Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op

11/18/2022

Help Us Find A New Space!

In 2016, Mechanical Gardens grew from a collection of bike tools at our apartments to weekly Open Hours at the church basement. In 2019, we expanded to our primary home in Red Hook. Since the start, we have helped over 2,000 New Yorkers keep their bikes rolling. From one-time drop-ins, to regulars and dedicated organizers, we have formed a community around bikes. We're delighted to announce that as of this August, Mechanical Gardens is a registered 501c3 non-profit.

Now, we’re asking for your help to find a new home.

In October, we had to leave our Red Hook location. We are committed to this neighborhood and plan to continue programming through pop-ups and partnerships. To expand our programs in Red Hook that provide access to the tools, knowledge, and parts for people to fix their own bikes, we need a permanent home.

We’re raising $20,000 in individual donations to get us there.

DONATE TO HELP US GET A NEW SPACE: https://bikecoop.nyc/newspace

The Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op is here today because so many of us have invested our time and energy into this work. If you have learned something at the bike coop, joined our programs, or upcycled parts with us, please help us reach the next stage in our future.

We appreciate all kinds of help. Do you have a lead on a new space for us? Can you help our fundraising campaign? Post on Instagram or TikTok? To get involved, please sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeA5xava9JeZnpsQFDmElDnwpAY6B5w3AKGooq9umy680pLJw/viewform

We will continue to operate Open Hours every Monday from 6-9pm at our original (and loved!) home, St. John the Evangelist Church.

With all our hearts,
The Mechanical Gardens Crew 🔧

05/02/2022

We are temporarily suspending our Venmo while we migrate accounts. We still accept donations in cash and by CC at https://bikecoopnyc.com/donate

12/19/2021

This year, the Mechanical Gardens opened NYC’s first outdoor bike repair education center, organized hundreds of free workshops and repair events citywide, and refurbished scores of abandoned bicycles—helping more than 1,000 New Yorkers gain equitable access to biking this year alone, and tallying up to more than 8,000 participant visits since we first launched in 2015. Today your support is crucial, because our free programs require real resources to keep going - please donate today at http://bikecoop.nyc/donate

Your tax-deductible donation to the Mechanical Gardens powers an expanding roster of bike access and education programs. Make it a recurring donation for even greater impact.

06/10/2021

This SUNDAY we’re having a BLOCK PARTY to welcome people to our new space in Red Hook! Come for fun & games, food & drink, awesome bike stuff, free repairs, and a PARADE with the Funkrust Brass Band! 12-5 at 98 Dikeman St, Red Hook!

03/24/2021

TIL about the , a nuts-and-bolts mechanism that reinforces historical injustice in bicycling. The pandemic is making it worse, but we've got a great strategy for fighting it—bike coops!

The founder of a bike co-op identifies a key gap in cycling equity.

12/15/2020

Five years in, the Mechanical Gardens Bike Coop has helped thousands of New Yorkers gain fair access to biking in NYC. Our volunteer crew has done extraordinary work to meet the city’s needs during COVID – including launching NYC’s first outdoor center for bike repair education – but as the year closes, our free and low-cost workshops, parts, and bikes are more in demand than ever. Yet free programs require real resources: we need your support to achieve our ambitious agenda for bike equity programs in 2021.


Your tax-deductible donation to the Mechanical Gardens powers an expanding roster of bike access and education programs. Make it a recurring donation for even greater impact. Community members like you are our most significant funders. So please, support your community with an important contribution today.

Here are some of the achievements we accomplished this year with support like yours:

1. 50-Bike Build-a-thon for Healthcare Workers:
New wheels for healthcare heroes! Thanks to support from NYCEDC and Lyft, plus grants from the Citizens Committee for New York City and the Awesome Foundation , we brought 100 volunteers into the Brooklyn Army Terminal to build 50 new bikes for healthcare workers at Maimonides, NYU Langone, and Coney Island Hospital, and inspired similar efforts from NYC to Argentina.

2. 1 Month, 5 Boroughs, 10 Repair Pop-Ups:
We popped up ten repair stations across the five boroughs this October thanks to a partnership with the NYC DOT

3. Red Hook Expansion:
We've launched NYC’s 1st-ever outdoor center for bike repair education in Red Hook!

4. COVID-safe open hours:
We helped more than 400 people learn to fix their bikes during COVID, and held two months of Open Hours Online classes during lockdown

5. LGBTQ+ Youth Apprentices:
We won a grant from the Awesome Foundation to train youth apprentices from the Fearless Flyers ride club in bike repair basics

6. Mutual Aid Bike Brigade:
We worked with Make the Road New York and a consortium of local organizers to launch an emergency food delivery program in Brooklyn and Queens.

7. Defund NYPD:
We created a fifty-foot mobile street mural for justice protests this summer

8. Big Fix Day:
Repaired bikes for the community in East New York with the The Brown Bike Girl

9. Ride 2 DC:
We volunteered as mechanics for the Ride to D.C.

10. NYU bike share repair:
We worked with NYU to repair their bike fleet for distribution to students in need.

11. Cranksgiving:
For the fifth year running, we helped plan and execute the Cranksgiving Brooklyn charity fundraiser bike ride.

And more!

Donate today to help your community bike shop fight for bike equity in the new year.

11/18/2020

OH SAY did you see the amazing photos from our Red Hook Launch Party earlier this month? Key words: "long sleeve bikini bike wash" "fifty people despite torrential rain" "COVID safe" "awesome." Check it out!

What's New Red Hook Launch Party: Success! by Josh Bisker|Published November 5, 2020 Even a steady cats-and-dogs rainstorm didn’t dampen the spirits at our Red Hook Launch Party! Sunday Nov 1, 2020, we introduced long-time volunteers and welcomed neighborhood newcomers to the new space, all while ...

11/06/2020

Cranksgiving Cometh! + Red Hook Expansion, Bikes vs Fascism, & More! - https://mailchi.mp/95d88a52e75b/2-days-100-volunteers-50-bikes-for-hospital-workers-4733285

11/02/2020

Repost from our E.D. Josh Bisker: "As we look to this week's anxious uncertainties, I want to share this statement of strategy and purpose I wrote four years ago this very week, about how social justice orgs like the Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op can operationalize the fight against fascism in our work. Organizers in the US, Canada, Mexico, and beyond have expressed that this piece of writing helped them sharpen their personal and organizational efforts; today, I post it in order to boost our resiliency to whatever comes this week. A strong vision of crisis response will help us weather the onslaught of fear and uncertainty, and move ahead no matter what comes. Armor yourself with my words, friends, so we may continue to fight together. Si prefieres leer en Español, nuestro amigo Tomi de Argentina dio, con amor, una traduccion; una link está incluyendo.

(Español abajo) This is a message of strategy and purpose, written as we enter a broken future. The dangers that now loom on the horizon…

10/31/2020

BIG NEWS: Red Hook Expansion + Launch Party Sunday! - https://mailchi.mp/c6d2ab6b0137/2-days-100-volunteers-50-bikes-for-hospital-workers-4730809

10/30/2020

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/10/30/red-hook-gets-an-outdoor-bike-co-op-starting-this-weekend/

If your bike has been making that weird clicking noise when you shift gears, Mechanical Gardens has a place for you.