Update on The Bike Gangs of Fort Worth – November 2020

Happy four-year anniversary, gangsters!

Originally established as The Park Glen Bike Gang in November 2016, The Bike Gangs of Fort Worth, now a 501(c)3 non-profit association, provides our community with free organized bike rides, free bike repairs and bike trade-ups, free bikes and free bike helmets. 

We are proud to have eight neighborhood bike gangs all around the city, four affiliated "garage bike shops," 15 partnering/sponsoring organizations, approximately 15 regular core volunteers, zero staff and a zero dollar operating budget.  We've sparked countless ripple-effect "neighboring" efforts but a showcase proof is the community engagement we catalyzed at Pine Tree Estates manufactured home neighborhood resulting in a community park, playground and garden by the residents, for the residents.

We're also honored to be the recipients of a mayoral award in the health and wellness category of the 2019 City of Fort Worth Neighborhood Awards, and for partnering with the City's code compliance and recycling stations to establish the Community Bike Builder program to intercept and rehab an additional 800-900 bikes per year for Fort Worth residents.

We will continue our march towards the nation's first truly barrier-free bike-friendly city.

Sidewalks and roads are free. Our grass-roots, zero-budget organization already provides free organized rides, groups create free Facebook pages, adults chip in for snacks and drinks, bike trade-ups and repairs are free, bikes are free, and bike helmets are free. We require no RSVPs and no appointments (those would be barriers, too).

We have identified the next barrier to tear down; that is the barrier of logistics and accessibility.  Many families don't have transportation available to get to our garage bike shops to take advantage of free repairs and bikes.

We will take the repairs to the people.

The Bike Gangs of Fort Worth has begun a pilot called Neighborhood Bike Shop-in-a-Box, which is based on a 20-foot shipping container format, and puts a full-fledged shop right in the neighborhoods that need them most.

Each shop will feature a roll-up garage door, secondary egress personnel door, sky lights, a roll-out work bench with easy-up shade, stock of replacement bike parts and consumables, supply of bike helmets, work-in-progress bikes and finished bikes.  Shops require no utilities, will be secondary uses at primary use facilities (for zoning ease and required access to restroom), will be staffed by background checked, qualified volunteer bike mechanics every other Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon and require no appointments.

In closing, a footnote on where we fit with respect to retail and service providers. We are especially sensitive to independent small business families. We do not compete with bike shops or bike tool manufacturers. Just the opposite. We facilitate the earliest love of riding when brains are still forming connections fast, which means we're the wide end of the funnel, minting new riders who are your future bike tool and bike shop customer base.  ...You're welcome.  : )