Iowa City Bike Library’s maintenance lessons build confidence, independence

IOWA CITY — Laura Crossett wheeled her electric bike into the Iowa City Bike Library, past the front desk and into an area with benches, tools and stands. She hoisted her bike onto the stand with a little help, grabbed a rag and a spray bottle, and started cleaning.

The 48-year-old Iowa City woman has been riding bikes since she was a kid, but never gave a lot of thought to maintenance and upkeep — until her electric bike, or e-bike.

“I really decided I needed to learn to take care of it myself,” she said.

Enter the Iowa City Bike Library.

Through its Rent-a-Bench, W/T/F Night and Outspoken Teens programs, the bike library teaches cyclists to care for, maintain and fix their own bicycles.

“We used to offer more classes but now we have shifted to offering this open shop concept for 15 hours a week where people can just come in and do whatever you want or need to do,” said Audrey Wiedemeier, the library’s executive director.

  Buy Photo

The catch: You’re not going to bring your bike in and have someone fix it for you.

“We’re not going to service the bike for you, but we’ll teach you how to service it yourself,” she said. “We are very hands-off — we want people to really learn how to do this themselves. And if we do have to do something to demonstrate how to fix it, we’re going to undo it and have you do it again.”

The programs are free, but participants are welcome to give a $5 per hour donation on Rent-a-Bench and W/T/F Night. The library also sells recycled or used parts salvaged from other bikes.

“Our main goal is to make the whole program as accessible and affordable as possible,” Wiedemeier said.

Word is getting out. Wiedemeier estimates that from May through September, the library will see about 50 people each week coming in to work on their bikes.

“We’re still the best-kept secret in Johnson County,” she said. “Once people find out about us, they’re like, ‘Oh, I can do that here,’ then they come in and get what they need and fix what they need and hopefully they become regular customers.”

The Bike Library offers three open shop opportunities: Rent-a-Bench is open to anyone on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; Women/Trans/Femme Night is open Tuesday nights for nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, female-identifying, transgender and femme cyclists; and Outspoken Teens is open Thursday afternoons for teens.

Rent-a-Bench

Rent-a-Bench is for anyone who wants to work on their bike but lacks the space or the tools, or for those who are just learning how to care for their bike. The library’s website encourages those new to the world of bike maintenance to come to the library before their bike needs repairs for preventive maintenance, and to allow for extra time to work on a bike because maintenance and repairs “usually take longer than you think. Give yourself plenty of time.”

Volunteers are on hand to help diagnose problems and prioritize repairs, as well as give advice on how to fix an issue.

“The thing about bike mechanics and maintenance is that everybody’s bike needs something different,” Wiedemeier said. She said they stopped doing formal classes because, “if you came in for our class on brakes you might learn how to fix your brakes, but if there’s five people in the class there’s a good chance they all have different brakes, and some of them work and some of them don’t, or some need this part and others need something else.”

“Rent-a-Bench is a class for whatever you need whenever you need it,” she added. “It’s specialized to whatever it is you need to do.”

  Buy Photo

Women/Trans/Femme Night

W/T/F Night, or Women/Trans/Femme Night, was designed to make nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, female-identifying, transgender and femme people feel more comfortable going to the library to do repairs and maintenance on their bikes with help from others who identify similarly.

On the library’s website, Wiedemeier’s biography states that she’s “a champion for women and girls developing confidence and skills through biking and doing their own repairs,” and W/T/F Night is part of that development.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that we’ve made this a really welcoming, inclusive space when bike shops are traditionally white male-dominated,” she said. “It’s been my mission over the past six years to make it a better place, a more welcoming place, and a more inclusive space for people from all backgrounds.”

W/T/F Night is where Crossett first started working on her own bikes.

“I started coming to learn some basics,” she said. “It’s very cool; I’m not a mechanically minded person, but I know I can come in here and work on my bike myself, ask questions and get it done.”

“You do have to learn how to do your own work, but no one is going to laugh at you for what you don’t know,” she said. “That’s important.”

  Buy Photo

OutSpoken Teens

OutSpoken Teens is a three-week program in which teenagers go to the library, pick out a bike that needs to be fixed, and learn how to fix it. When the bike is fixed, it’s theirs to keep. They’re also given a lock and helmet.

In addition to learning how to maintain and repair their bike, participants are led through their own neighborhoods and shown safe ways to travel to school or other places on their bike.

“We try not to give away any bikes without giving an education,” Wiedemeier said, “so by picking out a bike and repairing it themselves, that’s something they’re invested in, and they’re more likely to take care of it. And at the same time, they become more comfortable with the tools and with this space and know it’s a place they can feel comfortable coming to.”