Adirondack basement houses mountain bikes

Author: Jeff Patterson

"This used to be where the sleeping bags would dry," said Spencer Paxson '07, as he walked out of a back room in the College's new Bike Shop.

The drying rope is no longer necessary, it is a just a remnant - but if you want to learn the ropes of how to fix a bike, the Bike Shop is the place to go.

Located in the basement of Adirondack House, where the Mountain Club used to store all of its equipment, the creation of Hubert d'Autremont '07.5, Paxson and Cameron Kowall '09 is really coming into form.

"It was really slow going at first, because we were in a really bad space and didn't have all the things we needed," wrote d'Autremont in an e-mail. "Now our biggest challenges are just tightening up the shop."

As the shop is getting tightened, so are the breaks of a dinged-up mountain bike.

Based off of the Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage (BICACS) in d'Autremont's hometown of Tuscon, Ariz., the Middlebury Bike Shop is a place that promotes the teaching of bike repair and tuning.

The shop will not be a store with a cash register and repair requests, but will serve more like a high school shop class.

"We don't want it to turn into 'here's my bike, give it back to me fixed in half an hour,'" said Paxson. "[We'd like you] to learn how to do it. The first few times we'll show you the ropes."

There are plenty of opportunities to learn as there are free classes offered on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting at 7 p.m. and going until nine. The classes will continue through exam week and the Bike Shop may even stay open through the summer.

"Each class has a theme - like wheels and hubs one night, shifting and breaking the next night," said Paxson. "As you pass through, you graduate up and learn how to use the tools, so you can work on not only your own bike but also on some of the other bikes we are trying to maintain."

The creation of the Bike Shop was prompted when d'Autremont evaluated the value of the Yellow Bike Program.

Although a good idea on paper, the Yellow Bikes did not work as well as planned. "On the weekends, kids used to jump off stairs with them, or ride them into trees," said Paxson. "It was just a waste of money after a while."

After meeting with President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah and Assistant Director of Campus Activities Charlotte Chase, the idea for a bike co-op became a reality.

"It's impossible to keep [the Yellow Bikes] maintained," said Paxson, "so we thought we would take the big stock of bikes that are clipped by Public Safety at the end of the year, and this space, and make a bike co-op. They were just sitting there and rotting in the barn. There's no sense not having them go to use."

Taking one of the free classes would definitely be a good use of time, according to Paxson, with incentives to draw students in. "If you fix up one of the bikes, you can take it to use as your own," said Paxson.

With shelves that were built over Winter Term holding an assortment of tools, those who come looking to work on a bike will not be without the right instrument.

"We have a pretty good inventory," wrote d'Autremont, "but we need to have a better system for things and keeping the place clean is always really hard."

A complaint like this only means the shop is getting plenty of use.

D'Autremont, an experienced bike builder, Paxson, a professional mountain biker who represented the United States in the U-23 World Championship last summer, and Kowall, an elite trials rider, are no strangers to the biking community. They are willing and able to share their knowledge and love of the sport to those that are interested.

"I took a semester off sophomore year and learned to build bicycle frames," wrote d'Autremont. "When I came back to school I knew I needed to continue working on bikes or I would go crazy."

D'Autremont kept himself in check by checking out the possibility of forming the Bike Shop. After making a proposal, he was given an Environmental Council (EC) grant.

"We wanted the shop to be the new base for anything to do with cycling on campus," said Paxson, "whether you're a racer or you just like to work on bikes."

Paxson pictures the basement of Adirondack House turning into a local hangout for bike enthusiasts, of which Middlebury has plenty.

"It could be a place to hang out with music," said Paxson. "That's the vision. The room's got so much character."

The shop would also like to show mountain biking films - similar to the popular ski films shown on campus, except with athletes on two wheels, rather than two skis, flying down a mountain.

The ideas never stop coming. Paxson also proposed an idea for bike storage and protection from the harsh Vermont weather. "In the future if we could spearhead some kind of grant to get little bike racks with a roof over them, that would be cool," he said. "But that's something for the future."

With Paxson and d'Autremont approaching graduation in the near future, Kowall and others will be responsible for keeping the shop going.

"We're hoping to hand it off," said Paxson. "Hopefully it will be a legacy."