There’s a group in South Bend that’s been working to make bicycling more affordable, and they’re planning a move they hope will help them reach more people in need.
In 2019 a Bloomington couple who had been living in South Bend temporarily missed the bike co-op they had enjoyed in Bloomington. So they started one from a garage off Portage Avenue in the city’s Near Northwest Neighborhood.
The couple has since moved away but what they started continues to grow. Members formally incorporated as a nonprofit and in 2021 the University of Notre Dame let them move into the Sisters of the Holy Cross convent building. That sits at the corner of Angela Boulevard and Indiana 933, the former St. Joseph High School campus.
The university soon plans to demolish that building, forcing South Bend Bike Garage to find a new home, and it has. By the end of the year the group plans to move into the vacant first floor of the Wayne Street Parking Garage downtown. The city’s redevelopment commission recently agreed to let them stay there rent free for at least 18 months.
The South Bend Bike Garage has three components: Fix a bike, earn a bike and sell a bike. Volunteers fix up donated bikes and sell them at prices below retail. Or if you donate at least six hours of your time to the group, you can pick out a donated bike that needs repair, and volunteers will help you fix it up to keep as your own. Or you can simply bring your bike in for repairs, for free labor and parts at cost.
Operations manager Dave Calhoun says he’s long enjoyed riding bikes, and he loves helping others do it.
"It may be for a job, it may be for recreation, it may be for fitness that they've been advised to do," Calhoun said. "We just try to make it very low-key and lighthearted. We offer bike rides also. It's just, enjoy the bike. Enjoy your time, enjoy the air, enjoy nature. Just have fun."
Club volunteers have mixed views on the move. They’re now located near the intersection of several bike paths, and about three-fourths of their clients are Notre Dame students who could have a harder time getting downtown.
But the city recently finished an 8-foot-wide paved path, with decorative lamposts, that runs from campus to downtown. Calhoun says he’s confident Notre Dame students can get there, and he’s excited to pursue more of the “earn a bike” mission downtown, where people struggling with poverty and homelessness receive services.
"I wouldn't say it's the main target but I would say they're probably the ones that need that program from us the most," Calhoun said.
Volunteer mechanic and board member Ethan Burghardt, an organic chemistry doctoral candidate at Notre Dame, agreed and says he’s happy about the coming move.
"I think students will still travel to our new location but I think for a lot of folks who are in most need of our services, they aren't always able to travel up here, so being poised in that location, I think, will really help us carry out our mission," Burghardt said.
The South Bend Bike Garage now is only open once a week, on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Calhoun says they hope to soon expand to a second night if he can get a volunteer mechanic whose schedule will work.
In the basement on a recent Wednesday, volunteers are turning wrenches on several bikes on stands. One who’s been around since the beginning on Portage is Jim Lewandowski. He said like most people, he rode bikes as a kid and started riding again about 10 years ago.
"At the time there wasn't a resource like this to learn how to do things," Lewandowski said. "There weren't a lot of hands-on situations where people could go to learn from other people that were doing. I had to rely on the internet. Also I bent the ear of mechanics at a lot of shops."
Lewandowski said you don’t have to be poor to appreciate the value the Bike Garage is bringing to people.
"To get a quality machine these days it can be very cost-prohibitive," Lewandowski said. "If you go to a local bike shop, even to get a base model bicycle, you could end up spending $600 or $700. I started working on bikes because I couldn't afford to ride the kind of bikes I wanted to ride, having other people work on them."
On a recent Wednesday Calhoun was helping Notre Dame student Jake Marek adjust the spokes on a bike he bought there. Marek paid $185 for the bike. I asked him what he would have paid for it in a store.
"I don't think I would find this in a store anywhere," Marek said as Calhoun adjusted his spokes. "It's from the 1960s in France, if I'm not mistaken?"
Calhoun interjected.
"It's a Motobecane, which is made in France," Calhoun said. "It's one of the original Motobecanes and it's also what they call a mixti frame, so it has the strength to either be for a man or woman on this type of bike. But they are very popular bikes, that frame is, and they're very desirable right now."
On this day, Notre Dame graduate student Vikram Ghosh came in to have a flat tire fixed. After paying an at-cost price for the tube and adding a donation, he walked his bike out with a smile.
"Many Notre Dame students volunteer here and the people are so nice," Ghosh said. "Every time I have some problem with my bike, I just come here. It's a very nice place to come."
