Yellowknife’s annual bike auction takes place on Saturday in the YK1 school district building’s downtown parking lot. Bike viewing is from 11am with the auction at noon.
Organizers say at least 15 bikes will be up for grabs – and possibly 20 or more.
“More are still coming in, and then we’re going to have a final tune-up workshop this Thursday,” said Shannon Jennings.
Jennings is the president of Yellowknife Mountain Bike Club and a member of Bikespace, a group based at the city’s Makerspace that helps people with basic tune-ups. Both organizations will benefit from the auction’s proceeds.
Jennings said funds raised will help Bikespace improve its tools and allow the mountain bike club to keep developing its bike park, where a pump track was built in 2021. The latest bike park project involves growing plants to stop erosion of the fill – the material that shapes the track and its banks – alongside other landscaping work and the building of dirt jumps and skills trails.
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The bike auction was previously organized by the Rotary Club of Yellowknife before passing into the hands of Bikespace and the mountain bike club.
“We salvage bikes from the dump or bikes are donated, and then we either get parts from the dump or some of our budget goes toward parts,” Jennings explained.
“There’s been a lot more steady work on the bikes leading up to the auction this year than we had in the past. There are some newer styles of bike in variable condition that we polished up, to make them really functional as bikes again and run smoothly.
“But there are also road bikes, mountain bikes, little kids’ bikes, cruisers – all sorts of sizes. We have a really wide variety.”
It’s not too late to donate a bike to the auction, either. If you have a bike that is surplus to requirements, email either Bikespace or the mountain bike club and someone will help your bike reach the auction.
