Hub of positive change

In his spacious bicycle repair shop, Cory Potts turns wrenches, spins spoked wheels and teaches a specialized trade after hours.

A criminal investigator for King County’s Department of Public Defense by day, Potts is an entrepreneurial visionary by night, training tomorrow’s bike mechanics and do-it-yourselfers.

The duty is different, but the purpose is the same – to challenge and influence minds.

“This is definitely a passion,” Potts said of recently opening the Center for Bicycle Repair in a rented, former, downtown Kent firefighters hall on West Meeker Street. “It’s definitely outside of work, and it’s a different kind of work, training versus defending.”

Education is important to the Seattle man, who grew up on the Eastside, went to the University of Washington, traveled, taught and worked abroad before returning home to begin a career in the public defender’s office, and, in his spare time, teach a craft to others.

Throughout his travels, Potts became a criminal-legal expert who took an interest in organizing communities from the seat of his preferred mode of transportation, the bicycle.

Potts’ shop is not only a business but also a classroom, with students coming from all over the world – the Philippines, Korea and Japan – signing up to join a pilot project. A licensed bicycle mechanic who worked for about seven years at bike shops in France and Belgium, Potts is passing on those skills to others.

The curriculum is designed over a three-month course to train and prepare students for entry-level jobs at bike shops or to act as a resource for their communities. Students-turned-apprentices learn different aspects of bike repair and restoration, from tool use to understanding standards, from teardown to rebuild.

Students apply online. There is no class fee. Potts’ current class of three meets twice a week through February. More sessions and specific classes are planned.

Potts hopes to finance the shop through sales of restored bicycles.

“It’s going much better than I have ever expected,” Potts said. “It’s important work that we do … and I really like the bike shop because, in a sense, you’re training, you’re doing things to build up people and help them become autonomous.”

Potts imported the business model idea from a shop he worked at in Brussels, Belgium, where customers came in and were taught how to repair their own bikes. A nonprofit approached the shop, asking if the master mechanic and Potts could build and repair bikes for the organization and sell them to students in Brussels. They accepted.

“And from doing that, I realized you can really teach someone a lot by asking the person to take second-hand bicycles, understand how to remove parts from them and then build them back up,” Potts said. “And through that process, you could really train that person to be a mechanic.”

Many miles on a bike

Potts saw plenty of Europe from behind the handlebars.

After earning a degree in French language and literature from the UW, Potts won a Fulbright Fellowship and studied in Belgium, where he got his master’s degree in criminology from the University of Brussels.

He taught English in suburban Paris and worked as a bicycle messenger.

“When you become a bike messenger, there’s just a ton of things that break on your bicycle regularly, so I had to repair those myself,” Potts said.

A shop owner in Paris allowed Potts to use his shop, and the young American became a quick study.

As a Fulbright scholar and researcher, Potts has worked on issues pertaining to the decriminalization of homelessness.

“I’ve been passionate about housing issues for a long time,” he said. “I mostly found myself in kind of the public defender’s role, and that’s usually trying to point out problems with things that are already existing.”

As a bike owner and teacher, Potts continues that effort to help others.

“This is an opportunity for me to get in the front end and do some work where people could be provided with actual job skills …. and not be victimized by their poverty and find ways out of it,” he said.

And restoring and putting more bikes in motion is one way to improve the human condition.

“(Bicycling is) not a huge industry in the city, but as traffic gets much worse as we get more dense, I think bicycles are going to become a more popular form of transportation,” Potts said. “And I’m hoping that in a small way we can contribute to maybe getting some cars off the road and get some new professionals trained.”

The commonality of bikes, as Potts has discovered, brings people together.

“That was the way I was able to connect with the community … how I made my friends,” Potts said. “I realized the bicycle is like a nexus; it’s a lubricant for creating communities.”

Potts said he feels at home with the converted shop. He shopped for space in Seattle, but rent was too high. Kent was the affordable option.

“The building owner and the city deserve the credit for making this dream a reality,” he said. “The owner was incredibly kind to give me the space at a low cost so that I could open quickly and experiment. The city has been incredibly generous with the time and advice of its planners, permitters and fire department inspectors.”

Potts is opening his shop on Tuesdays, from 5 to 9 p.m., to anyone who would like to come in and repair their bicycles for a donation for services.

For shop hours and more information, visit centerforbicyclerepair.com.

The Center for Bicycle Repair is open to train students and show the public how to restore bikes. COURTESY PHOTO, Margo Vansynghel

Sang, left, and Ronnie are students in a three-month training program that will prepare them for entry-level jobs at bike shops or to act as a resource for their communities. COURTESY PHOTO, Margo Vansynghel

Students learn different aspects of bike repair, maintenance and restoration at the downtown Kent shop. COURTESY PHOTO, Margo Vansynghel