If you’ve spent more than a few moments at FCCB over the past few years, you’ve likely received some help from Alan Tucker, FCCB’s volunteer mechanic extraordinaire! Alan has volunteered countless hours in the service of our shop community, and has restored dozens of bicycles for sale or re-donation.  He puts special attention into each restoration, and goes above and beyond when carefully detailing vintage road bikes, especially. Alan is always willing to offer a helping hand when FCCB needs help outside the shop too – he’s been a regular presence at our mobile-workstation events around the city, including Cyclouvia, Hal and Ben’s Bike-In, and at Churchill Downs’ Backside Learning Center. Alan has volunteered hundreds of hours at FCCB, far more than any other volunteer, and has become an intrinsic part of our shop membership. Alan – we are truly thankful for your contributions to the FCCB community!

As a small token of FCCB’s gratitude, Alan received a new USB-rechargeable LED headlight and taillight for his wintertime after-dark rides along the waterfront and to Indiana over the Big Four Bridge.

(Note that FCCB has “made it official” and contracted Alan to serve as Bike Restoration Specialist as of January 2019 to help refurbish our backlog of vintage road bikes)

We asked Alan to answer a few questions so our readers can get to know him better:

FCCB: What’s the best part about volunteering at FCCB?
Alan: Meeting new people who want to learn and sharing time.

FCCB: Why do you ride? What’s your favorite ride/route?
Alan: For fun and health. I love to ride and explore.

FCCB: What’s the most interesting skill you’ve learned while volunteering with FCCB?
Alan: Talking to strangers and having something to share with them

FCCB: Tell us about your bike – do you have a favorite bike now, or perhaps one from your past?
Alan: I have several good bikes. My Schwinn aluminum 564 has 100,000 thousand miles on the frame.  I have used up a lot of tires, chains, and cassettes.

FCCB: What can FCCB do better to serve you and others?
Alan: Listen to my ideas.

(Alan gets straight to the point!)

Falls City Community BikeWorks is fortunate to have friendly and resourceful volunteers.  We’d like to recognize Lydia Stephens as an Extraordinary Volunteer for her commitment to our bike shop and community – she’s been a regular presence at the shop for several months, and has continued to volunteer long after earning her Sweat Equity Membership!  In addition to our thanks and appreciation, Lydia will receive an FCCB T-shirt and $20 shop credit that can be used for new bar tape, a new chain, cables, etc.

We asked Lydia to answer a few questions so our readers can get to know her better:

FCCB: What’s the best part about volunteering at FCCB?
Lydia: My favorite thing about volunteering at FCCB has been growing in my knowledge and skills with bike repair! I’ve learned a lot from all the other volunteers as well and it’s been pretty fascinating to learn hands on how to identify and fix things on a bike that I can apply at home or on the road with my own set of wheels.

FCCB: Why do you ride? What’s your favorite ride/route?
I ride mainly for exercise and personal enjoyment! I was part of a tandem bike racing team for 4 years at school and that’s had me hooked ever since!
My favorite route is the Heritage Trail that snakes through the neighborhoods of Terre Haute, IN! It’s a great way to see beauty of the community in a simple way.

FCCB: What’s the most interesting skill you’ve learned while volunteering with FCCB?
How to fix a flat tire! I used to take my bike into a shop every time, but now that I’ve learned the skill myself, it’s so much easier for me to do it on my own.

FCCB: Tell us about your bike – do you have a favorite bike now, or perhaps one from your past?
I currently ride a Dolce Elite road bike, but my favorite bike that I’ve ridden was a Giant, my very first road bike.

FCCB: What can FCCB do better to serve you and others?
We definitely could use more space to work with at FCCB! There are so many good things happening there for the benefit of its members and the surrounding community, but the impact could be even greater given more resources and room to serve well!

Lydia is right about needing more space! During Open Shop days in Fall 2018, FCCB regularly saw 30 visitors or more, with 8 or more bike workstations in progress at any given time!  Below is a panoramic photo of a busy shop day – it’s a crowded shop, but everyone is friendly and we’re always willing to make room for new community members!

FCCB is always interested in making new connections and partnerships in the community to help us expand our mission of helping others learn bike repair skills, and connecting people in need of a bike with a safe and affordable ride.

Last Sunday (12/9/2018) we were happy to meet Mildred, the Community Liaison at La Casita Center, and her husband, Greg, and volunteers. FCCB offered a tour of our shop, and explained to our visitors from La Casita how we assist our community with bike-skills education, and by providing low-cost transportation. We donated a refurbished commuter-style mountain bike to La Casita, who accepted it on behalf of Juan, an individual within the La Casita community network.

La Casita is a local non-profit dedicated to enhancing the well being of the Latino community within Louisville. Founded in 2005, La Casita has been able to create community spaces dedicated to support, education and empowerment as well as providing programming services. La Casita has been able to offer accompaniment and support to up to 300 families per year!

Jesús and Juan from La Casita receiving a donation. Juan stated that he will be now be able to commute to work much more easily!

Thanks for stopping by, La Casita!  Best luck with your mission, and keep in touch!

Members of the Clydesdale Athletics Club stopped in to our shop last Wednesday to donate several bikes and a large box stuffed full of much needed helmets. These cycling helmets will be given to members of the community to promote safety while riding. We were happy to have received this donation and we will look forward to offering these bikes to the public at a low cost in support of our mission to serve the public by funneling bikes to those in need of reliable transportation.

The aptly named Clydesdales were able to enjoy a tour of our facilities and spend time talking to our lead volunteer mechanics, Alan and Kenneth. The President of the club, Greg, even offered assistance to one of our regular customers during their visit. At FCCB, we are always enthused to have new visitors to the shop and we wish the Clydesdales the best in their endeavors.

Visit the Clydesdale Athletics Club website here: http://www.clydesdaleac.org/

We are grateful to the Clydesdales and look forward to seeing more of them in the future!

Falls City Community BikeWorks has had a very busy fall season with lots of new volunteers.  Among them we were especially fortunate to meet Nathaniel Green and Warren Fields, who have been dedicated and dependable volunteers for several months, and who typically volunteer as a team.  We appreciate their can-do attitude around the shop – when they see a problem or task, they tackle it! As recognized Extraordinary Volunteers, Warren and Nathaniel will each receive an FCCB t-shirt and a $20 shop credit for parts/accessories.

We asked Nathaniel and Warren to answer a few questions so our readers can get to know them better:

FCCB: What’s the best part about volunteering at FCCB?
Nathaniel: The best part of volunteering at FCCB is that when I’m there, I’m giving back to the community and helping to improve people’s lives. Through the connections that I make and the opportunities for service at FCCB, I am able to grow, learn, and also help transform this community in which I live, work and raise my family.

Warren: I like to help people work on bikes.

FCCB: Why do you ride? What’s your favorite ride/route?
Nathaniel: I ride for commuting, I ride for pleasure, and I ride to discover my community. I am able to feel connected to the community when I ride. I really enjoy finding the city’s hidden gems, like the beautiful artwork under I-64 in Portland, a new shop on a side street I’ve never taken, or a neighbor that waved to me for the first time while I’m on my bike.

Warren: I like to ride so i can get plenty of exercise. My favorite place to ride is around the neighborhood.

FCCB: What’s the most interesting skill you’ve learned while volunteering with FCCB?
Nathaniel: It might seem mundane, but troubleshooting a flat and fixing a tire are the most interesting to me. I used to take my bike in to a shop to get my tires replaced or flats fixed. I had never taken time or effort to learn about fixing them. When I learned these basic concepts, it woke in me a desire to learn and be more in this field.

Warren: I like to watch people take the bikes apart. I really like to shine the bikes up and make them look new.

FCCB: Tell us about your bike – do you have a favorite bike now, or perhaps one from your past?
Nathaniel: I have an old Peugeot race bike from the 70’s that a friend of mine sold to me for a song. He had been diagnosed with a heart condition and couldn’t ride any more. It was my first road bike and has taken me to a lot of places.

Warren: I have an orange bike that I used to ride all over town. It has baskets on the sides and a rack on the back of it. It has a long pole with an orange flag attached to it that goes on the back of the bike.

FCCB: What can FCCB do better to serve you and others?
Nathaniel: I think the best way for FCCB to continue to serve the community would be to expand. There is an enormous potential for growth within the mission and scope of what FCCB does. With a larger space, the possibilities are endless. I would like to see a mobile bike clinic popping up in neighborhoods, vendor booths at local events and festivals, and scheduled biking events like road/dirt meets, bike shows and fundraisers.

Thanks for being a part of our community, Warren and Nathaniel!

Ross Horsley of Middletown Cycling very kindly donated a nice pile of vintage road bikes for FCCB to restore and put back on the road. The staff at Middletown helped up pack up the bikes on our trailer and secure them for the long journey back down Shelbyville Road at 5:15pm (oof).

FCCB Star Volunteer Jan Brown helped organize the meeting and took these photos.

If you’re interested in helping FCCB restore a cool vintage road bike, come visit our shop to learn how to get involved! You can restore a bike and buy it for yourself, or pay it forward by helping us restore the bike for someone in the community in need of reliable, low-cost, and healthy transportation!

FCCB’s Bill Carey traveled to Lexington, KY to the campus of Transylvania University on Friday, where we were quite pleased to be included in a panel discussion in this year’s KY Bike Walk Summit. The purpose of the panel was described well here:

THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY BIKE SHOPS AND HOW TO GET ONE STARTED

Panelists:

• Brad Flowers, Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop
• Bill Carey, Falls City Community Bike Shop
• Todd Young, Ashland Transportation Station
• Michael Flueckiger, Spin Doctor Bike Clinic

Community bike shops provide a unique service in providing communities with resources to help people of all ages and backgrounds acquire and maintain bikes for transit and recreation at low cost or through opportunities to earn bikes through volunteer hours. This session will focus on the vital role these organizations play in the community and the various ways to create and get a community bike shop started.

An audience of about 25 asked questions which demonstrated that most in the room had thought about a similar venture, or were presently considering it. The panelists offered what insight they could and directed them to some resources they had come across in their years of operation.

The entire event was very well run and full of people doing pretty amazing things. We highly recommend it if you ever have a chance to go.

Speaking of which…..

I hope you will all have a chance to go to CycLOUvia: Three Points on Sunday, August 19, 2018, from 2 to 6 pm. Regular FCCB Open Shop hours are cancelled. We will be closed but we will be at Cyclouvia all afternoon.

Thanks, hope to see you there!

As we approach the end of summer, there are some exciting events taking place in our neighborhood. Both events were a hit last year and we’d love to have a big FCCB presence at each event this year! These events are a great way to earn some sweat-equity volunteer hours while enjoying a change of scenery from the shop.

Hal & Ben’s Bike-In – Saturday, August 11 from 5PM-11PM.

Join us in neaby Shelby Park for Hal & Ben’s Bike-In 2018: Shelby Park. Like a drive-in movie, but for bikes! FCCB will have a tent to share info, sell some t-shirts, and make new friends. We’ll be set up from the beginning until the movie begins at around 8:45. If you’d like to help out, please sign up HERE.

CycLOUvia Three Points – Sunday, August 19th from 2PM-6PM.

CycLOUvia is a celebration of bikes and community in our neighborhood! Goss Ave. and Logan St. will be closed to cars and open to skateboards, rollerblades, strollers, and, of course, bikes from Texas to Kentucky streets. FCCB will be closed for normal shop operations that day but we’ll be out front to greet participants, recruit new FCCB members, and do basic repair tasks like inflate tires and adjust saddles.Please sign up to help HERE.

Nancy Owens visited our shop tonight and kindly donated several excellent bicycles and a few boxes of bike parts. We are happy for the opportunity to get these bikes back on the road again, and will be able to use the parts to refurbish other bikes.

Nancy’s comment: “My husband was a bicycle mechanic when I met him at Highland Cycle in 1983. When I entered your shop on Logan Street, I was overcome with emotion. My husband passed away in 2015. I hope you are able to use his things. I think it’s great what you all are doing.”

FCCB is honored to accept your donation, Nancy! Thank you for stopping in. And please visit again with any bike repair questions – we’ll be glad to help.

***

Pete Peters also stopped in at our shop tonight and donated a few nice vintage French bikes and a modern frame. (Unfortunately the Lance-era carbon Trek frame has a big crack in the downtube – but we can still use the fork, headset, and other bits).

We appreciate your donation, Pete! (and thanks for the heads-up about the crack)

If you are interested to help FCCB refurbish these bikes and others, please offer your time as a Volunteer!  We can teach you the skills you’ll need to do repairs ranging from a basic tuneup to a complete frame-up rebuild of a vintage bike.  Stop by for a shop tour, or send us a message via email or Facebook!