What's Broomwagon?

In European bike-race culture, “The Broomwagon” is a mechanic van/first aid crew that “sweeps” behind a race, picking up injured or worn out riders unable to make it to the end and fixing broken bikes that have fallen behind. It was the perfect symbol of what we hoped to become for our local bike culture.

We are not a typical bike shop. Broomwagon is a worker-owned cooperative bike shop, one of only a few in existence and the only one in Kentucky. We believe bike shops should enrich and serve their communities. Our worker-owners offer their valuable skills and knowledge to further that belief. 

We provide a living wage for our team. This industry can often be long hours and low pay, so we wanted the ability for our workers to seize the means of their own labor and ultimately, create a more sustainable model for our lil’ tiny but mighty shop.

It is impossible to separate bikes and socioeconomic needs. We recognize the immediate and long-term responsibility of taking care of our community who utilize bikes as transportation. We love custom builds and fixing bikes for folks who ride for fun, but our main goals are to help riders who ultimately need their bikes to get around town and believe we are at the intersection of all people on bicycles.

We are not a “Big Three” dealer. We peddle aluminum bike frames, steel bike frames, carbon fiber bike frames, and more! Simply put, we run our own show with the vendors we like. Our walls and our floor are only stocked with what we find particularly cool and necessary. We don’t believe in stocking huge amounts of inventory and then having to push it on our customers to keep it moving. We believe in learning from our customers about their personal riding styles and helping them figure out for themselves what is best for their specific needs.