Sugarcoat your bike...after donating your other bike.

Sugarcoat by Geekhouse Bikes is sponsoring a powder coat raffle to help spur more bike donations!  When you donate a high-quality* bike to Roll it Forward, you will be entered into a raffle for one of 5 free powder coat and priming packages being offered by Geekhouse Bikes.  Look at the beautiful work they can do for your old bike and then read below the slideshow for more information about the promotion.

Progress So Far

Roll it Forward is rolling along toward our goal to distribute 1000 bikes.  To date, we have collected over 600 bikes (many still awaiting repair), and have already distributed over 250 bikes to kids across Boston.  The program isn't just for kids, though, and this Spring we will start to host bike distributions for adults. 

To give you the best idea of what our kids bike giveaways are like, it's a great time to introduce you to Thom Parsons, from our partner shop International Bicycle Centers.  Thom's quite a character: an excellent mechanic, a *really* fast bike racer, and an all around great guy.

It also happens that Thom is a talented writer.  In addition to writing professionally for bikerumor.com, he has written a set of very entertaining blog posts chronicling a mechanic's life behind the scenes of every bike giveaway.  His posts and photos are some of the best reports of what we do for each giveaway. 

Thom Parsons

• Photos: Read Thom's post about the Holland School donation back in June: 
• His report from the Alice Taylor donation with Mayor Menino.
• What it takes to prep all those bikes
• A great post and photos from our recent bike donations in Dorchester and Hyde Park: 

Our work has also garnered national attention by being featured in First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move Newsletter!  Let's Move is a national campaign to reduce childhood obesity, and Roll it Forward is proud to be part of the effort here in Boston.

Back Bay Bicycles joins the team!

Great news for everyone in the heart of Boston: Back Bay Bicycles on Commonwealth Ave. has joined Roll it Forward as our newest shop partner.  They are ready to start receiving donated bikes and like our other shop partners, they're offering a thank-you coupon for customers who donate. 

So, if you live in the Back Bay or simply have a good relationship with their shop, stop on by and say hi to Dave, Mike or their other staff members who took an interest in Roll it Forward and decided they wanted to be a part of it.  Their Boston store is at the corner of Commonwealth Ave. and Mass Ave. 

The other good news is that with this partnership, there's also now an outlet to donate in New Hampshire!  Back Bay's partner shop, Papa Wheelies in Portsmouth, NH can also receive bicycle donations, so if you live up North and want to donate, take your bike in and they'll make sure it finds its way down to us.

Powered by Pedro's

Last Fall, Pedro's Total Bicycle Care heard about Roll it Forward and asked what they could do to help.  They're an extremely conscientious company with strong New England roots, based just up the road in Haverhill, MA.

With so many bikes to refurbish, our project needed repair stands, tools, and bike cleaning supplies.  Pedro's has supplied these items and we're already using them to get hundreds bikes in proper shape before we get them out on the road again.

But they're not stopping there.  They don't just sell products, they know how to get their hands dirty.  Pedro's has a long history of providing mechanical support at the Grassroots level for all kinds of bike events.  So they're taking an active role in helping us out: helping to coordinate other local mechanics and perhaps even turning some of their own wrenches for some of the Roll it Forward bikes.  Thanks, Pedro's, for all your support!

Revitalizing your donated bikes with QBP

Roll it Forward is thrilled to announce a partnership with Quality Bicycle Products, "the shop behind America's bicycle shops."  Your local bike shop most likely has a relationship with QBP--as a source of spare parts, bike accessories, or clothing.

QBP has created a fund through one of their top local shops so that Roll it Forward can order the items needed to make used bikes rideable again--such as spare parts, tubes, tires, or handlebar grips.  These small items add up quickly, so their donation will allow our grant funds to go even further to fixing up more bikes.  QBP's donation is characteristic of a company that consistently leads the way for the bicycle industry in advocacy and community responsiveness.

Featured: First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, January 2011

January 2011: A substantial profile of Boston's Community Cycling Programs, including Roll it Forward, was recently featured on First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" blog.