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Carl Vogel, 70, is a longtime volunteer at the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop, helping teach others the art of bicycle maintenance during the shop's volunteer nights on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Carl Vogel, 70, is a longtime volunteer at the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop, helping teach others the art of bicycle maintenance during the shop's volunteer nights on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Carl Vogel, 70, is a longtime volunteer at the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop, helping teach others the art of bicycle maintenance during the shop's volunteer nights on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. Photo by Reggie Beehner
Nearly eight years ago, Carl Vogel strolled into a dilapidated shop off North Limestone and stood enthralled at what he saw.
Bicycles.
Most were old and rusted, with chains missing and rims bent. But Vogel’s eyes lit up all the same.
“I remember bicycles,” Vogel said he thought. “I like this.”
The tiny shop, lodged at the time in a shotgun house behind Al’s Bar, bore a scrap-wood sign tacked above the door: Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop. The mission of the young organization was to teach bicycle repair and to help recycle old bikes and parts, fixing them up and reselling them at low cost to those in need.
Vogel — who’d come to the shop to deliver a donation check from the local Sierra Club, earmarked to help the fledgling non-profit get off its feet — soon returned. This time, his sleeves were rolled up, ready to enlist as a volunteer.
“I kept coming back — they couldn’t get rid of me,” he said, reminiscing the beginning of what has since become a beautiful friendship.
Now housed in The Bread Box building on West Sixth Street, Broke Spoke has since moved on to larger digs. But visitors passing through its door are still likely to be greeted by Vogel, who recently turned 70. He has remained a guiding presence at the shop since nearly the beginning, organizing its inventory and instructing new volunteers on the art of bicycle maintenance.
“I enjoy the process of teaching,” Vogel said. “You’re helping a place grow as a community, and building communities is sort of what life is all about.”
Broke Spoke was founded in 2010 by three cycling friends – Tim Buckingham, Shane Tedder and Brad Flowers – who saw a need for a community shop that would help get quality bikes into the hands of those who otherwise couldn’t afford them. The shop typically sells its bikes – which range from cruisers to late ’90s mountain bikes to hybrid and road bikes – for about $125, and offers customers a unique way to pay for their bikes, if desired: through “sweat equity,” where they help out at the shop, earning $8 an hour to be applied toward their purchase.
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Jeff Butler, right, and Allen Kirkwood assessed the repair chances of a tire rim from a bicycle that had recently been donated. Both Butler and Kirkwood are longtime volunteers at the Broke Spoke. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Cortez Edwards, a volunteer at the Broke Spoke, stripped a recent donor bicycle of its salvageable parts. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Mitchell Young (left) helps Kevin Simms straighten out a tire at the Broke Spoke on a recent volunteer night, which run from 6 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Richard Strobel, left, talks shop with Allen Kirkwood on a recent volunteer night at the Broke Spoke. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Jeff Butler, who's volunteered at the Broke Spoke for three years, used bolt cutters to remove locks from several bicycles that had been recently donated. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Mitchell Young helps Kevin Simms straighten out a tire at the Broke Spoke on a recent volunteer night, which run from 6 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Richard Strobel, a volunteer, helps fix up a bicycle that ultimately will be sold at the Broke Spoke. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Liu Trac helped strip a bicycle of its salvageable parts at the Broke Spoke. Photo by Reggie Beehner
Incorporated as a 501c3, the shop is run entirely by volunteers, which helps explain its unusual hours: 6-9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 1-5 p.m. on Sundays. To help keep the shop running, the organization has a volunteer night every Wednesday, from 6-9 p.m., during which anyone can come in, help out, learn about bike repair and earn some sweat equity.
“We’re here as a resource for those who want to learn,” Buckingham said. “You don’t have to be a bike advocate or a mechanic to have a huge impact in the shop.”
Vogel, a former nurse who spent his early years working at bike shops in Oregon and California, can be found at the Broke Spoke most volunteer nights, showing newcomers the ropes and helping them build on their mechanical skills. He’s a patient mentor, one who enjoys seeing others take interest in what they learn.
“It gives people some confidence, and I think it goes beyond the bike,” Vogel said. “It builds a sense of community and connectedness, which is part of the whole appeal of this place.”
The Broke Spoke community has grown considerably since its early days – last year, the shop distributed 217 bikes and logged some 3,700 hours by volunteers, Buckingham said.
But the shop is always in need of new volunteers to help with its mission, he said.
Broke Spoke accepts donations of used bikes, which can be dropped off at Broke Spoke during shop hours (Wed.-Thurs., 6-9 p.m. and Sun., 1-5 p.m.) or at Habitat For Humanity ReStore on Southland Drive. All styles and sizes of adult bikes are accepted, as are tax-deductible financial donations.To learn more about how to volunteer or otherwise get involved, visit the Broke Spoke’s website at www.thebrokespoke.org.
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Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop is located at 501 W. Sixth Street, near the corner of Jefferson and Sixth, behind West Sixth Brewing. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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One of the working repair stations at the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop. Photo by Reggie Beehner
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Spokes, salvaged from bicycle tires that are beyond repair, are then recycled for use on other bikes at the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop. Photo by Reggie Beehner
Upcoming Broke Spoke Events:
West Sixth for A Cause: Think Local, Drink Local Edition
May 12, 3-7 p.m. Broke Spoke will receive a percentage of gross sales earned at West Sixth Brewery during this time.
Buttes on Bikes Pub Crawl
May 19, 1-7 p.m. This inaugural event includes a three-mile bicycle tour through Lexington that hits five local bars with Deschutes Brewery Draft Specials. An after-party featuring a silent auction, bicycle raffle, live music and more, will take place at Bicycle Face. Participation fees include two Deschutes beer tickets to use at participating locations, a pub crawl punch card with a chance to win a custom-designed bicycle and more. Proceeds to benefit Broke Spoke and Kentucky Mountain Bike Association.