Before the pandemic, most people probably wouldn’t consider their bicycle a luxury. But somehow, in the spring of 2020, this humble vehicle (alongside products like toilet paper and hand sanitizer) went from being taken for granted to highly in-demand. With home-schooling, remote work and closed gyms, people were desperate to get themselves — and their kids — outside and off screens.
We learned a lesson that Free Bikes 4 Kidz (FB4K) has known since its founding in 2008: Having access to a bike is incredibly valuable. But while FB4K’s Madison location had been providing bikes to children since 2017, meeting the community’s needs in 2020 meant expanding the program’s offerings to adults, too.
Kristie Goforth had just started as FB4K Madison’s executive director that April. “I remember in the first board meeting, everyone was saying ‘You know, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to give bikes away this year,” she says. “I was like ‘Zip it! We are going to find a way!’”
FB4K Madison provided bikes to essential workers who couldn’t take the bus to work. While those first months on the job were difficult, Goforth believes that the pandemic drew people’s attention to the importance of FB4K’s mission.
“The end of that year, we collected the most bikes we ever had — more than 2,500 bicycles,” she says. The following year, they gave more than 2,000 bikes to nonprofits and schools in Dane County. Now, in 2023, they’re rapidly approaching another major milestone: 10,000 bikes.
FB4K’s work isn’t as simple as collecting and redistributing bicycles. Most bikes that come in need repairs, and all of them receive a full tune-up.
A group of volunteers from Downtown Madison Rotary help out in the shop.
Photo courtesy of Kristie Goforth
“These are vehicles. Every one of these bikes has to be fully serviced, because we can’t put unsafe vehicles on the road,” says Goforth. After servicing the bikes, FB4K gives them away — with a helmet, a lock, a set of lights and sometimes a bike pump — for free.
The whole package costs FB4K $135. It's an impressive number, since just a tune-up in Madison can cost up to $300. Still, it means that Goforth and her team rely on community support to keep up the volume. (By the numbers, the last 150 bikes separating FB4K from its 10,000 bike goal will cost the organization more than $20,000).
But to Goforth, watching a child ride their bike for the first time is priceless.
“That is a huge thing for a kid,” she says. “It’s a confidence builder. Plus, it’s a great way for kids to still participate in sporting events and social activities, even if their parents can’t drive them.”
At this event in spring 2023, FB4K Madison gave bikes to students from Madinah Academy Muslim School.
Photo courtesy of Kristie Goforth
For an adult, getting a bike can also mean cutting costs on transportation. Since 2020, FB4K has supplied bikes to many first-time adult bike-owners, as well as people who have had their bike stolen and can’t afford to replace it. Children aren’t the only ones who can gain a sense of confidence and autonomy from biking — and certainly, everyone reaps the health benefits of biking, young or old.
As FB4K continues to grow in Madison’s community, Goforth has found ways to expand the program’s impact even more. “85 to 90 percent of the bikes we get in Dane County stay in Dane County,” says Goforth. “But there’s such an amazing volume of bicycles that we’re able to help in other ways, too.”
In the past, that has taken the form of shipments to El Salvador and Honduras in the wake of natural disasters. This fall, FB4K will support a community that’s even closer to home by providing bikes to the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe reservation in Vilas County.
While Goforth is focused on immediate goals — like the Vilas County donation drive on September 16 and 17 and hitting the 10,000-bike mark — she’s got a plan for the program’s future, too. A new education program will teach middle schoolers the basics of bike mechanics so that minor issues (like a flat tire) won’t keep them from biking.
“Not everyone can afford a bicycle,” says Goforth. “And the impact it can have on a person’s life is huge.”
Anna Kottakis is an editorial intern at Madison Magazine.
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