Jonas Loesel, Contributing Photographer

When Alex Chasteen ’25 walked into Yale’s Justa Sanchez Bike Shop, he wasn’t quite sure what was wrong with his bike.

“There are some small oscillations when riding,” Chasteen said. Chasteen, who had previously gotten his bike from the shop’s stock of recycled bikes, was advised by a friend that he should get this issue checked out.

Quickly, the bike shop’s staff moved to diagnose the problem. 

“You have two broken pedals and handlebars that aren’t attached, but here’s what we can do,” said Kyle Sirianno, who works as the bike shop’s college fellow. Within minutes, Sirianno was showing Chasteen how to replace the aging bolts on his bike.

“These handlebars are cast aluminum, right? Feel all this dust. This is all aluminum oxide powder, because it’s been ground up by this steel [nut]. The steel is chewing down the cast aluminum right here” explained Sirianno.

The Justa Sanchez Bikeshop, which is run by Sirianno alongside two student workers — Jhan Setthachayanon ’26 and Vivian Whoriskey ’25 — offers free bike repair to anyone in the Yale community and allows students in Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray residential colleges to build their own bike from the shop’s stock of recycled bikes and spare parts. 

Since starting up in March 2022, the Justa Sanchez Bike Shop — named after donor Linda Sanchez’s father — has serviced hundreds of bikes and supplied more than 20 students with free bikes. Much of the shop’s inventory of bikes and bike parts comes from abandoned bikes on Yale’s campus. 

“As bicycles are abandoned on campus, we are given a few of them every year that we use as our instructional models. Students who need or want a bike can come in and work on one of the abandoned bikes with our instruction, and when it is complete, they can take it as their bike” explained Sirianno.

Whoriskey, who built her own bike from recycled bikes in the bike shop, also emphasized the role that students can have in supporting the recycling process. While many seniors abandon their bikes around campus upon graduation, Whoriskey encourages these students to instead donate their bikes to the bike shop, where they can be recycled for a new generation of Yale cyclists.

“We’re trying to get a better bike recycling program going, so that instead of students having to fix up bikes that have been left outside and deteriorated due to the conditions they were left in, we have bikes that are a little more ready to ride, so that students who want bikes can get them a little easier,” said Whoriskey.

Sirianno echoed this, saying “We are only limited by the number of bikes we are able to recycle. We would very much like to get in touch with other facilities, departments, and area managers to get [them] in on the bike recycling program. We would like to recycle bikes across the whole campus.”

Today, the vast majority of Yale’s students walk as their primary means of getting around campus and New Haven. This can be partly attributed to concerns about safety and the high levels of bike theft, which have plagued Yale and New Haven for years. In the last 3 years, New Haven has seen 164 bicyclist-involved crashes. Just last month, a 24-year-old cyclist was killed in a collision with a garbage truck. Bike theft, too, has remained a challenge, with juveniles breaking into Saybrook College just last year in an attempt to steal bikes.

However, Sirianno remains optimistic about New Haven’s biking infrastructure. He points to many recent changes that New Haven has made to make streets safer for cyclists.

“The city is doing really innovative things to make multi-modal transport possible. Adding bike lanes, daylighting corners, new four-way crossings, adding speed tables, all of these actions that the city is currently taking is making it a much safer city for cyclists” said Sirianno.

In promoting biking in New Haven, Sirianno and Whoriskey also repeatedly emphasized the transformative power of bikes to allow students to explore the city. They hope that the bike shop could create more student cyclists.

“Having a bike completely changes how you experience New Haven. I wish that more people in Yale College could experience New Haven, and I hope that we can provide more free bikes to people so that they can,” said Whoriskey.

How have Yale students experienced the bike shop? Evan Burkeen ’27, who refurbished a recycled bike in the bike shop this year, spoke to the News of the positive effect it has had on his life.

“The bike shop has been nothing short of a transformative place. [Getting a bike] has probably been the best moment of my college experience. A bike makes everything so much closer and allows me to get places so much faster. Everyone at the bike shop has been amazing at providing the help that I needed, and I’m very glad that I have it today.”

The Justa Sanchez Bike Shop can be found on Instagram at @benfrankbikeshop.