GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An organization in West Michigan is working to make sure people have access to accessible and affordable transportation.
Upcycle Bikes in Grand Rapids is taking something old and making it new to give people two wheels of their own.
“There’s something that’s called the power of the bike, and how it can really change someone’s life,” Mike Clark, a mechanic at Upcycle Bikes, said. “I turn them from the discarded rubble, that they quite often are, to a safe, ridable bicycle.”
Clark decks out the bikes with new tires, grips, shifters and brakes— taking one person’s trash and turning it into another person’s treasure.
“It goes from something that someone was glad to get out of their barn to a bike that’s going to become someone’s best friend, and getting them to work or to school,” Clark explained.
“I like to say a bike can be a tool or a toy,” Upcycle Bikes Founder and President Rick Armbruster added. “To get around town to get a job, to get to a grocery store, to get access to medical care or classes.”
Armbruster says that’s why he founded the nonprofit in the first place.
“One person that was in transitional housing, and the feedback was that he was able to buy a car. The only reason he could buy a car is because he had the bike to get to work to save enough money to do that,” Armbruster explained.
Upcycle Bikes has received more than 700 bikes so far this year and has been able to refurbish and donate 500 of them.
“So, come March or April, we’re going to have a lot of bikes and inventory that we can donate to our distribution partners,” Matt Jaglowski, a founding member and mechanic at Upcycle Bikes, said. “We will just keep doing our work and, you know, be making that impact.”
Some parts that can’t be used to refurbish bikes still have a purpose through the nonprofit’s new recycling program.
“That helps us maintain the promise that, even if we are not able to fully refurbish a bike for use, we’re able to break it down into component parts. The majority of bike parts— the frames, the wheels, the tires, some of the plastic— we’re able to turn in to recycle,” Jaglowski explained. “Doing bicycle repair both keeps these bikes out of landfills, and it gives them to people who genuinely want to contribute to society to build their lives.”
Upcycle Bikes has 16 distribution partners throughout the community that helps provide accessible transportation to those who need it.
Click here for more information or to get involved.
Check out our list of community resources available to help in West Michigan.