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Austin's Yellow Bike Project celebrated its seventh year providing free bikes and workshops Saturday along with refreshments, music and a slew of homemade bikes for test-riding at the Project's shop in East Austin.
The Yellow Bike Project, named for the yellow-painted bikes the group releases around the city, is a volunteer-run bike shop that holds a variety of free bike-building and repair workshops and other charity services, said Marci Schneider, Project coordinator.
Project volunteers release up to 30 bikes at a time, several times a year, Schneider said. She said the intent is for people who find the bikes to ride them where they need to go and leave them for the next person.
The yellow bike is a kind of "Where's Waldo," Schneider said - they aren't usually found when looked for.
"The yellow bikes are the bottom of the barrel," Schneider said. "When we release them, they're around for about a month or so, then they start to disappear."
The better bikes are used for the workshops and are either taken home by participants, sold or donated to charities like Bikes Across Borders, said Schneider, also a teacher at Texas School for the Deaf.
The shop, donated by the city of Austin and tucked behind the Austin Film Society's warehouses on the Robert Mueller Airport grounds, is the project's fifth and best location yet, said Dave Baker, the project's founder.
"It's so cool to come back and see so much activity. That's the dream - to start an organization that lives past you," Baker said.
The project began in January 1997 when the founding members released the first 24 yellow bikes, Baker said.
Project members can come to the shop, which is only open in the evenings and weekends, and use the tools to work on their own bikes, build a bike or fix up one for the project, Schneider said. An increase of volunteers and contributing members have kept the project successful, she said.
The "Kids Shop," a six-week program in which children learn how to take apart and reassemble a bike, is one of the most popular of the project's programs, and a favorite of Mitchell Ramon, a regular of the project's workshops for adults.
"I've come here an uncountable number of times," said Ramon, a civil engineering student at the University.
Ramon, who owns several bikes, has been coming to the workshops since 2000 when he heard about it from a friend, he said.
"This is the best bike shop I know of in Austin, and that's compared to the professional bike shops," Ramon said as he tightened the handlebars of his bike.
The project will hold a benefit May 30 at Club 710, when it will also release more than 25 yellow bicycles, Schneider said.
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