Amid the sounds of clacking torque wrenches and the smell of rubber in Bed-Stuy’s Bike Plant bike shop, bicycles aren't the only things being built.
The shop will host its fourth birthday barbecue on Saturday, whose proceeds will go toward a repair fund — a community bank of sorts that’s used to provide functioning bikes for migrants and low-income riders.
Along with helping people work and travel throughout New York City, the shop's founder Robin Graven-Milne said Bike Plant is trying to build a hub for cyclists in challenging circumstances.
“The repair fund covers refurbishing bikes, and then we either give ‘em away or we do a pay-what-you-want situation for them,” Graven-Milne said. “It's a good stepping stone to being able to get around the city, access language classes, access work, access other services in the city without having to pay to get on the train.”
The fund — which started in 2022 — is also fed by the proceeds from a bike race tied to the barbecue, one-off and monthly donations, and donations of bikes themselves.
So far it’s raised and given away about $42,000 in bikes and bike parts.
Graven-Milne said this mutual aid is essential in all communities, but particularly in Bed-Stuy, which until recent years was a low-income, working-class community. Now, brownstones there sell for more than $1 million.
“We have a [poster] at the shop that kind of encourages people to think about their generational wealth, their current wealth, their access to education and housing, their citizenship status,” Graven-Milne said. “If it's gonna prevent you from, you know, buying groceries this month if you fix your bike and you need your bike to get to work, just use the repair fund.”
Sometimes, the shop donates directly to homeless Bed-Stuy residents, too.
Bike Plant founder Robin Graven-Milne inspects a bike at the shop.
Every repair or donation via the fund — ranging from flat-tire fixes to donations of kids' bikes — is made public in an online spreadsheet, which displays how much a customer is charged and how much the repair fund pays out. The shop has logged hundreds of work orders as part of the effort.
In addition to providing repairs and custom builds, Bike Plant offers apprenticeships and hosts bikepacking trips. It’s with this ethos Graven-Milne says they hope the shop becomes employee-owned in the very near future.
The barbecue started as a storefront hangout and has since blossomed into a full-on party, Graven-Milne said. Saturday’s festivities will kick off at 5 p.m. at Heaven’s Gate Community Garden and will feature raffle prizes, food and music.
As part of the tradition, Bike Plant is also hosting an “alley cat” city-ripping race Saturday at 2 p.m. The races were traditionally for bike messengers on bikes with one gear and no brakes (so a rider has to apply backward force on the pedals or skid the tires), but Bike Plant’s race is for all types of cycles.
Tickets and more information on the festivities can be found here.
