We need your help providing bicycles to youth and adult students who participate in our Maintain Your Ride program. Since 2012, BikeWalkKC has given out hundreds of bicycles to Kansas City area riders. Email education@bikewalkkc.org to donate a bike!
What is Maintain Your Ride?
Students learn simple do-it-yourself bicycle maintenance and safety skills in our basic-level class. In our extended Maintain Your Ride programs, students practice safe biking skills and they get to keep the bike they learned how to fix! A small class size allows for individual instructor training to ensure understanding of the concepts. Students are tested based on their knowledge of the subjects through various worksheets and quizzes. With successful completion of the program, students take home a bicycle, safety gear, and new confidence in their abilities.
Earn-a-Bike Goals
- Proficiency of basic bicycle maintenance
- Appreciation for biking as a means of transportation to and from school
- Understanding of barriers that prevent students from walking and biking to school
Mr. Hoskins' bikes found new life with our Maintain Your Ride students
Donate your pre-loved bikes to BikeWalkKC
We need bicycle sizes 20 inch and up. Most of our Maintain Your Ride students are either youth in 4th-12th grades or adults.
It's okay if the bike needs a little work. Our education team will make any repairs necessary, then our students will practice adjusting the brakes and drivetrain, fixing flats, and other maintenance items.
Your contribution will support more active, healthy, and engaged youth in our community, and it can be tax deductible!
Send us an email at education@bikewalkkc.org to make arrangements to donate a bike. We are located in The Wonder Shops+Flats building at 30th/Troost in Midtown KCMO. Get maps and directions.
You can also support BikeWalkKC's education programs by making a donation or shopping our Gift Catalog.
East High School Bike Club students learn to repair their own bikes
Why is Maintain Your Ride important?
In a summer program for high school students in KCMO, one student was too nervous to try riding at first, but she was very interested in learning bike maintenance. “During the maintenance lesson, she was there changing tires, fixing flats,” said instructor Mark Horn. “When it came to putting her hands on something she could control, she blossomed!” Practicing DIY maintenance helped the student develop the confidence to learn to ride her bike!
BraShon at New Stanley Elementary in KCK said “I like to ride my bike to school because it’s way quicker, I get exercise, and I like riding bikes.” His P.E. teacher, Coach Spears, was happy to see the class build lifelong skills: “It’s really rewarding to see our kids ride their bikes home from class. I love that they were able to get lights and a tire tool with their bike this year, too.”
“I would say that the bike affords me more opportunity," said one adult who participated in a Maintain Your Ride program at Hope Faith homeless assistance campus. "It expands the areas in which I can look for work and also it gives me that peace of mind. I know that I can get here. I don’t have to be dependent on someone’s generosity to give me a ride to work… It gives you a little independence. You feel better about yourself.”
The Maintain Your Ride earn-a-bike program came about as a result of seeing a high need for bicycles in Kansas City urban schools. Students that participate in the Bicycle Lesson and Safety Training (BLAST) program learn traffic laws, safety and handling skills, but frequently don’t have a bike to go home to and practice these skills. Through a series of after school lessons, BikeWalkKC’s Maintain Your Ride program teaches students parts identification, flat repair, basic bicycle maintenance, small scale advocacy and bike safety.
By instilling maintenance skills in the students, Earn-a-Bike participants are empowered to repair their own bikes at home. This also provides a sense of ownership with the students and the bikes they work hard to earn.
Contact:
Laura Fox
Education Director
laura@bikewalkkc.org
816-205-7056