Unlike car dealerships, most bike shops don’t take in used bikes towards a new one.
Those with nice bikes in good working condition often sell them at swap meets, in on-line classified ads, or on eBay. For older, used bikes, you’re usually better off donating it to a friend or a group.
Back Alley Bikes
There are at least a couple good groups looking for bikes in the Metro Detroit area. The first is Back Alley Bikes. They offer programs where kids can refurbish a used bike by themselves then get to keep it. They also offer bicycle repair training for adults.
If you have a kids bike or anything with fat tires, this is a great place to donate it. They are also looking for bicycle parts, too.
Back Alley Bikes is located on Cass at Martin Luther King. The entrance is from the alley behind the building. Just look for the painted sign.
Re-CYCLE for Kids
The Oakland County Sheriff’s office has developed a program as noted in this Detroit Free Press article, Bike recycling gets a push in Wixom:
[Lighting Supply Co.’s Wixom store] is a drop-off location for the Oakland County Sheriff Office’s bike rehabilitation program, Sheriff’s Re-CYCLE for Kids. The program takes in bikes from donors and then has low-level offenders at Trusty Camp, a correctional facility, fix them up. The bikes then go to needy children.
Lighting Supply is the only private business in all of Oakland County that has volunteered to be a drop-off site for the 2-year-old program, according to the sheriff’s office. For volunteering to be a drop-off site, the company received a community award from the City of Wixom in late February.
The Lighting Supply Company has stores in Ferndale and Wixom.
