Bicycle Roots, a full service bike shop located on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, recently relocated from their former spot on Fulton. The shop is run by Nechama Levy and Joe Lawler, both New York City natives and very experienced and enthusiastic cyclists. Nechama grew up in Queens as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, but abandoned that lifestyle in the early 2000s and turned to cycling at full speed. Joe grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, near the cycling mecca known as Central Park, and currently holds the title of Tandem Cyclocross World Champion. The shop’s story is so unique and inspiring that I had to get on my own two wheels and venture past our Bushwick borders to talk to Nechama and see the shop firsthand.
BD: How and when did you get into biking?
Nechama: I was always into biking, I never stopped biking as a kid. I grew up in Queens and never had a car. I started biking in New York City for transportation after the transit strike, which was the winter of 2005. I was living in Harlem and commuting to the Bronx for work by train, and when there were no trains, I was being carpooled up there but the traffic was horrible and I was dependent on my boss taking me to work, so I bought a bicycle from Recycle a Bicycle. I wanted a blue bike, that’s how little I knew about bikes at the time. But I fell in love with it, and I remember shouldering my bike over the bridge through the snow.
