Madison has an under-the-radar movement to train students on bike repair

This bike repair startup has been quite a hit since it launched earlier this fall — even though its mechanics are still learning on the job and it's only open during lunch.

"I've learned to repair my own bike — and it's freeing," said Silas Hunter, a senior at East High School and a member of the new East High School Bike Repair Club. "Because even if I have a little thing go wrong with it, I'm not too worried about it. I can fix it myself."

Made up of students like Hunter and adult volunteers, the bike repair club has tuned up, tightened up or pumped up at least 30 student bicycles at the school this semester, all in the name of education and making riding a bike to school safer and more reliable. Club members gather each Thursday at lunchtime to learn a new skill; sometimes they head outdoors for a "pop-up" to do free maintenance for any fellow student with a bike.

The club is the brainchild of Andy Nguyen, a senior who also works at DreamBikes, a full-service bike shop and nonprofit that employs and trains teens. Nguyen first got interested in bike repair after learning some skills through Boy Scouts.

"I was fascinated by how a bike works, because I had ridden a bike but I didn't know what all the cables and parts did," he said. "From there, I delved deeper and then got a job at a bike shop."

At East High, Nguyen noticed that a lot of fellow students were riding to school on bicycles in need of basic maintenance.

"A lot of kids don't know how to pump up their tires, or what a tube is, or how to repair a flat, and don't have the tools to do it," he said. He decided "I want to educate peers on how to maintain a bike."

Nguyen asked teacher Emily Sonnemann to be his new club's adviser after seeing her commute to school every day on a bike (the club now meets in her classroom). Then, for advice, he reached out to Ben Varick of the Wisconsin Bike Fed, who works with Dane County high schools to get more students walking, biking and taking the bus to school. Varick was impressed.

"At our first meeting, he reserved a room for our meeting," Varick said of Nguyen. "He met me at the front door and said, 'I've got a staff adviser lined up, I've got a classroom lined up, I've got a storage space lined up.'"

The high school senior had some donated tools from DreamBikes, but needed help in raising money to buy more, he explained. He also had to find some experienced volunteer bike mechanics to teach students the basics.

Now Varick, along with volunteer bike mechanic Jonny Hunter, who has a son and nephew in the club, comes to East most Thursdays to pass on skills like fixing flats and replacing brake cables. Varick also reached out to Bike Fed members for unused tools they're willing to donate.

The club also secured a $5,000 grant from the city of Madison designed to support climate change-related programs run by youth. That money will pay for more bike repair tools, said Nguyen, who also would like to see some of the funds used to install sturdier bike racks at East.

Several other Madison high schools have followed suit and started their own bike-repair or bike-riding clubs, Varick said. MSCR, or Madison Schools and Community Recreation, and the nonprofit Bikes for Kids Wisconsin also recently partnered to hold a bike mechanics class at Wright Middle School.

At East, skill and labor are key.

The goal is to someday "have this all student-led," said Varick, "and to have adults hands-off."