Need something fun for kids to do this summer? Want your children to become more active?

Well, here are a few bike organizations within Oakland that offer bike programs this summer. And these bike shops offer more than just sales and servicing - they educate youth on maintenance and repair.

Bikes 4 Life
1600 Seventh St., Oakland
bikes4life.com or onefam.org
(510) 452-2453
Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; closed Sundays

A branch of One Fam - an intergenerational leadership, employment and artist development organization - Bikes 4 Life is a community bike shop that focuses on the community and youth of West Oakland. It offers many programs including summer jobs where youths gets hands on experience in repair, retail and administration skills.

Every summer it hosts an annual Peace Ride that centers on violence prevention to help promote prevention and peace. This year, the fourth annual Peace Ride is on July 23 at Lake Merritt with the theme of "youth are our future."

Bikes 4 Life's goal is to help youths and youths that are at risk of jail time and help keep them on the correct road to life.  

The Crucible
1260 Seventh St., Oakland
thecrucible.org  ~ info@thecrucible.org
(510) 444-0919
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

A nonprofit collaboration of art, industry and community, The Crucible offers numerous bike programs for Oakland youth, including  Bike Fix-a-thon, Earn-A-Bike, Art Bike/Frame Alteration and a bike program internship.

• The Bike Fix-a-thon is held once a month on the last Sunday of the month (when weather permits) from noon to 5 p.m. Residents of West Oakland can have their bicycles repaired for free at this time. 
• The Earn-A-Bike program is for students 12 and older who can earn a bike after completing 10 hours of bike mechanic instruction of rebuilding and repairing a chosen bicycle. This program is held from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays afternoon.
• The Art Bike/Frame Alteration is where students 12 and older who have completed a welding class or the Earn-A-bike program can participate in the process of designing, engineering and building an art bike - in other words “pimp” their ride. Youths can learn about MIG welding and metal fabrication, bike mechanics, painting and finishing. The week-long classes run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during summer camp and at various times during the school year.

The bike program internships are for selected students in more advance stages of learning who take part in the summer program.  

The Crucible donates a number of bicycles annually to various organization and events in West Oakland and is dedicated to nurturing safety and promoting creativity through bicycles and in the industrial arts.

The Bikery
2289 International Blvd., Oakland
cyclesofchange.org  or thebikery.weebly.com
thebikery@cyclesofchange.org
(510) 536-6732
Hours:  3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays

This community bike shop from Cycles of Change, works to enable East Bay flatlands communities to use bicycles as a healthy, low-cost, efficient, safe form of primary transportation.  The goal of the Bikery is to make bicycling assessable and to get people out there on bikes to make the air, road, and quality of life better for all.

The Bikery has a Earn-A-Program where youths spend some hours working on a bike, getting experience on maintenance, repair and on the shop get to earn a bike for themselves.  They also work alongside with students to help educate and improve the atmosphere. They get donated bikes of all conditions and they are sorted according to see which program they should go in. The Bikery is starting up a new program for a weekly ride for high school girls schedule to begin at the end of July.