Durham Bike Co-op

Overview
The Durham Bike Co-op (originally named the Durham Bike Collective) is a membership-driven, consensus-based organization, located in the Bull City Headquarters at historic Little Five Points, Durham, NC.

Contact

 * web: http://www.durhambikecoop.org/
 * email: durhambikecoop@gmail (email address has been obfuscated to prevent spam; please copy manually)

Mission
We propose an open community for bicyclists and bicycle culture in Durham. To this end, we further propose a bicycle co-operative that can function as a nexus of this community. This co-operative shall be member-driven, member-funded, and most importantly, fun! The consensus-building board of directors shall be open to all members, and membership dues shall be set on a sliding scale available to participants of all income levels.

Aside from the pleasure of riding bicycles, we believe that bikes are a vital vehicle for sociality and movement and that they offer a real alternative to the (economically, socially, ecologically) disastrous hegemony of the automobile. We further believe that—in connection with other practices and knowledge—there is in bicycling a vision of autonomy that has much to contribute to the creation of new forms of social life. Our own practice as a collective will therefore be threefold:

1) Skill-share. In order to encourage self-empowerment through the exchange of practical knowledge, we will regularly facilitate and host clinics in which skills related to bicycle maintenance, repair, and riding will be communicated in an open, free, and inviting setting.

2) Bicycle recovery and redistribution. We will solicit donations of unused and unwanted bicycles, tools, and parts. Ideally and budget permitting, these bicycles will be free—although in some cases a donation will be asked for the cost of any parts needed to refurbish the bike. All labor done within the cooperative will be voluntary and unpaid.

3) A nexus of the Durham bicycle community. In addition to the skill-share clinics noted above, the co-operative’s physical location will also serve as a social space in which individuals may work on one’s own bike, work on bikes for others, and share bike building and repair knowledge and skills.

Links

 * 2006-08-23 Durham's Alleyrat alleycat