Flanked by cardboard signs reading “Free 5-Minute Tuneups” and “We Come to Your Bike!” Lauren “Mittens” Mitten lifted another bike — one of about 25 that day — onto a stand under the bright sun and got to work.
Mitten, owner of The Mittens Pop Up Bike Shop, spent the afternoon of May 16 outside of Eco-Fair at Cherry Street Pier checking tires, inspecting frames, adjusting derailleurs and lubricating chains.
But during these five-minute tuneups, Mitten sometimes discovers there’s more wrong with a bike than meets the eye.
“People often don’t know what’s wrong with their bike,” Mitten says. Sometimes, a person who thinks they need a simple tuneup needs just that. Other times, Mitten starts working on a bike only to discover it needs replacement parts and hours of work.
But thankfully for these riders who need more complex repairs, Mitten doesn’t only pop up at events like Eco-Fair and the Clark Park Farmers Market. As a mobile bike mechanic, Mitten makes house calls by appointment, fixing bikes at customers’ homes, workplaces or wherever they might get a flat tire.
“I really love doing it mobile. People like it a lot because they didn’t have to take their bike anywhere — they didn’t have to lose their bike for a week or two,” Mitten says. “I really appreciate that I can make that accessible. In a bike shop, I couldn’t do that, because they would have to walk their bike a mile, or three miles.”
Mitten offers repairs and tuneups to standard road bikes, family bikes, cargo bikes and non-electronic components of e-bikes and electric trikes. Their service area includes Philadelphia and the western suburbs, plus monthly trips to Washington, D.C., where they moved from last April.
Mitten spent the previous decade in Washington, with the last six of those years as a mobile mechanic. They served roughly 1,400 customers in the greater Washington area, where they performed many repairs for parents who own cargo bikes, meeting them at their children’s schools to fix an emergency flat tire. Mitten says helping families use their bikes as reliable transportation feels special.
“It’s actually infrastructure, in a way that feels important for making biking an option for everybody, whether they’re mechanically inclined or not,” Mitten says.
Mitten likes to remind riders that they don’t have to know everything about maintaining their bikes, but they’re happy to teach customers a thing or two during a repair. Still, many people, especially those who are not men, tell Mitten that they don’t know anything about bike maintenance or assume they can’t understand it. Mitten says that doubt is often reinforced in bike shops where mechanics talk down to customers.
“One woman told me about a time when a different mobile bike mechanic came to her house and her husband happened to be there taking out the trash. And the mechanic kept trying to talk to him about her bicycle.”
Outside of repairs, Mitten also teaches occasional classes on skills like changing a flat tire and general maintenance, like the workshops they hosted with Black Girl Joy Bike Ride in August and October.
Although Mitten teaches riders how to take better care of their bikes, they are excited to see more casual riders in Philly — people who don’t identify as “bikers,” but simply use them as a method of transportation.
“I think that’s important for making people feel more empowered about their bikes. And the more empowered they feel about their bikes, the better they can maintain them and just feel good about riding.”
To schedule an appointment or sign up for updates, visit mittenspopup.com.
