Free Bikes
February 6, 2025
To Inspire:
People around the world came up with creative ways to pass the time during the COVID-19 lockdown. Silver Springs, Maryland retiree Manuel Vera turned his attention to bicycles, and today he provides free bikes for people in his community.
Vera was just looking for something to fill his time, and thought offering to tune up his neighbors’ bicycles would help them get outside. He posted his offer to a neighborhood online group offering to fix bikes for free.
“Then I started thinking about all the bikes that people have at home that never get used,” says Vera, 74, who is retired from the local power company.
He started asking neighbors if they had any unused bikes in their garage or basement – leftovers from growing kids or from an upgrade to a new bike. He took the offered bikes and got to work in his backyard shed.
Vera tunes up the donated bikes then takes them to parks, food banks, apartment complexes, and churches. He sets them up with a Free Bikes sign and waits for people to approach him. Then he pairs people up with the perfect bike and sends them on their way. On his first try he gave away six bikes in under 30 minutes.
“People ask a few questions like, ‘Are they really free?’” says Vera. “The answer is: ‘Yes. If you like this bike, it’s yours.’”
His neighbors now call him the Bike Dude and always have an eye out for bikes and helmets he can redistribute. He has lots of offers from the community to help him fix up the bikes, too, but says his shed just isn’t big enough.
In addition to his free bike events, local non-profits sometimes ask for bikes, sending along specific height, gender, and age information, allowing Vera to match a bike and happily deliver it where it is needed.
With a large immigrant community in Silver Springs, Vera, who emigrated from Peru with his family when he was 14, is always happy to help someone in need. He recalls one instance in which an Afghan man needed a way to get to his new job as a night security guard. Vera outfitted him with not only a bike and helmet but also lights, a pump, and a reflective vest.
Vera has impacted the lives of more than 700 kids and adults in his community. He gives selflessly of his time and talents, and, most importantly, saw a need he could help fill. What a beautiful lesson in giving!
Written by Michelle O’Brien, Manager of Marketing & Communications