volunteer-run environmental action group opened a new space at 99 South Sixth St. in Williamsburg. Time’s Up! offers workshops to the public several days a week, for a small donation, at the new location and at 156 Rivington St. in Manhattan.
Click here for a calendar showing classes and open workshops at both locations — including Ladies’ Bicycle Repair Nights on Mondays — as well as organized bike rides.
If you bring your bike to one of the Time’s Up! locations, get ready to be hands-on. Rather than just fixing people’s bikes for them, the group’s volunteer mechanics aim to help bike owners become more self-sufficient.
“It’s all about skill building,” head mechanic Mark Simpson said. “The best workshops are the ones where I go home with clean hands.”
Time's Up! provides tools for bike owners who are willing to work.
Last Sunday at the Williamsburg space, bike owner Ashley (who declined to give her last name) said she came to Time’s Up! because the typical options for bike repair are not economical.
“That’s why this place is so important,” she said. “I don’t have to spend millions of dollars on tools or getting it fixed. It’s nice to have volunteers who can give you information and help you without asking too much in return.”
Time’s Up! founder and director Bill DiPaola said the organization has about 100 volunteers performing a range of jobs, and is always looking for more. He said that volunteers come up with most of the ideas for organized rides around the city promoted by Time’s Up!
Volunteer mechanic Max Schnuer tapes his own handlebars after helping other people with their bikes.
The group is well known for its association with the monthly Critical Mass rides, but its calendar for the next month also includes themed events such as an environmental tour of the South Bronx on April 11 and a peace ride on April 26.
As the Williamsburg space shut down for the day last Sunday, Mark Simpson said his four years of sharing knowledge about bike maintenance through Time’s Up! have been about finding and maintaining community.
“I learned everything that I know about bicycles from Time’s Up!, so I want to give back as much as I can to the community that fostered me,” he said.
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ChangesBrooklyn is a local blog reporting on volunteerism in the borough. Here you will find multimedia profiles, analysis, and stories about civic service in our neighborhoods.
Authors Jim Flood and Valerie Lapinski are Brooklyn residents and students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
To contribute tips or share a link, please email changesbrooklyn@gmail.com.
[...] The blog Changes Brooklyn, has the tagline…volunteering in the age of Obama. Its writer recently went down to the new time’s up space in Williamsburg, Check out ChangesBrooklyn.com [...]
[...] Up! is a group that promotes a more sustainable city. Click here to go to their website, and here to read Jim Flood’s piece from Changes Brooklyn about Time’s Up!’s efforts to [...]
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