Barrio Works

Update:

At the half-way point of the campaign, we have reached our initial goal of $5,000 and would like to set forth new goals for the next 20 days.

Beyond developing a website for Barrio Works, our vision is to provide paid apprenticeships for high school and college-age youth. To that end, each additional $6,000 contributed to our Indiegogo campaign will fund a youth apprentice stipend for one year.

The apprentice program is designed to further invest in young leaders while they are in school, encouraging creativity, providing access to the resources required to act on it, and equipping them to be entrepreneurs.

New Shirt Color:

Note: On purchases for those living outside the US, international shipping rate charges will need to be added to your contribution amount. 

Who we are:

Since 2000, Barrio Works has been working with youth in urban Phoenix (as a program of Neighborhood Ministries) to teach the skills of bicycle maintenance and repair, and help get a bicycle to any youth willing to work for one. 

 Inside Barrio Works (Barrio means 'neighborhood' in Spanish)

Over the years, with the collective effort of staff, volunteers, parents, and community members, our weekly bike shop activities have grown into an income generating business. In addition to our earn-a-bike program for local youth, we offer quality repair services, and also fix up used bikes to sell at bargain prices. 

Dealing primarily with used bike donations, we have come to see 1) that cheap, imported, big-box store bicycles can't take abuse and aren't made to be repairable, and 2) a one-way flow of donations from the "haves" to the "have-nots" is not dignifying or beneficial to all the parties involved.

Men's frame in flat-black (left) & Women's frame in vintage-white (right)

These realizations led Barrio Works to develop its own urban cruiser model in 2010, in conjunction with Worksman Cycles of New York. Workman's solid, made-in-the USA frames are fully hand-lugged and built to withstand serious abuse over their lifetime. The 26" steel wheels are laced with 14 gauge spokes, a Shimano E-110 rear coaster brake hub, and paired with a beefy KMC 415 chain (much stronger than the competition) to offer a reliable and simple setup that doesn't require costly tune-ups. Men's models feature a 29" stand-over height, while the women's feature an 18" stand-over height.

 Men's Deluxe cruiser

Women's Standard cruiser

Barrio Works has the frames and parts shipped completely unassembled to Phoenix, where we have them powder-coated locally. Once everything is painted, we do all assembly, including all wheel building and truing, headsets and bottom brackets in house. It's a lot of extra work, but we want to make sure it's done correctly. The cruisers are finished out with touches of understated, vintage style. Traditional solid black or white-wall cruiser tires give the old-school look, or solid cream or brown Schwalbe Fat Franks add a little new-school flavor. Vinyl-cut decals and our machined aluminum badge on the headset let folks know it's a Barrio cruiser. All in all, the cruisers are industrial strength tough, built to last and built for comfort and style.

Rim colors and tire options

What's at stake:

 Women's cut (left) & Men's cut (right)    All shirts are printed locally at OpportuniTees, our sister social enterprise at Neighborhood Ministries.

In the effort to bolster income generation, Barrio Works recognizes its need to make its products and story more accessible to the general public. Through this Indiegogo campaign, we hope to reach out to a larger audience than ever before; and, with a successful campaign, we will create a shopping-cart enabled website, which will make our products even more available to potential patrons. 

Key Chain Fob

Within the context of our community, we have also found that creating our own quality product fosters a sense of pride in craftsmanship and entrepreneurism. As an under-resourced community, we see more than our fair share of donations and handouts (and they have their place from time to time), but we also have well-developed skills and products which are worthy of fair wages and/or sales prices. To that end, we have built a bicycle we are proud of, and each time we sell one, traditional donor/receiver lines are blurred. Customers ride away happy with a quality, locally-made product and sense of investment in our community, and we, as craftsmen, are satisfied with making a quality bicycle and earning a fair price to continue to fund our work. 

Barrio Works is proudly affiliated with:

Special thanks to Bryan and Lourdes for making our video. They can be contacted at:  

www.DeepFocusCinema.com