Bike Recycle Vermont:

A non-profit bike shop serving the Burlington, VT community

Our shop.

Bike Recycle Vermont (BRV) is an inspiring, welcoming hub of hands-on learning and service where the synergy of recycling, skills training, and bicycling propels a healthier community. We accept donated bikes, volunteers refurbish them, and then we provide them to low-income Vermonters. We provide safe and sustainable transportation to low-income Vermonters in an effort to expand their opportunities and freedom.

The shop is located in the Old North End of Burlington, Vermont where it is accessible to kids at the neighboring Boys & Girls Club and local schools, college students, young professionals, retirees, and everyone in between. People who might nary interact otherwise work together closely at Bike Recycle Vermont, sharing their enthusiasm for bicycles and teaching one another how to repair and maintain them.

Our Programs.

Bike Recycle Vermont provides around 500 affordable bicycles each year to those who need them, but the little shop does so much more. BRV gives out around 50 bikes every spring and summer to Earn-A-Bike participants. Kids from 8 to 18 have the opportunity to volunteer 10 hours in our shop in exchange for a bicycle, picking up the skills necessary to repair and maintain their own bike while working on program bikes. BRV also hosts workshops and trainings on everything from bike repair to safe riding to the creative re-use of defunct bike parts. In addition to what you see here, volunteers have made wind chimes, belts, sandals, toilet paper holders, and more from bicycle parts.

Our history.

BRV began in 2004 from a Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program request to provide a Somali refugee family with four bicycles for basic transportation. Started on an informal, backyard basis, the requests from low-income residents demonstrated the need to expand. In 2005, BRV set up shop in space donated by the Good News Garage in the Old North End. In 2006, BRV became a program of Local Motion to gain efficiencies and tap the bicycling community’s energy. BRV is a true community-based effort engaging over 150 volunteers each year while requiring only one paid staff person and one Americorps worker.

Over the past five years, BRV has provided bikes to homeless people, refugees, at-risk teens, and people currently receiving or eligible for a variety of governmental programs such as food stamps, disability, and section 8 housing. A helmet, a lock, and front and rear blinking lights are also provided with each bike. We send our clients on the road to safe riding!

Bike Recycle Vermont is a program of Local Motion, a member-supported non-profit organization promoting people-powered transportation and recreation for healthy and sustainable Vermont communities.