Frequently Asked Questions

We are located in the Flats, close to beautiful downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Our parking lot and GPS address is 1775 Merwin Avenue Cleveland, OH 44113. From Columbus Road, turn onto Merwin Avenue. Merwin is a brick road between the green Columbus Rd. lift bridge and Sainato’s pizza. Then, turn right at our Ohio City Bicycle Co-op sign. The entrance to our section of the building is near a black chain link fence at the far end of the parking lot.

Sometimes GPS will send people further down Merwin Avenue, but if you reach Merwin’s Wharf restaurant, you’ve gone too far. If that happens, turn around and take the first left into the parking lot.

Our mailing address is 1840 Columbus Road Cleveland, Ohio 44113. Our space is quite large, so if you come to that entrance, we might not hear you knock. (Our apologies!)

Step 1: Measure your leg length

In order to choose a bike that is safe and comfortable for your height, you’ll need to first measure your true leg length (as in this video; wearing your riding shoes, and lifting the book as high as possible!). It’s not the same as your pants inseam. The description of each bike online has its recommended minimum leg length. 

If you want a more “casual,” upright posture (handlebars higher than the seat), get a bike with a minimum leg length that matches yours. You should have just an inch to spare when you stand over the toptube while flat-foot on the ground. 

If you want a more “aggressive,” athletic posture (handlebars lower than the seat), choose a bike with a minimum leg length a bit shorter than yours.

Step 2: Browse our Online Shop and choose a bike

Purchasing a bike online is the best way to get the bike you want. Our inventory is usually much larger than we can fit in our physical showroom, but all available bicycles are listed online where you can browse by style and price. By purchasing it online, you  “reserve” the bike you want and schedule your test ride/pick up appointment (Thursday, Friday, or Saturday afternoons — or, if needed, at other times with an email).  

Step 3: Visit our physical store to test ride your bike

When you come in for your personal appointment, wear shoes you’d normally ride in. Bring your helmet, or we will lend (or sell) you one. We’ll take the time to help with proper fit adjustments, and you can ride as long as you like: there are nice trails right nearby. If the bike you chose isn’t just what you need — for whatever reason — we are happy to help you pick other bikes to test ride. If we don’t have something that suits you, you can get shop credit and a rain check for one that does, or we’ll just return your payment with no fees. 

All refurbished bikes include:

• One year trial membership from our advocacy partners Bike Cleveland
• Mechanical check over at 3 months or 300 miles

Youth bikes include “trade-up credit” for 50% of their cost off the next bike as they grow (up to adult bike sizes).

Yes! We have a physical showroom with bikes for sale. We’re open for retail shopping on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 12-5pm. Our parking lot and main entrance are located next to the Crooked River Skatepark at 1775 Merwin Ave. Cleveland, OH 44113.

The number of bikes available for purchase is often too large to fit in our showroom. To see our complete selection, please visit our online shop.

In the warmer months, we can get very busy, and our staff/volunteer capacity is limited. For best service, we recommend pre-ordering a bike via our online store and scheduling a test ride appointment. We can do a return/exchange if needed when you come for a test ride. 

Bicycle donations:

Because of our limited staff and volunteer capacity, we cannot accept all bicycles. If possible, we request that people wanting to donate bicycles first send a photo of the bicycle to info@ohiocitycycles.org, and one of our staff members will respond letting you know next steps. 

We are not able to accept any electric or gas-powered bikes.

If you are able, we request a voluntary $10 donation per bike when dropping off the donation. It helps offset the ~ $30 worth of new parts we put on the average bike we refurbish and greatly helps get used bikes back on the road for anyone who needs one. 

See our bicycle donations page for more details.

Monetary Donations:

Donations can be submitted via the donations page of our website. Checks can also be mailed to: Ohio City Bicycle Co-op 1840 Columbus Rd. Cleveland, OH 44113. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Bicycle Racks, Apparel, and other accessories:

We also accept any bicycle car racks, jerseys, spare parts, books about cycling topics, and other cycling-related items. If you would like to donate these items, no need to send a photo in advance. Just schedule a donation drop off appointment using our appointments page.

We are not currently allowing members of the public to browse our parts room. If you are looking for a specific part, please fill out our parts request form, and we will let you know whether or not we have what you’re looking for. 

We have a limited selection of parts available for public browsing in our showroom, including hubs, derailleurs, brake pairs, brake levers, shifters, freewheels/cassettes, splined cranks, pedals, wheels, tires, tubes, fenders, and racks.

We also have a smaller selection of parts available in our front dock area, including pedals, water bottle cages, handlebars and handlebar bags, kickstands, and grips.

Our showroom and dock are open 12pm-5pm Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Yes! Please check out our volunteering page. All new volunteers must complete a volunteer orientation, even if you’ve already been here to take a class. If you have time to stick around after the orientation, our staff can give you a task to do.

We have volunteering opportunities until 9:00pm on Wednesdays and until 5:00pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. We are not open for volunteering on Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays.

“New Old Stock” or used bicycle parts and accessories, used clothing, shop time to work on your own bike, bikes with an “as-is” price, or our classes. We are not able to accept volunteer credits for new items, refurbished bikes, or bikes awaiting refurbishment.

Yes, you can schedule an appointment to reserve one of our shop workstations. Tools and a repair stand are included. Assistance from our knowledgeable staff is available for $1/minute. Please see our Public Shop Use page for more details.

In our online store, you can purchase a service assessment/check over of your bike. If it only needs work that will take less than 20 minutes to make it safe (and reasonably reliable) to ride, we may be able to do it while you wait.

If your bike needs more extensive repairs, we can give you a quote to fix your bike, help you schedule shop use to fix it yourself, or provide you with a list of local bike shops which could complete the repair. As a nonprofit bicycle education center, we rely heavily on volunteer mechanics. If you decide to have us do your repairs, we cannot guarantee that your bike will be ready by any specific date due to the inherent uncertainty of our volunteer capacity.

After you complete your service assessment purchase, you will see a link to schedule your appointment (always on Saturday afternoons). Please give at least an hour notice if you can’t make it: this fee is not refundable.

Sorry, we’re not able to do any repairs on electric or gas-powered bikes.