Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
Shift Community Cycles is offering summer camps for children and teens interested in learning more about how to ride and get around on a bike.
Bicycles are everywhere in the pleasantly cluttered shop of Shift Community Cycles. Some date back to the 1970s; others are new. Glass cases and boxes of bike parts fill the store, while volunteers and employees greet and assist customers.
The store’s approach? Make cycling more accessible for all people.
Shift not only sells bikes, but it also takes bike donations, refurbishes and resells old bikes, provides free bikes to people in need and teaches the community about bike maintenance. Shift, a nonprofit group, opened in 2021 and is located at 811 W. 6th Ave.
Volunteers and mechanics use color-coded repair stands to help customers fix their bikes as they teach them how to make repairs themselves. Shift holds weekly workshops and maintenance classes for the community and values affordability.
“We have a lot of community partnerships,” Kendsie Channing, Shift’s executive director, said. “Really the need is for an affordable price point and an introduction to bicycling for people who have not been exposed to that before.”
Gearing up
Shift’s co-founders, Josh Goldfarb and Jim Nevada, felt there was a gap to fill after the Center for Appropriate Transport — a nonprofit dedicated to bikes and alternative transportation methods — closed its doors May 17, 2021. Goldfarb and Nevada knew Shift could help.
They wanted to serve people who were intimidated by bikes — because of the expense or fear of cycling.
“We definitely seek to reach the people who have never ridden bikes before, and then also people (for whom) bikes can really be a tool for transformative change,” Channing said. “So our unhoused populations, BIPOC populations, folks who had a bad experience and want to get back into it.”
The store emphasizes serving young riders and those with limited resources.
One program, called Free Bikes for Kidz, gives away bikes to kids and — despite the name — anyone in need of transportation. All bikes come with a drawstring bag that has a light, helmet and bike lock. Kids and families who receive subsidies for food, housing or healthcare are eligible to receive a free bike.
The program is funded through grants and helps people “really turn their lives around,” Channing said.
Shift is putting on five summer camps for kids and teenagers of different cycling abilities through Aug. 22. The camps aim to expose kids to the benefits of cycling and help them learn riding and maintenance skills.
“So you talk about safety and how your bike fits and how your helmet fits and making sure you know how to do the ABC quick check,” Channing said. It stands for air, brakes and chain. “And then we go into traffic safety and bike safety education, of understanding — on the road — how you fit in as a bike.”
Channing said that Shift started the summer camps to “be the outside-of-school provider for bike safety education and all the bike things kids can do in town,” which offers a sense of independence for young people.
Shift is always be happy to talk to beginners, Channing said
“You see a lot of kids who have grown up on bike seats and parents who, from their own experience, are teaching their kids how to ride bikes,” Channing said. “We are there to support that — and also be the provider for folks who don’t have that bike experience or maybe they never learned how to ride a bike.”
Shift is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Have something to say?
Send us a Letter to the Editor. Read our guidelines for Letters to the Editor here.
