On a Tuesday night at Shift Community Cycles in Eugene, people are huddled in groups of two or three in the back. The crowd is a mix of people who want to modify their own wheelchairs and people who want to learn more about fixing them.
One reason for the turnout: Fixing a wheelchair can be difficult and expensive. Shift Community Cycles, a nonprofit bike resource center, recognized a need to teach bike mechanics and wheelchair users how to work on them.
In the class, some are comparing notes on different wheelchair manufacturers, customizations they can make to their chairs, and the feel of different materials like titanium and carbon fiber. Others are crowded around wheelchairs, figuring out possible fixes and trying out different solutions.
The wheelchair maintenance class started when Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection received a grant to bring more wheelchair repair classes to cities across Oregon. They collaborated with Shift Community Cycles to bring this monthly workshop to Eugene.
Kendsie Channing, the interim executive director at Shift Community Cycles, said it started as a way to teach bike mechanics around town how to fix wheelchairs. Eventually, as more people attended, the workshop quickly grew to serve a broader audience.
“It was originally intended to be for local bike mechanics to educate all the mechanics across all the bike shops on wheelchair repairs that they could do in their bike shops, because there are so many similar parts and so many similar processes that we use for bikes,” explained Channing. “We wanted to kind of educate the experts on how to fix wheelchairs, but quickly it became a need for wheelchair users.”
The classes have been held monthly since January. Channing said many people attending the workshop come back frequently, and there is a real community growing around the class.
“We're seeing people that come back each month, and they got their wheelchair repaired three months ago,” said Channing. “But they're coming back just to participate in the community and hear the conversations and learn new tips, and ask their questions.”
The next Wheelchair Maintenance workshop will be listed on the nonprofit’s events page.
