Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op

Five years in, the Mechanical Gardens Bike Coop has helped thousands of New Yorkers gain fair access to biking in NYC. Our volunteer crew has done extraordinary work to meet the city’s needs during COVID including launching NYC’s first outdoor center for bike repair education but as the year closes, our free and low-cost workshops, parts, and bikes are more in demand than ever. Yet free programs require real resources: we need your support to achieve our ambitious agenda ...for bike equity programs in 2021. Your tax-deductible donation to the Mechanical Gardens powers an expanding roster of bike access and education programs. Make it a recurring donation for even greater impact. Community members like you are our most significant funders. So please, support your community with an important contribution today. Here are some of the achievements we accomplished this year with support like yours: 1. 50-Bike Build-a-thon for Healthcare Workers: New wheels for healthcare heroes! Thanks to support from NYCEDC and Lyft, plus grants from the Citizens Committee for New York City and the Awesome Foundation , we brought 100 volunteers into the Brooklyn Army Terminal to build 50 new bikes for healthcare workers at Maimonides, NYU Langone, and Coney Island Hospital, and inspired similar efforts from NYC to Argentina. 2. 1 Month, 5 Boroughs, 10 Repair Pop-Ups: We popped up ten repair stations across the five boroughs this October thanks to a partnership with the NYC DOT 3. Red Hook Expansion: We've launched NYC’s 1st-ever outdoor center for bike repair education in Red Hook! 4. COVID-safe open hours: We helped more than 400 people learn to fix their bikes during COVID, and held two months of Open Hours Online classes during lockdown 5. LGBTQ+ Youth Apprentices: We won a grant from the Awesome Foundation to train youth apprentices from the Fearless Flyers ride club in bike repair basics 6. Mutual Aid Bike Brigade: We worked with Make the Road New York and a consortium of local organizers to launch an emergency food delivery program in Brooklyn and Queens. 7. Defund NYPD: We created a fifty-foot mobile street mural for justice protests this summer 8. Big Fix Day: Repaired bikes for the community in East New York with the The Brown Bike Girl 9. Ride 2 DC: We volunteered as mechanics for the Ride to D.C. 10. NYU bike share repair: We worked with NYU to repair their bike fleet for distribution to students in need. 11. Cranksgiving: For the fifth year running, we helped plan and execute the Cranksgiving Brooklyn charity fundraiser bike ride. And more! Donate today to help your community bike shop fight for bike equity in the new year.

OH SAY did you see the amazing photos from our Red Hook Launch Party earlier this month? Key words: "long sleeve bikini bike wash" "fifty people despite torrential rain" "COVID safe" "awesome." Check it out! https://bikecoop.nyc/red-hook-launch-party-success/

Cranksgiving Cometh! + Red Hook Expansion, Bikes vs Fascism, & More! - https://mailchi.mp//2-days-100-volunteers-50-bikes-for-hos

Repost from our E.D. Josh Bisker: "As we look to this week's anxious uncertainties, I want to share this statement of strategy and purpose I wrote four years ago this very week, about how social justice orgs like the Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op can operationalize the fight against fascism in our work. Organizers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and beyond have expressed that this piece of writing helped them sharpen their personal and organizational efforts; today, I post it in o...rder to boost our resiliency to whatever comes this week. A strong vision of crisis response will help us weather the onslaught of fear and uncertainty, and move ahead no matter what comes. Armor yourself with my words, friends, so we may continue to fight together. Si prefieres leer en Español, nuestro amigo Tomi de Argentina dio, con amor, una traduccion; una link está incluyendo. https://joshbisker.medium.com/what-the-trump-election-means See more

BIG NEWS: Red Hook Expansion + Launch Party Sunday! - https://mailchi.mp//2-days-100-volunteers-50-bikes-for-hos

2 Days. 100 Volunteers. 50 Bikes for Hospital Workers. We did it. - https://mailchi.mp//2-days-100-volunteers-50-bikes-for-hos

Our 1st-ever Bike Build-a-Thon Was a SMASHING Success! 100 out of 100 volunteer slots filled. WOW! 67 individual participants (some did repeat shifts) 50 bikes built! ... 47 bikes to the NYC DOT to distribute to hospital workers 3 bikes disqualified at safety check for irreparable components failures 4 youth apprentices from the OutCycling Fearless Flyers ride club completed three full days of mechanical training and action, learning a ton and giving us all SO much joy and enthusiasm and heart Please donate to keep supporting projects like this! www.bikecoop.nyc/donate THANK YOU to all of the amazing volunteers who made this huge event possible. 67 people donated their time, sweat, and charisma on those two days -- and many more put in efforts behind the scenes, including nights of organizing equipment at St John's, tremendous set-up days to convert a vast Brooklyn Army Terminal space into a multiplayer COVID-safe bike shop, a vital training day to acquaint ourselves with these bikes, several intrepid Uhaul adventures, lots of on-the-spot learning and teaching, and tons of after-hours time to finish up the bikes, safety check them, re-repair them, and load out of the space, plus weeks of planning and organizing leading up to it all. Also a sincere and fervent thank-you to the staff at NYCEDC, who *really* went to bat to make this all happen. Thank you ALL for making this happen! Stay tuned for more from the Mechanical Gardens

Tomorrow is the last day of Mechanical Gardens Bike Build-a-Thon: we're building 50 bikes for hospital workers along with four paid fellowships for apprentice mechanics from the Fearless Flyers ride club, an LGBTQ+ youth project run by OutCycling. The Bike Build-a-Thon is happening at Brooklyn Army Terminal, a sprawling warehouse complex in Brooklyn where over 3.5 million soldiers shipped out to Europe during World War 2.

50 Bike Build-a-Thon for Essential Workers: You're Invited - https://mailchi.mp//50-bike-build-a-thon-for-essential-wor

What did we do this weekend? Oh, just a wee public art project, and then a casual bike ride with a few friends. #justiceforgeorgefloyd #defundnypd

Join us for a bike caravan protest along the entire route(7 miles) of the North Brooklyn fracked gas pipeline, from Brownsville to Greenpoint. We will expose National Grid’s pipeline and how it is a clear example of environmental racism, forcing communities of color and low-income neighborhoods to bear the burden of the pollution and cost of this unnecessary fossil fuel expansion. When rate payers are struggling to pay bills, get food on the table and stay healthy during th...e COVID-19 and economic crisis, Gov Cuomo should be forgiving debts of those most greatly impacted. Housing and utilities should be a human right! We need public power and renewable energy now! We will hear from speakers, singers, musicians, local organizers along the route. We demand: -Shut down the North BK Pipeline -No Rate Hikes -Cancel Rent -Rate Payer Utilities Strike See more

Open Hours Online: Learn about racks, bags, decaleurs and other tips and tricks for carrying stuff on your bike!

Open Hours Online: Everything you've ever wanted to know about stems!

Open Hours Online, 7-8PM on IG and FB live! Tune in for live-action team problem-solving of your bike issues and questions, plus demos! Also 2nitye we're trying out a special feature video!

Open Hours Online: All about installing and wrapping handlebars

#ToolDog says: Tune into Open Hours Online! Mondays 7-8PM in IG + FB live! Tonight includes how to re-wrap your handlebars and switch from one handlebar style to another! Submit comments and questions on the livestreams and we’ll address them in real-time or schedule a demo for next week.