Earlier this year, BikeMN had a theft of our van, and a few bikes and bike-repair tools we depend on were stolen. Thankfully, our friends and supporters at Park Tool found replacements! These tools will be used at events with bike repair opportunities and to support our Adult Learn to Ride and Walk! Bike! Fun! programs as we refurbish and tune up donated bikes.
Park Tool has been a trusty bike tool manufacturer since the 1950s, driven by their pledge to “build the best tools.” In the 1950s, Howard and Art, business partners and ‘hands-on’ guys built bike repair tools from scratch with leftover materials. After creating the bike stand using legs from a dining room table, an empty shell casing, and a truck axle, Schwinn Bicycle Company wanted a production model to support their work. From there, Park Tool Company was born in 1963! Park Tool grew quickly, adding a wheel truing stand, a double arm shop repair stand, wrenches, gauges, fixtures, and consumer tools offered by the company. Park Tool earned the Top Ten Schwinn dealer status fifteen years in a row, and overall in 1977. After celebrating 50 years in 2013, the team was able to open an 80,000-square-foot facility dedicated to building bike tools.
Park Tool has been a generous supporter of BikeMN, even offering to match donations during Give to the Max campaigns and making donated funds go that much further for our work in Minnesota. Thanks to these tools, BikeMN can fix donated bikes for our Adult Learn to Ride program, and tune up our fleet of Walk! Bike! Fun! bikes, and join other events to offer bike repairs across Minnesota. Thank you, Park Tool!