I talked to Johnathan Youngman and Joseph of Franklinton Cycle Works at Summer Jam West 2019.

Tell me about your organization.

We are a non-profit community bike shop or a bicycle cooperative. We provide a space where people can come in and use our stand, use our tools, and get help fixing up their bike. If you are an experienced mechanic, we have all the tools, grease, or anything you might want at a professional grade bike shop to do repairs. If you are a novice, we have volunteer mechanics on hand to coach you through the process, so you learn about bike maintenance and repair. We do classes. We have community rides. We support youth programs all over the city. We do a lot of things centered around community building bicycles.

Tell me about the rides.

We have two monthly bike rides. Community ride is education focused. We take people on a 5 mile tour of Franklinton and the downtown area the third Wednesday evening of the month. It is a really pretty ride. We ask people to pre-register. We have a ride leader and a sweep to make sure people don’t get left behind. We talk about different traffic situations as we go. The other one is our coffee outside ride series. We bike to a different metro park. The first Sunday of the month at 9.30am. We start at the bike shop, then ride to the park and brew coffee at the park, socialize, chat for a while, then ride back. Typically, those rides are ten miles each way.

What about a bathroom?

I make sure that there is at least a portajohn.

Anything else?

Franklinton Cycle Works is for everybody. If you enjoy riding a bike, I think we have something for you. Check us out online. Come visit us. I think it is a good community to be a part of and we would like to have you.

Sidebar: I included pictures of children creating art to demonstrate centrifugal force

at the Cosi Festival (https://614whats2love.com/2019/05/06/cosi-science-festival/). I wanted to do it then, but there were children waiting. Today, there was no line, so I did it!