The Bike Hut is not a bike shop -- it’s a hut. This seemingly obvious distinction goes well beyond the name.
Photos: (left) Schwinn Cruiser; (left to right) Victor Veysey, program director, in front of The Bike Hut, which, incidentally, was just named “Best of The Bay”
Published: May, 2006
The Bike Hut is not a bike shop -- it’s a hut. This seemingly obvious distinction goes well beyond the name. It is a feeling and a spirit that runs through all who come to the non-profit to buy, build, and repair bikes there. It’s the aim and idea that things, well, everything is better when people ride bikes.
It’s located on the Embarcadero at Pier 40, next to AT&T Park where the Giants play. The little shack is no more than 12 by 14 feet with an inverted roof prone to draining rain into the interior.
A white bike with metal wings is ready for flight at the edge of the roof. Flower pots with roses line the perimeter of bikes in racks, a repair stand and a couple of welcoming patio chairs sit outside the Hut’s door. Within the hut itself is a balance of necessary clutter: tools, bikes and a menagerie of bike parts of the ages.
Ted Thomas and Victor Veysey are the executive director and program director, respectively, of the non-profit. They repair and rent bikes, as well as selling used ones. But the true nature of the Hut, is the ideal of educating and converting people to the way of the bike.
The Bike Hut was founded in 1996 by Charles Higgins as part of the Bicycle Community Project. As of May 2005 it is independent and subsists on funds from its sales and repairs, with the occasional grant. Past grants were from the Rainbow Grocery co-op and the Department of Waste Conversion, with aims to keep used bicycles from becoming landfill.
One of the main facets of the non-profit is education, partly for the average biker but also for local teens that need a step up in acquiring skills to get a job and to stay out of trouble. The youth mentoring program allows the kids to work and get paid through parts and keep a bike they build, Thomas says.
Justin Cooper, 18, has been working at the hut a few days a week for over a year. He’s built himself three bikes and commutes from Daly City on them. I love (working at the Hut), Cooper says. A life long biker, he came to the program to build a job resume. They’re really nice people and I’ve established a good relationship with Victor.
The at-risk kids we work with are so far away from the mainstream work society. We act as a transition for them to understanding basic job skills, Veysey says. Here it’s a little bit of fun and bit of work. It’s preparation for the real job, which isn’t always so fun.
The fun of the hut is evident in the stream of visitors stopping by in their daily commutes or leisurely bike rides to chat, tell a joke or get some advice.
Veysey greets bikers as friends from afar. Aaaaarh pirate, he calls to a rider passing on a custom bike, built with two frames stacked vertically. He test rides another custom bike he has just finished for a customer; it has three-foot high chopper style handlebars.
With the collection of bikes and parts donated to them from bike shops, individuals and charities such as Goodwill Industries, they have a great resource for creativity. It’s easy to indulge people in projects, Thomas says. You want to chop up a couple of bikes, go ahead.
Munroe Baughman volunteers at the Hut and recently completed the co-joining of two kids bikes to form a stretched, baby-blue low-rider. He was convinced to put down his motorcycle for a bicycle after I saw these guys beat me down [to the Embarcadero] from the Lower Haight by five minutes, he says.
The group refurbishes the donated bikes, re-sells them or donates them to local schools, the Hayes Valley Youth Center and to San Quentin for prisoners
