Spring is here, and it’s time for Calgary’s youth to get their bikes out of storage, no matter the condition.

Youth En Route opened the doors on March 17 to their community bike shop, Bike Hub, in partnership with Bathtubs for Bikes. The shop will give Calgary youth help with bike repairs and purchasing parts, while also providing programs to make biking accessible for all.

All that is required is a membership to the space, which costs $20 a year, but staff may waive the fee for those who can’t afford it.

For Laura Shutiak, executive director of Youth En Route, the opening represents years of work addressing a gap she says has long limited who can ride in Calgary.

“Kids need five things to be able to ride their bikes places,” said Shutiak.

“They need a safe route, secure parking, the skills to ride, access to a bike — and they need a community.”

Youth En Route teaches youth how to ride through school-based programs, ranging from basic training to adaptive biking for those with special needs. If a youth expresses interest in owning a bike, the organization provides used and discarded bikes free of charge.

They distributed roughly 702 bikes last year and helped almost 4,000 kids learn to ride a bike.

What they’ve struggled with is kids who break their bikes and don’t have the means to fix them. Bike Hub is their solution.

“This is to foster that community, to support people of all kinds to be able to fix their bikes,” said Shutiak.

“We’re here working on bikes all the time. So we thought, well, why not just make it open?”

Unlike a traditional bike shop, Youth En Route itself won’t sell bikes or equipment. Rather than try to compete in Calgary’s saturated retail space, they opted for collaboration.

The retail side is operated by Bathtubs for Bikes, which offers parts and service packages. Owner Adam Rhind also launched a ‘Pedal-it Forward’ program, in which customer donations go toward a community fund that others can draw on when they need repairs. For Rhind, this is the kind of space he’s been dreaming of.

“I’ve been planning this for about five years,” he said.

“This was always my original vision for having a bike shop for Calgary.”

At their Winter Bike Day in February, they raised $180 from community donations. They hope to keep that momentum going now that they’re open.

Going beyond just providing bikes

The new space also tackles the growing problem of Calgarians’ bike waste.  Bikes frequently end up in landfills or are abandoned, something Youth En Route board of directors treasurer Chris Saunders hopes to change.

“We expect over time that we’ll be able to collect those bikes from the dump and recycle them,” he said

“That’s a huge contribution to the city, to get us all into the mindset that you don’t just throw a bike away. It could be recycled and refurbished.”

That mindset is built into Bike Hub’s programming, including a kids’ bike ‘trade UP’ initiative that allows families to exchange outgrown bikes for properly sized ones.

Rhind also hopes that the store will cultivate more awareness and participation in Calgary’s cycling community.

“There’s a lot of really amazing group rides that happen in Calgary,” said Rhind.

“When people come here, we love to connect them. Because once you have a bike, the question is how do you build community around that?”

Bike Hub also hopes to carve out its own niche in Calgary’s cycling community. Two-Wheel View, another youth-centred bike shop, operates on a similar premise, but they focus on job training and learning how to repair a bike. Bike Hub isn’t training kids how to repair their bikes; instead, they’re focused on keeping kids on bikes and providing support when needed.

The only question that remains is how long they’ll be able to keep Bike Hub running.

Funding remains one of the project’s biggest uncertainties. The space is currently supported by an 18-month grant from the Calgary Foundation and private donations, after which organizers will need to secure additional funding to keep the doors open.

Still, on opening day, the focus was less on future challenges and more on what the space means for the mission.

“I started fixing bikes in Laura’s garage,” said Mario Rocha, Bike Hub’s operational manager.

“So, I’m really happy with all the progress, because I personally know the impact that we’re making on kids and families. One bike at a time, I want to change the world.”