A nonprofit community bike shop in Eugene, Shift Community Cycles, is celebrating its move into a new location with a grand opening on Saturday, June 24. Shift Community Cycles seeks to make affordable bicycles and cycling education available in Eugene. The shop is particularly focused on improving access for underserved communities.
The business moved from its former location in the north Market District to its current home at 6th and Monroe in May, but co-founders Jim Nevada and Josh Goldfarb wanted to do something special to celebrate the big move.
“We never really had a grand opening at the previous location because we knew it was just temporary, and it’s also hard to host a grand opening and really make it an event with such a small, limited amount of space,” said Goldfarb, who serves as the director of operations for Shift Cycle.
The previous site shared a building with a conventional bike shop, 360 Cycles, where Goldfarb worked. Shift Cycle’s half of the space was slightly larger, but occupied two stories connected by a spiral staircase.
“All of our retail bikes were upstairs, and we would have to go up and down the stairs with bikes,” said Goldfarb. “And it was like 900 square feet, and this is like, close to 5,000. And we’ve already filled up the space… It was a really cool space, just really small.”
The new location will allow Shift to expand its inventory and offer more classes and workshops.
But before it even got its first location, Shift Cycle had a very local origin.
“The organization kind of originated in my backyard, where I was working on bikes and fixing them up and gifting them to kids in my neighborhood,” said Nevada, who serves as Shift Cycle’s program director. “And then I’d come home from work and there would be a pile of bikes from the local neighbors on my front porch. And that’s kind of how it started.”
Word about his work spread, and he got hired by a local bike program, Free Bikes 4 Kidz, to start and run their refurbishment program. It was at that job that he met Goldfarb.
“Josh and I really kind of put our heads together and decided that we wanted to make this a business,” he said.
Walking into Shift Cycle’s storefront, it looks a lot like a typical bike shop: there’s a main floor with racks of bicycles and a row of bike trailers. Behind the sales counter, there’s a service area behind the sales counter and a workshop where members and volunteers can repair their own bikes.
But Goldfarb says while the nonprofit sells and repairs bikes, there are some key differences.
“We have a myriad of programs that are designed to benefit the community. We receive grants and contracts from the city to do education, to do bicycle repair pop-ups, (and) to create bicycle events,” he said. “That’s what really separates us from a regular bike shop, is the services and programming.”
Most of the bikes for sale at Shift Cycle are donated by community members, who drop off bikes their kids have outgrown or discover in the process of cleaning out their garages. The back room stores 120 to 130 bikes, and a second level of storage is planned in the extra-tall space.
Goldfarb hopes the work done by Shift Community Cycles can improve the experience of all bicyclists in Eugene.
“There are communities around the country and internationally that are very bike-centric or focused on the bicycle culture,” he said. “Eugene is, to some extent, on that level, but we’re always trying to improve infrastructure and bicycle services and things like that that will help build more culture and more community.”
The June 24 grand opening will include a free repair pop-up, music, food trucks, bike demonstrations, and a raffle for a new bicycle. The event is scheduled from 12 noon until 6 p.m.
