How to change a bike tire (and so much more) at Bike Saviours

It’s surprisingly difficult to find a basic bicycle maintenance class in the greater Phoenix metro area. Even before we got our bikes, I asked several shops if they offered or knew of one and was mostly met with shrugs or vague allusions to classes that apparently “used to be put on.”

Undaunted, I uber-Googled and eventually found Bike Saviours, a nonprofit bike shop, tool share and all-around phenomenal cyclist resource in Tempe, Arizona. From spare parts to a weeks-long workshop during which you can build your own bike from scratch, Bike Saviours has just about anything a cyclist in need could want. That includes answers to questions, too.

Not surprisingly, Bike Saviours also offers a four-hour long basic bicycle maintenance class usually held on the last Saturday of the month. 

And so on a beautiful Saturday morning in January, the Hubby and I rode our bikes to a bus stop, rode the bus to the light rail, rode the light rail to Tempe and finished the trip with an extremely pleasant ride to the Bike Saviours shop (it’s amazing the difference bike infrastructure can make; well done, downtown Tempe!).

As it happened, I noticed a disconcerting rubbing sound coming from my front tire on that leg of the trip but since I was on my way to a shop and it didn’t seem dangerous, I cheerfully pedaled on.

A student who became a teacher

The Hubby and I were warmly welcomed to the shop by Brandon Imhoff, the 30-year-old lead mechanic and one of the nonprofit’s board members.

 Brandon was introduced to Bike Saviours around   2007 while attending Arizona State University.  When his bike was stolen he decided to replace his bike by building one because, as he put it, “Why not?” Besides, it was one of the most affordable options.

Brandon was the kind of kid who took apart a lawn mower so it’s not surprising he took to bike repair and maintenance so well. Once his bike was built he hung out at the shop and began volunteering in what he said was “the most informal way possible.”

"I just helped people when they needed it," Brandon said.

Even today the quest to replace a stolen bike remains a common introduction to Bike Saviours. Students tend to stick around the shop long after their bike’s built, coming in to work on it even when there’s nothing really to fix. 

It’s easy to see why people feel comfortable bringing Brandon their bike dilemmas. His sincere enthusiasm for how bikes work is contagious, even if you’re not sure what a derailleur is. Give him a chance to answer a question and before long the intimidating amalgamation of moving parts that make a bike go feels accessible.

After a three-year hiatus during which he wasn’t really involved with the shop, Brandon made his way back to Bike Saviours, eventually becoming the lead mechanic and a board member. It's clear he enjoys both roles.

“I like the community,” Brandon said.

He also likes the wide array of bikes and situations he regularly encounters.

“I like the diversity of things I see,” he said. “A lot of things can go wrong and they do.”

                                                               

Brandon's seen just about every bike mishap and breakage imaginable and one gets the sense he's retained what he learned from every bike he's ever saved. He still enjoys building bikes, too, at least enough to have built himself a "tall bike", two frames stacked atop one another. 

While Brandon and I chatted before class another volunteer, Mike, was doing something with a hacksaw to a bike frame already hanging from a stand at one of the shop’s 10 bike stations.

Mike is a warm soul who sports an impressive beard and is quick to smile. This was striking because his congenial nature was in stark contrast to the bike he was building. To my untrained eyes, the bike had a rather bad-ass vibe about it. Mike explained that it “used to be a mountain bike” but was well on its way to being something else entirely.

A tool share that coalesced into a community

Before class began, Brandon gave me a brief sketch of Bike Saviours’ history. The organization grew out of a tool share in the backyard of a house on 13^th Street. People learned about it basically through word of mouth and somewhere down the line the tool share grew into an actual bike shop. Eventually, out of necessity, the shop became a legit nonprofit and found a new location on Roosevelt and Broadway.

Today, Bike Saviours is an impressive shop that still maintains a casual, favorite T-shirt kind of feel.

The back of the shop holds at least 10 of every bike part imaginable, from tires and sprockets to pedals and lights. A store area near the front offers everything from bike tape and patch kits to lights and spare tubes.

The seamless blend of professionalism – the shop is cozy, but in no way messy or disorganized – and mellow casualness is something the organization should be proud of; although there are three employees, including Brandon, the shop relies heavily on volunteers to keep it running smoothly.

The class – you’ll learn it because you’ll do it

We were particularly fortunate; our class had every kind of common bike. There were road bikes, a mountain bike, the Hubby’s hybrid, my cruiser, and of course Mike’s Frankenbike. Occasionally Brandon would point out a quirky feature of a tandem bike that happened to be in the shop for repair and that was always interesting.

Although there’s a basic structure to the four-hour class – bearings, brakes, shifters, chains – it’s pretty easygoing and attendees are welcome to butt in with questions that may lead to impromptu side lessons.

Every workstation has a color-coded pegboard with all the tools you’d need to work on your bike, neatly labeled for noobs like myself. It definitely makes one feel more comfortable about tinkering for the first time.

Since we had examples of different bikes at the ready, Brandon started each section at one end of the line and explained or demonstrated how to check, maintain or do basic repairs on that particular bike’s part. We’d then work our way down the line, learning about that same part on other kinds of bikes and then check our own bikes.

For example, we learned how to disconnect and/or check on caliper brakes, cantilever brakes and disc brakes, finishing that part of the class by checking our own brakes and, if need be, repairing that part ourselves.

We even lucked out in that another participant’s bike tire happened to go flat at the beginning of class. Needless to say, that became a teaching moment. (For my part, I was extremely relieved to learn changing a bike tire was definitely something I could do).

As the day progressed we all learned how to check our frames for cracks, disconnect our brakes if need be to do tire maintenance, clean and re-lube our chains, test bearings, tune and fix gear shifters, even measure chains to see when they needed replacing (I had no idea that was even a thing; apparently the chain will stretch and if you don’t change it can damage the sprockets).

Even WheelieSchatz needed some minor repairs. During class, I adjusted a fender so a bolt stopped rubbing against the front tire (the unsettling rubbing sound on the way to class). I also discovered my bike wasn’t going into eighth gear – and fixed it myself, which felt incredibly empowering. By the time I left class, I felt ready to work on the international space station if need be. Or at least change a punctured tube on my bike.

In addition to the knowledge, we all received a spare tire tube, two plastic tire wrenches and a patch kit –not a bad deal for the $20 cost of the class (which includes the shop time).

Be warned: the class is what Brandon called an “info dump”, and does have a pretty casual set up so if you need a bulleted agenda, this may not be your jam. Still, everyone got to their bike eventually and every repair was a lesson learned. So don’t be afraid to ask questions, including basic terminology you don’t know. I admit before this class I called everything that goes roundy-round a “tire” or “wheel thingy”; now I know there’s the wheel, the tube and the tire. #TheMoreYouKnow

As long as you take some initiative, you’re guaranteed to walk out knowing more than you did when you walked in.

As Lori Imhoff, Brandon’s wife and fellow board member, said, “You don’t have to know how to do anything on bikes to come here.”

Bike Saviours of the future

The mission of Bike Saviours remains essentially unchanged from its days of a a backyard tool share, even though it's since coalesced into a bike shop that supports a loyal and vibrant bike community.

“We teach people to work on and maintain their bikes to support cheap transportation,” Brandon said.

Still, the organization faces some of the growing pains all impactful and effective nonprofits eventually do. They want a more diverse board and would like to see more of Tempe’s permanent residents become members. The college students who make up a big chunk of the membership are by nature a transient demographic. The current board members would especially like to see people who aren’t already a part of the bike community (like myself, I suppose) learn who they are.  

And of course the inevitable bureaucratic demands need to be addressed. Taxes, bylaws, and nitpicky technical details are beginning to becoming increasingly relevant.

Still, there’s every reason to believe Bike Saviours will successfully transition into its next evolution. Because who wouldn’t want to build their own bike? I know I plan to now.