Some big ideas start with a business plan: take X, mark it up for Y, and profit Z. That’s the tried-and-true method. Zero altruism—a plan to make money as a good old-fashioned business.
For Becky and Tim O’Mara, their business started in 2008 by total accident. The catalyst? Helping a local eight-year-old girl with her bike.
“It’s funny; Tim and I moved into Southwest Atlanta with no noble agenda to start a non-profit,” says Bearings Bike Works co-founder Becky O’Mara. “Then we got to know a girl in the neighborhood named Brittany. One day she came by to say hi, but she wasn’t on her bike. We asked where it was, and she said the tires had worn through, and she didn’t have the means to fix it. We asked her, ‘Do you want us to help you?’”
Little did she know this act would become the beginning of a special relationship with the Atlanta community.
Over 47 percent of Atlanta’s population is Black (one of the most populous in America). But the gap between the haves and have-nots is vast; with an average of just over $28,000, Black Atlanta families have a median household income a third that of white Atlanta families, earning nearly $84,000. With urban blight in many neighborhoods, gang activity, and high dropout rates for kids in both primary and secondary school, spending on things like bikes or bike service was a luxury, plain and simple.
“We had no idea about inner-city Atlanta, but we saw drug deals, prostitution, crime,” O’Mara says. “Tim and I worked with kids at churches and met all these great kids like Brittany. We were happy to help her, but we wanted an earning aspect, so we said, ‘We can help—but you have to earn it,’” O’Mara said. “So we had her sweep the porch, rake leaves in the fall, little stuff. To fix it was going to be $60, but for just a little more, we were able to get her a new bike. She was thrilled! And it wasn’t 20 minutes later she was back with two of her friends—and they wanted bikes, too!”
And it wasn’t just that they wanted a bike; they wanted to keep it running.
“We realized you couldn’t just give a kid a bike,” O’Mara says. “They get flats or break chains, so kids were coming by all the time asking if we could fix them. So then Tim taught them how to do their own repairs, the act of self-preservation. In doing that, it was amazing to see how they became empowered; there’s a certain pride when a 10-year-old boy knows what to do when his bike breaks down. That was game-changing.”
This initiative grew from a single act to a callout to neighbors to clear bikes collecting dust from their garages as a donation to their little cause, to a non-profit organization that has helped hundreds of Atlanta-area kids for now more than 15 years. Bearings Bike Works has been building confidence, job skills, and races as its own mountain bike team, and more.
One thing was clear from the outset: Bearings Bike Works wouldn’t be a charity; it needed to have a foundation in practical education: to teach the value of earning things you want. The program is simple; kids and young adults participate in Bearings Bike Works initiatives, taking donated bikes and bringing them back to life. That means learning bike mechanic skills or working in the retail shop communicating with customers and colleagues, fielding donations, and working with colleagues. From summer internships to fellowships, kids and young adults earn points toward earning a bike of their own. And as O’Mara says, you never know what’s going to walk through the door; most of the time, it’s a 20’ coaster brake kids bike that needs new life. Sometimes, it’s a vintage road race bike from the 1980s with Campagnolo components that fetches a premium for the nonprofit.
“We found that bikes were this amazing connection with people from any walk of life. To get a kid a bike that’s working well enough to ride? We had an immediate connection point with the kids with that—and it was just a great way to get to know people,” she said. “Some parents tell us, ‘Hey, he’s come out of his shell,’ or ‘My kid has found his happy place.’ It’s a pretty rewarding thing to hear from these parents.”
Just a short drive from Atlanta, Litespeed has been a longtime partner of Bearings Bike Works, hosting the interns and fellows on tours of Litespeed’s factory; from welding to CNC work, anodizing to assembly, the crew learns how some of the finest road, gravel, and mountain bikes are made.
“We’ve admired Litespeed and American Bicycle Group for years. We love that we’re neighbors and really appreciate the opportunity it provides to the kids to see the work that comes out of that shop. You really see a lightbulb go off in their heads when they’re in the assembly area and see the same tools they use.”
This year, Litespeed is launching a special campaign with its neighbor: The Ti Bike Trade-In Program. Owners of any titanium bike can trade in their old bike, regardless of whether it’s a gem, a beater, or even a frameset, have it shipped free directly to Bearings Bike Works, and receive credit toward the purchase of a current model Litespeed. The goal: breathe new life into bikes that may well be simply collecting dust, and provide Bearings Bike Works with a collection of bikes to bring back to life and get on the show floor—or even become an earned bike for one of the program members.
To learn more about Bearings Bike Works, we invite you to visit them at bearingsbikeworks.org