Founded by established volunteers of Right to Move and various other Montréal based bicycle projects, the Little Red Bike Shop aims to build and sell affordable used bicycles to students and staff as well as to the communities surrounding Concordia University.  We also provide bicycle repair workshops and safe riding clinics to our members.

We plan on eventually locating our workshop at the Loyola Campus so that we can reach Concordia students at Loyola, which to date lacks any community bicycle repair space.  While our workshop will be open to the public, the bulk of our energies are directed into the construction of a fleet of used bicycles which were sold starting in the Spring of 2011.

As a majority of our project’s members are already affiliated with Right to Move, we possess the required skill and dedication to make our project a success.  Our short-term timeline calls for us to have 40 bicycles ready for sale by April, which heralds the return of suitable cycling weather. We plan to initially sell these bicycles through Right to Move and by partnerships with other Montréal community bicycle spaces such as The Flat at McGill and BQAM at UQAM as these shops already have established connections with their student bodies and are ideally positioned to help us promote our project.

In the longer-term, we plan to open a workshop on the Loyola campus in order to reach out to Concordia students who are currently unable to easily access any community bicycle space.  Additionally, transportation between the Sir George William and Loyola campuses is a challenge for many students.  Shuttle buses are often crowded and do not run during the weekend or late in the evening.  Most importantly, by locating our project at Loyola, we hope to empower Concordia students by allowing them to independently commute between both campuses. Having a space at Loyola will also help meet the University`s goal of building a vibrant community by providing students who do not wish to come downtown with an essential service.

Years funded: 2010-11

Amount allocated: $720.00

Project leader: Graham E. Bradley and Kelly Pennington

E-mail: petitvelorouge@gmail.com