BikeAthens unveils new Prince Avenue location with return of Fix Your Own Bike session
BikeAthens rides again.
The local nonprofit dedicated to advocating for equitable and sustainable transportation through educational programs and community collaboration held a soft opening at its new home earlier this week and will officially open Thursday.
BikeAthens can now be found at 1190 Prince Ave., adjacent to the new home of Daily Groceries Co-op across from Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center.
The organization was at its previous headquarters, located on Broad Street, from 2017 until September, leaving due “an unexpected lease change,” according to a BikeAthens news release.
BikeAthens Executive Director Scott Long said the organization felt very fortunate landing in its new spot.
“We really lucked out,” said Long, adding that BikeAthens signed a five-year lease for the space. “One of our board members is also on the board of Daily Co-op, and if you ever saw that building when it was empty it looked really cool.
“It was empty for a long time, and I thought it would be cool to be in there, but we already had a space then, and when that deal fell apart for various reasons, Liz Solomon told me about this spot, and we jumped on it. We got a really good deal and we’re real excited.”
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Solomon noted more benefits of the new location.
“It’s more safely accessible by bike, is close to other community resources our clients rely on and offers a better work environment for our staff and volunteers,” she noted in a news release. “We’re confident this new space will help us build community around cycling, provide bikes and repair services to those in need and continue to advocate for transportation equity in Athens.”
The opening of the new space heralds the return of one of BikeAthens’ most notable services, weekly Fix Your Own Bike sessions, the first of which is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday. For a suggested donation of $10 per hour, riders can bring their bikes and take advantage of the nonprofit’s extensive tool collection and expertise.
Everyone who visits and makes a donation on Thursday will receive a special BikeAthens spoke card as a celebratory token of the day.
Long noted that the organization began in the early 1990s as the Athens-Clarke Safe Bicycling Association and primarily was an advocacy group, advocating for bike lanes and safer infrastructure. He added that in the early 2000s, BikeAthens volunteers began fixing bikes “in somebody’s basement” before moving to a storage unit and then to a spot off Chase Street before taking root on Broad Street.
“We take donated bikes and fix them up, we sell them, we repair them,” he said. “We see a lot of people who can’t afford to go to the other bike shops and we’ll do sliding-scale repairs. We do what we can.”
Although bike repair was on the back burner while BikeAthens searched for its new home, Long said one feature – monthly Joy Rides – continued through the last several months.
“That’s one of the things we were able to do when we weren’t open,” he said. “On the last Friday of each month at 6 p.m., (we have) a casual ride around town – we’re the slowest group ride in town because we make sure we don’t leave anybody behind. The idea is that it’s a nice way for people who don’t have a lot of confidence riding in traffic can feel safer in a group and enjoy following the rules of the road and enjoying the social aspect of it.”
For more information about BikeAthens, visit www.bikeathens.org.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Athens nonprofit BikeAthens moves to Prince Avenue location
