QuickTake:

After receiving 200 bikes from a recent holiday donation drive, Free Bikes 4 Kidz Eugene-Springfield is working to repair and distribute them to local community groups.

The downtown Eugene Sykes building was once a call center, filled with the sound of ringing phones and the voices of customer service professionals. Now, it echoes with the sound of wrenches, spinning bike gears and 2000s pop music playing from a Bluetooth speaker.

Ramona Roth, 7, cleans a bike at a Free Bikes 4 Kidz workshop, in the Sykes Building in downtown Eugene Feb. 5, 2026. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

The space at Eighth Avenue and Charnelton Street was donated to the program Free Bikes 4 Kidz, and on Thursday night, Feb. 5, a group of 15 volunteers wrenched, cleaned, greased and did anything else necessary to fix old bikes.

The program repairs old kids’ bicycles and distributes them to children in the community. It used to happen only once a year. Now, it runs all the time.

And after Free Bikes 4 Kidz in Eugene received 200 bikes in a holiday donation drive, the organization is churning out a steady stream of roughly 50 freshly repaired bikes per month for various local organizations serving kids. The Eugene-Springfield chapter of Free Bikes 4 Kidz is run by Shift Community Cycles, a local nonprofit that works on bicycle access and education.

This month, the bikes will go to the Eugene-Springfield Safe Routes to School program.

Free Bikes 4 Kidz is an initiative of Shift Community Cycles to fix and distribute bikes to kids. It now has a workshop downtown. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Kendsie Channing, executive director of Shift Community Cycles, leads the Free Bikes 4 Kidz initiative. She rides her bike everywhere. She even rode a bike home from the hospital after giving birth.

She’s committed to making getting around by bike more accessible for the community.

“Just being on a bike has been my connection to town when I moved here, and I was able to plug into an organization that is doing great work and connecting people to a community larger than themselves,” Channing said. “So the bike is a vehicle, a tool to make change in the community and to be a part of the community.”

Robert MacConnell is a volunteer bike repair mechanic. He started tinkering with bikes when his tricycle broke at age 5. Now 66, he sees this not only as a retirement pastime but also as an opportunity to help families who can’t afford bicycles.

“The bikes go to kids who would not otherwise have a bike,” MacConnell said. “If their family had to buy a bike, that’s not going to happen. So now they get a free bike that will end up in the hands of kids in Lane County.”

For those interested, volunteer work parties are open to all on the first and third Thursdays of each month, from 6 to 8 p.m.