DreamBikes offers opportunity and low-cost rides

There's a new way to shop for bicycles in Rochester — and to support job training for young people and creative recycling at the same time.

It's called DreamBikes, a non-profit shop that opened in February on University Avenue. There's a bright, modern showroom with dozens of bicycles, tune-up services and a variety of accessories.

The difference is that nearly all the materials are donated, and nearly all the labor is done by teenagers working their first or second paying job.

"We’re a full-service bike shop," manager Paul Barrows said. "The only thing we don’t do is sell new bikes."

DreamBikes is a national concept, with the first shop opening in Madison, Wisconsin in 2008. It now has six locations across the country.

Its president, Mark Joslyn, graduated from the Harley School in 1980 and is now a top executive at Trek Bicycle Corp.

In 2015, Joslyn was on a bike trip with Barrows, a friend and avid cyclist, when he mentioned DreamBikes was looking to expand into more mid-sized cities. He asked Barrows for help finding real estate in Rochester, then offered him a job managing the store.

They closed in October on a lease for a space on University Avenue in the Beechwood neighborhood and spent the winter turning a former dance studio into a bike shop. The wood floors and huge mirrors stayed; the rest of the interior design, meanwhile, reflected the organizational mission of reusing and recycling.

The counters are salvaged bowling lanes, and one wall is made of old wooden pallets. The shelving was being thrown out of an Old Navy store.

That ethos carries over to the bicycles as well. Tires are recycled with car tires at Mac's Auto Service II, and inner tubes get made into wallets and other accessories sold at local boutiques by EvenOdd.

"There's always something we can salvage from a bike," assistant manager Eric LaClair said. "It might be the seat or the handlebars. It might be one pedal."

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DreamBikes has about 70 bicycles for sale on display, and another 70 in storage, or in the middle of being stripped. They're nearly all donated and nearly all used, but have been refurbished to exacting standards.

That repair work is the store's other main mission. Its employees are not seasoned bicycle mechanics, but rather five city teenagers with no prior work experience of any kind.

They have been trained not only to repair the bicycles, but to work with customers on the sales floor and cash them out at the register. The store is oriented around the work space in the center, where the nuts and bolts are on display for all to see.

"Some bike shops take your bike back and kind of secretively work on it, then bring it back out," Barrows said. "For us, we want the kids to be front and center."

Justin McGill is one of three students from nearby Vertus Charter School working at DreamBikes. At school, he used a 3-D printer to make low-cost prosthetic limbs for people in need, but he still needed to brush up on his mechanical skills. When he began, he didn't know how to make basic repairs on his own bike.

"It’s given me skills and techniques I needed, mechanical-wise," he said. "It’s not only a job, but it makes you a better person. ... It really touches me, seeing people's hearts melt for the stuff we do."

Since opening in February, DreamBikes has refurbished about 300 bicycles, stripped about 200 or so for parts and sold more than 200, with the teenagers doing most of the work.

It occupies a middle ground in the Rochester bike shop ecosystem — a step below the usual retailers, but more polished than R Community Bikes, which has given thousands of bikes away for free.

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In fact, many bike shops have been sending low-budget customers to DreamBikes, or donating old clunkers they can't resell.

"Pretty much anything we can’t resell, we’ll call them up and they’ll take," said A.J. Grabowski, manager of Tryon Bike in Rochester. "It really fills that niche. They’re getting people who can’t spend $500 on a bike, and at the same time taking some kids and giving them life skills, which is priceless."

Patricia Denham, of Penfield, came into DreamBikes one day last week looking for a simple bicycle to ride around town for exercise. She had already checked a local store but found the prices for new bikes a bit steep.

"Some people just want to ride a bike — they don't want to gear up and be a pro bike rider," she said. "Here, I like what they do with the kids, and I like that you can get a well put-together bike for a low cost."

The shop is non-profit, and Barrows said it is currently reliant on fundraising to balance the books. With more revenue, he could hire more of the dozens of teenagers who have applied for a job. Barrows envisions having local companies sponsor an employee, and also work with them as mentors. 

The young employees make about $10 an hour and work about 12 hours a week after school.

"We don't expect any prior knowledge about tools or bikes," LaClair said. "If they come in here with a positive attitude and work ethic, that's what we're looking for."

JMURPHY7@Gannett.com

If you go

DreamBikes, at 1060 University Ave., is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call (585) 563-7257 or go to www.dream-bikes.org.