Earn-A-Bike teaches bike maintenance and repair skills to middle and high school students. Kids learn lifelong mechanical skills as they earn a bicycle of their own by fixing bikes for the RideWell program.
Watch this space for future Earn-A-Bike opportunities.
Earn-A-Bike participants learn by doing in a five-week course during Summer break. Classes meet once a week for four hours. Bike SLO County’s Bike Kitchen staff and Earn-A-Bike volunteers start instruction with the basics, providing a strong foundation of mechanical skills then adding more advanced techniques throughout the Summer.
Attendees hone their skills by working to repair bicycles destined for our RideWell program, which provides gently-used bicycles to SLO County residents in need. By helping others, students literally Earn-A-Bike, which they are free to keep or give to someone else at the end of the course. Students are instructed in Bike Safety to make sure that they know how to ride safely.
While our Earn-a-Bike classes are limited to participants ages 12-18, adults interested in Earn-a-Bike can participate at other times. Regardless of your age, please fill out the application below.
Link to Earn-A-Bike Application: Coming Soon
- Do students need to be mechanically inclined? Students don’t need mechanical skills to sign-up. The desire to learn (and to earn a bicycle) is all that are needed.
- Who will be working with my kids? All Earn-A-Bike volunteers and Bike Kitchen staff are required to pass Live-Scan Fingerprinting and a background check.
- How old do students need to be? The course caters to middle and high school students, but older elementary school students with demonstrated interest in tools/repair are welcome. Participants up to the age 18 are welcome at Wednesday classes. Participants age 19 and over interested in Earn-a-Bike can participate at other times. Regardless of your age, please fill out the application.
- When can I start? Keep an eye out for Summer 2022 dates!
- How long has Earn-A-Bike been around? Earn-A-Bike started in the summer of 2016. Six students (5 girls, 1 boy) completed the inaugural course, earning bikes and learning valuable lifelong skills.
How do I donate a bike? If you have a gently used bike you’d like to donate we would love to have it. Bring your bicycle to the Bike Kitchen at 860 Pacific St, Suite 105, San Luis Obispo, during open hours (hours can be found in the lower right-hand corner of the page). Please note that we don’t take “department store” bikes or the following brands: Roadmaster, Huffy, Magna, Next, Motive, Promax, Route 66. These bicycles are often constructed with very low-quality parts in non-standard sizes and are not designed to be serviceable. Because of this, we are unable to accept or refurbish these bikes.
Watch this space for future Earn-A-Bike opportunities.
