If you have kids and want to teach them how to ride a bike, you’ll quickly find yourself in something of a conundrum. For starters, they grow out of bikes seemingly faster than underwear. “That’s fine”, you think, “I’ll just get them a new one.”

Except new bikes are either cheap-o big box specials with parts that come apart after three uses. Or, they’re big dollar events at local bike shops. Now, I’m all for supporting the small, local folks but I’m not for spending hundreds of dollars on something that may or may not get a lot of use but definitely will need to be replaced in a short time span.

Enter St. Louis Bike Works. They have a simple but awesomely effective mission of accepting donations of bikes, then teaching kids how to fix them. After the kids fix the bikes up, they get to keep them along with a lock and helmet. It’s a killer way to teach kids confidence, teamwork, mechanical aptitude, how to ride a bike and so much more. Plus, the class is entirely free.

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On top of that, you can buy refurbished bikes directly from them even if you’re not taking the class. Which is what we just did. For $150, we got what looks likes a brand new, 24” Schwinn for our 9-year old daughter. At a glance, the cheapest 24 inch “children’s” bike at a local bike store is $290 and goes up to just shy of a thousand bucks. No thanks.

The folks working at St. Louis Bike Works are super friendly – we worked with Mike – and helpful. Plus their store is inside a super cool, historic Soulard building. Our daughter picked out a hilarious, clown-style honking horn to go with her new ride. Bike Works charged us a whopping five bucks with installation.

So, if you’re in St. Louis and looking for a bike – for your kids or yourself– definitely check out Bike Works.