Bicycle Recycling and Art

Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage (BICAS) will have its 12th Annual Art Auction, Fundraiser and Celebration on Sunday, November 18 from 6 to 9 PM at Artfare, 55 N 6th Ave., across from the Ronstadt Transit Center, just north of Congress St.. Music, food and entertainment will be offered, and winner of the silent auction will be announced at 9 PM. The art will be sculpture, jewelry, paintings and more, all made from bicycle parts or having bicycle themes.

BICAS believes that if you give people fish, you have fed them for a day. Teach people to fish; they can feed themselves for a lifetime. Therefore, the good people of BICAS will not repair your bike for you, but they would be delighted to teach you how to repair it, and you can use their tools.

They will also help people of any age who live in the barrios near BICAS to built their own bikes free of cost. Children from any part of Tucson can apply for scholarships to build their own bikes, too.

The crew reconditions and recycles bikes, so if you're like me, and you just want a nice used bike, you can go to their underground bike purgatory at 44 W 6th St. and pick one out. When I bought my bike there years ago, the entrance to the bike shop was through a hole in a wall next to a loading dock. You'd drop down into the shop, and it was sort of like entering Wonderland with Alice.

The web site photo seems to indicate that they are still underground, but now they have a ramp. Not quite as much quirky fun, but no doubt a lot more convenient.