The Bike Library to open its first retail and coffee shop in downtown Raleigh
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Cameron Zamot, holding a bike, at The Bike Library container shop at Lake Raleigh. Photo: Courtesy of Jared Harber
The Bike Library plans to open its first permanent shop in the West End neighborhood this summer, after finding success as a shipping container pop-up on Raleigh's Walnut Creek Trail.
Why it matters: The Bike Library, which launched last summer, is both a community movement and retail shop led by Cameron Zamot, who quit his job with the city to focus on the venture full time.
- The ultimate goal is to make and advocate for Raleigh to become less car centric, one bike at a time.
- The Bike Library does this by renting, repairing and selling bikes, while organizing community rides and events centered on biking and coffee roasted by another young Raleigh venture, Left Hook Coffee.
Driving the news: The Bike Library has been working from a shipping container near Lake Raleigh. (Zamot partnered with Jude DesNoyer, of N.C. State, on the shipping container space near Centennial Campus.)
- But Zamot is hopeful that a new 1,600-square-foot space in the Platform apartment building — next to Boulted Bread bakery — will help The Bike Library take the next step.
- The location is ideal, he said, because it is located between downtown Raleigh and Dix Park, and near the entrance to the Rocky Branch Trail.
Zoom in: The goal is for The Bike Library's new space to feel, at least upon entry, more like a coffee shop than a bike shop, with an espresso stand front and center and a bar serving drinks in the evening.
- Most bike shops don't encourage people to linger, Zamot said, so creating plenty of space to hang out and drink coffee is key.
- In addition, The Bike Library will have bikes to rent or buy and offer repairs, like a traditional bike shop would.
- The shop takes inspiration from places like The Meteor in the mountain biking haven of Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as Heritage Bikes & Coffee in Chicago.
The big picture: Zamot's ultimate goal is to leverage the success of The Bike Library into running several locations around Raleigh's greenway system, serving as checkpoints where people can rent bikes or make bike commuting more of a community endeavor.
What they're saying: "I want this to be a welcoming place for people to come ride bikes and gather," he said. "I think bikes are better for the community because cars strangle our infrastructure. If people start to question getting in their car [for every trip] that's when we start to win."
