Worcester Earn-a-Bike is a non-profit community bicycle shop dedicated to teaching people bicycle maintenance while enabling them to earn a bike from our inventory of donated bicycles. We aim to provide a teaching environment that allows people of all ages to learn repair and maintenance skills specific to bicycles as well as more general skills, instilling confidence far beyond the bike stand. We
operate as an open shop where anyone can come and volunteer in exchange for parts and skills to earn a bike or fix up their own bike. We try to keep a reasonable student-to-teacher ratio: please be aware that our space limitations will sometimes require us to ask that people come back later if we have reached our limit. Earn a Bike
Our marquee program engages people of all social and economic means empowering them to volunteer and learn basic bicycle maintenance, while earning a FREE bicycle. Participants can choose a bike; from our selection of earn-able bicycles after volunteering ten hours towards our shop operation and then build it up with tools and parts from the shop. Volunteer tasks typically include organizing parts, striping bicycles, building bikes for donation or sale, or generally helping in the shop. If you have a skill or interest that you think could benefit a non-profit bicycle shop, let us know! All volunteer hours count towards earning a bicycle. We’d love your help with things like fundraising, grant writing, database management, or any other skill you want to bring to our organization. We welcome all people to volunteer with us. Earned Bicycle 101
Bicycles earned will always need some work in order to be road safe. That work must be done after the volunteer hours needed to earn the bicycle. Please come early during volunteer hours as we do turn away people after reaching capacity for the day. Time spent on personal projects does not count towards volunteer hours. Project bikes cannot leave the shop with Shop Manager Approval. Each Bicycle Earned in a calendar year takes double the amount of hours. 10, 20, 40, 80, etc...
Open Shop
During Open Shop Hours we have bike stands available for anyone to use on a drop in basis. That includes a full array of normal bicycle tools for each stand. And specialty tools like crank pullers, spoke tensioners, hub keys, etc… to use with Shop Manager guidance. We are here to assist you by being facilitators of the space, and will teach you the necessary skills to repair and do maintenance on your on bicycle. We have a full array of new and spare parts some for sale, others earn-able in exchange for volunteer shop time. We do hope that if you use the space and tools you will kindly leave a small donation at the door. Learn a Bike
These workshops cover the basics of bicycle maintenance, and Bicycle Mechanic Training. They will be held on select Sundays. And will dive deep into subjects that we do not have the time for during normal shop operation. If you would like to delve deeper into the workings of bicycles drop in during any session. Please keep an eye on our calendar for specific dates and times. $5 Suggested Donation for Non-Earners, no one turned away for lack of funds. Future Workshops include.
****Women and Trans Night Suspended Until Further Notice*******
Women and Trans Open Shop
Women and Trans Night operates just like our other shop hours, but it is a space reserved solely for women and trans folks. We welcome people with all levels of experience with bicycle mechanics and encourage those who have knowledge to share what they know. We strive to make Women and Trans night as safe a space as possible for learning, socializing, and empowering our selves and each other.
****Women and Trans Night Suspended Until Further Notice*******
