Collective gives old parts new spin

A little storage space on Maguire Boulevard serves as the headquarters for piles of  donated bike parts and a group of bike enthusiasts looking to help the cycling community of Orlando.

The Rusted Chain Bike Collective is a local bike co-op whose objective is to fix bicycles for free and help educate riders on repairs.

"There was definitely a need for a bike co-op in the downtown area," said Michael McGovern, who has been working with the Rusted Chain Bike Collective since its start.

"There was one out by UCF, and there were a couple of churches that were doing things like free bike giveaways, but nowhere where someone could learn to work on their own bike or have access to tools."

The founders of Rusted Chain are a group of friends who began meeting every Monday night at Ethos Vegan Kitchen to discuss what they wanted the group to be about and how to raise the money to get it started.

After hosting numerous fundraisers to try and save up for a space, the collective finally had enough money to open up shop and cover rent for a few months.

To support Rusted Chain, the group has a stand at the local Audubon Market, which is hosted in the Stardust Video & Coffee parking lot every Monday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Patrons can get their bike fixed and make donations to the group. Be it old parts or spare change, Rusted Chain accepts all forms of generosity from the community.

Amanda Fulford, a junior social work major at UCF, first started working with Rusted Chain when she was putting together an event for the fair trade project and was trying to find a way to reach the bike community.

"I just kept coming because they're such awesome people," Fulford said. "I don't know anything about bikes, but I'm learning as I'm coming and they're so helpful. They don't make you feel stupid."

Fulford is also planning on building her own bike through the build-a-bike program that the collective has. Through this program people can come and volunteer with Rusted Chain, and once they have logged eight hours of work they are free to come and build their own bike using the tools and recycled parts provided by the collective.

"If they have a little bit of bike knowledge, we have them assist other people that need help, or we have things that may need to get organized in the space, or work on taking apart broken parts and salvaging what we can use," said Stephen Willis, one of the founding members of Rusted Chain.

The main goal of the Rusted Chain Bike Collective remains to bring the bike community of Orlando together and create a welcoming network of interdependency among the local  cyclists.

"There are plenty of bike shops out there and what bike co-ops — as well as Rusted Chain Bike Collective — do is provide a resource to the community," Willis said. "We're not looking to make a penny."