OGDEN — Jonathan Pedraza was industriously attaching parts to a low-rider frame he found at the Ogden Bicycle Collective when program director Josh Jones pointed out to him that the frame was broken.
Jonathan, 14, immediately went to find another project bike.
Jorge Guiterrez, 12, was pulling parts off his own bike and putting them on another frame he found there. A volunteer advised him to measure each one carefully, as not all parts are interchangeable, even though they look the same.
Jonathan, Jorge and several other youths were working recently at the Ogden Bicycle Collective to earn bikes for themselves. They will assemble their own bikes from parts found there and pay for the parts and the free instruction by becoming volunteers themselves.
Jones and other volunteers began talking about having them pump up and test a pile of inner tubes in the stock room.
The shop was hectic with volunteers trying to keep up with all of the questions coming from their clientele, which ranged from 20-something young professionals working on their high-end mountain bikes to Jonathan and friends trying to assemble their first bikes.
It looked like they needed much more space and many more volunteers.
The Ogden Bicycle Collective began in May in a large brick building at 2404 Wall Ave., space donated by the Goode Ski Co. The collective has been blessed by donations of 50 to 60 bikes, all kinds of parts and tools, and 20 volunteers.
Jones mentioned that he is looking for volunteer groups to help out with bike-collecting drives and organizing the stacks of parts.
"(It's) great for Eagle Scout projects," he said.
A welcome donation would be some air conditioning. The afternoon sun flooding through the west storefront windows made it very warm in the shop.
Jones started the shop with a recreation, arts, museums and parks grant from Weber County for most of their tools. The collective now has many specialty tools that most amateur bicycle mechanics would probably not own, such as a head press or a crank puller.
Volunteers plan to rebuild old bikes to donate to deserving people referred by other nonprofit agencies, or to sell them to buy parts.
The Ogden shop is affiliated with the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective, which takes care of the budget and administrative work for the Ogden group. The affiliation keeps the Ogden Bicycle Collective from having to achieve nonprofit status on its own. Jones said that the Salt Lake group fixed more than 300 bikes last year, most going out to charity groups.
Most large cities have a bicycle collective, Jones said, but they are independent — more like a network than an organization.
The Ogden Bicycle Collective is open from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays, depending on the availability of volunteers.
For more information, visit www.ogdenbikecollective.org.
e-mail: jon-webb@hotmail.com