We’re happy to announce that our 2022 season will run from May 1 – October 30. Hours will be Sundays, 11-3.
News flash: open through October
We’ve been so gratified to see so many bikes get back on the road that we’ve decided to keep on with the open labs through October. See the museum’s announcement, and we hope to see you soon.
August 22 – closed due to weather
It probably comes as no surprise, but we will not be open on Sunday, August 22. Stay in, stay safe, and we hope to be able to see you next week!
Sunday afternoon update: we are open until 3!
Sunday morning update: we will not be opening at 11:00 today, July 25, due to on-and-off-again showers. IF we see that the weather will hold for a couple of hours, we will open for a couple of hours. This is unlikely before 1:00. Sorry for the inconvenience. Stay tuned.
The museum remains closed until next spring in order to perform some essential ventilation upgrades, but thanks to their generosity, we are back! Beginning July 11, we will be open, weather permitting, for outdoor bike labs. Our hours this year will be Sundays, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, July 11 – September 26.
Open hours: 14 Volunteer open lab hours: 38.5 Encounters (an encounter is often multiple people, friends, family, a cycling group): 33 Issues worked on during these encounters: 47 Donations for tools and supplies: $94
Open hours: 14 Volunteer open lab hours: 35 Encounters (an encounter is often multiple people, friends, family, a cycling group): 18 Issues worked on during these encounters: 36 Donations for tools and supplies: $26
July brought us some wicked hot weather, forcing us indoors a couple of times to escape the heat. As in June, some people are return visitors, working on new or extended issues over multiple visits. Our voluntary donations were down, only $40 this month compared with $151 in June. Donations are used so that we can be sure to keep up our supply of consumable supplies such as chain lube, grease, and a small supply of parts. Please let us know if you are interested in helping out! Open hours:…
Our first full month this season was off to a great start! Because of our great new indoor space, we’re able to keep working even when the weather doesn’t cooperate. Some people are return visitors, working on new or extended issues over multiple visits. Please let us know if you are interested in helping out! Open hours: 17.5 Volunteer open lab hours: 49 Encounters (an encounter is often multiple people, friends, family, a cycling group): 36 Issues worked on during these encounters: 55 Donations for tools and supplies: $151
Bay State Bike Week: A closer look at Waltham’s Wayside Rail Trail
Waltham News Tribune: Watch City Bike Lab and the City of Waltham weigh in on the Mass Central Rail Trail. Volunteers have worked with the Waltham Land Trust for many years to make the trail walkable. Construction on the rail trail will finally begin this year!
Happy Spring, everyone! We hope you’ll excuse the terrible pun, but we’re gearing up for our 2019 season and have some dates to share with you. In April and May, we’ll be open from 10:30am – 2:00pm on the following Sundays: April 14 & 28 May 12 & 19 – both ends of Bay State Bike week! After that, we start our weekly schedule, June through October. There are a couple of exceptions due to private events at the Museum that will be seen on our schedule, so check here…
New season opens at Watch City Bike Lab
Our 2018 season kicked off with an opening on April 22, Earth Day. The weather cooperated and volunteers on hand that week report a busy time. It’s great to see everyone out on their bikes! We also held two open labs in May, on the 13th and the 20th. Both were quite busy. Apologies to those who came at 2:00 on the 20th – our bad! We incorrectly posted the end time as 2:30… we hope to see you on June 10 when we expect to be open next. Open…
9/3 East Coast River Relay and open lab
We were honored to be a stop on the East Coast Greenway Alliance’s East Coast River Relay on September 3. The East Coast River Relay is the 25th anniversary of East Coast Greenway Alliance. For 10 weeks, events are being held in communities all along the East Coast Greenway to celebrate healthy watersheds, active living, and local culture. We partnered with the East Coast Greenway Alliance, The Waltham Land Trust, the Charles River Watershed Association, and our host organization, the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. Here was the day’s schedule: 10:30 –…
Sun 7/23 Due to the massive fire at the Cooper Street development directly across the river from our location, the Museum and the Bike Lab were closed on July 23. The fire has since been declared arson by the Waltham Fire Department. Here is the July 23 statement from the Museum: IMPORTANT: The Charles River Museum will be CLOSED TODAY due to the ongoing situation with the fire across the river from our location. Additionally, there will be no Watch City Bike Lab today. We urge everyone to stay clear of the area…
6/4/17 (Nicole, Haink, Roman) In the summer months, we try to be open every Sunday. June 4 was the first of our weekly openings, and it was a BUSY, busy time, one of the busiest Open Labs we’ve ever done. Luckily, one of our regular drop-ins stopped by and turned a few wrenches with us during the madness. Here’s a summary of the day’s encounters: Brandeis student came in with wobbly front wheel – opened up front hub, added grease to bearing balls, re-adjusted bearing preload, and re-assembled. Big improvement! Our…
Please note that due to a private event at the Museum this Sunday, the Bike Lab will be closed on May 7. Our next open lab is on May 21. We’ll be celebrating Bay State Bike Week, and we’ll have swag! Hope to see you then!
Road trip to Bike! Bike! Southeast
Bike!Bike! is an annual international conference organized by and for community bicycle projects. This conference is a space for participants from shops and related advocacy groups to converge in a different city each year over a 4 day period to have workshops and strengthen our social network. The annual Bike!Bike! conference is hosted in a different city each year; regional Bike!Bike!s can take place at any time, in any location. A regional gathering took place on March 16-19 in Alexandria, VA, hosted by the awesome folks at VéloCity Bicycle Cooperative.…
Open lab featuring Waltham cycling and walking paths
School vacation week We were open during museum hours for February school vacation week this year. We prepared a couple of display boards showing the Charles River Path as well as the Mass Central Rail Trail, and put out various flyers about cycling and hiking in Waltham (thank you, Waltham Land Trust). The weather ranged from somewhat seasonal 30’s to surprisingly un-seasonal, crazy-warm 70’s. With temps 50 and above, and the sun shining, we were able to work outside on two of the days. Here are some highlights: Thu 2/23/17, Location: inside, warm 50…
Building Community through Bikes
Check out this column from one of our founders. Yay Nicole! Building Community through Bikes at the Fall Festival
Sure is hot outside these days, but a ride along the river catches some nice breezes. Ice cream on Moody Street is a nice treat, and a stroll through the museum is also a great thing to do on a sultry Sunday afternoon. At the bike lab this summer, we’ve met a lot of awesome folks – people new to cycling, people just getting back into it, and experienced riders and mechanics. The most common issues that people want to learn about include adjusting gears, adjusting brakes, pumping up tires,…
Summer hours – open every Sunday!
Beginning this Sunday, June 5, we will be open every week (except July 3). Make a plan to stop by – we open at 10:30 and close up at 2:30. And did you catch this article from the Waltham News Tribune?
It’s great to finally start seeing more spring- and even summer-like weather! Several folks dropped by during our open labs on May 1st and 15th. We helped adjust some misbehaving derailleurs on a couple of bikes, adjusted a set of squeaky brakes, oiled some chains and pumped up some tires. Doug stopped by. He rides almost every day into the Museum of Science and back, and reports that his gears continually skip both up and down. Here are Leo and Dan looking over Doug’s derailleur and demonstrating how he can…
We moved into our space at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation today (thanks, CRMII!). April 3rd and the weather was, well, snowy and cold, so we didn’t see a lot of people out walking and cycling, but we were happy to welcome visitors and let them know what we’re up to. Jayson put a new tube and tire onto Mayor McCarthy’s wheel. Next open lab, we’ll take a look at the brakes and cables. It won’t be long before her bike is ready to roll! Thanks as…
We had a great time as featured guests at the Museum’s annual Food, Wine and Craft Beer Festival on Thursday, March 31. Several of the Bike Lab’s organizers were on hand to explain what we’re all about. We ran a slideshow and handed out refrigerator-ready flyers. On display were two bicycles that have been in Mayor McCarthy’s garage for decades – we’re fixing them up to make them road-worthy. Stay tuned for more on this project! Special thanks to Joe Niedbala for designing our beautiful event banner.
Here’s Haink in Martha’s copy of the Waltham News Tribune! We had a great time during our first Farmers’ Market day – hope some of you will be back to see us next month.