About Us

Bicycling Magazine Feature on Re:Ciclos Founder Jimmy Lizama

 

Re:Ciclos, a short history

In 2010, Jimmy Lizama’s son Joaquin was born. Being car-free, this presented a logistical issue for Jimmy: how to transport his young son in a city built for cars. One day, Jimmy bumped into a cargo bicycle and the solution was immediately clear.

Not too long after, he was lending a hand wrenching at Flying Pigeon Bike Shop in Northeast LA, where he got a cargo bike at an affordable price. Being a bike mechanic, he improved upon the bike tremendously and on the first ever CicLAvia on 10/10/10, Joaquin and Jimmy took their first of thousands of bike rides together. Life was great.

Over the years, people who saw Joaquin and Jimmy riding their cargo bike down the mean streets of LA gawked and pointed at the bicycle. Some asked how they could get one. Unfortunately, most cargo bikes are prohibitively expensive, often starting at $3,000 for a basic bike. That is simply not feasible for most of us, especially folks with socio-economic barriers.

So Jimmy decided to build them himself out of recycled bike parts. But the bicycle business is very competitive, especially in a car-centric city like LA. It’s simply too difficult to make a living unless you’re selling expensive bikes that underserved communities cannot afford. Instead, Jimmy thought it might be possible to take an education and internship approach to build rudimentary cargo bicycles and distribute them to underserved community members, while selling some to those who can afford them.

Re:Ciclos’s first prototype was in 2015 with Calo YouthBuild in Boyle Heights. Three students and a couple of volunteers worked together over a weekend to build a long john cargo bike. It was definitely a monster! But it worked and it was entirely made of recycled materials.

Fast forward to November 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when 17-year-old Aidan spent 10 days with Re:Ciclos volunteers to build a cargo bike for Ayla, a local bread maker looking to sell her goods at nearby farmers markets. “Rosey,” a very stout bicycle named for its bright pink color, was made mostly of recycled materials. Eventually, Rosey got an electric motor installed and Ayla was able to get rid of her car!

Aidan, Ayla and Rosey’s story exemplifies the ultimate goal of Re:Ciclos: to touch the lives of multiple community members, from distinct backgrounds, all having a hand in improving their own lives and that of the city and world they inhabit through collaboration, education, recycling, innovation, and a good old-fashioned human-powered elbow grease.

In early 2022, Re:Ciclos was awarded a seed grant from the Energy Foundation, enabling the project to move into an adequate space for fabrication, hire a couple of staff members, and create an internship program with local educational institutions. Community members received cargo bicycles to improve their lives, some prototypes were made, and today the project aims populate the streets of LA with these vital, human-powered machines–especially crucial work as climate change and car culture proliferate.

Re:Ciclos’s work is far from over; in fact, it is only just beginning.

Who are we?

Team

Jimmy Henry Lizama

Founder and Director

Jimmy Henry Lizama was born at the LA County Hospital in 1974. He is a life-long resident of Los Angeles who has never owned a car–which for most LA residents would sound at best impressive, at worst absurd.

Jimmy’s history with bicycles started with his father, Jorge Lizama. For almost 20 years Jorge commuted by bicycle from Central LA to Beverly Hills. He would arrive at work every morning by 4:30 AM ready to cook breakfast for the morning shift. Jorge’s example taught his son that the bicycle is a legitimate form of transportation. When Jimmy was 24, his own bicycle journey began when he himself was running late for work. Taking the bus meant getting there late, which was not an option, so he jumped an an old bicycle rusting in the garden. And he recalls, “I actually got to work early. I beat three buses and my journey into bicycle advocacy and transportation began that day.”

Jimmy hopes that Re:Ciclos can get more people to use bikes for everyday transportation. “My hope is  that with the different formats that we are developing, we create a buzz, a cultural buzz, so that folks really start taking to the streets themselves and not waiting for the city to provide facilities to make the bicycle movement happen,” he says. A part of his hopes for Re:Ciclos in creating greater access to cargo bicycles is to move biking from a hobbyist activity to a fundamentally feasible, ecologically responsible form of urban transportation. Thus creating the landscape in LA that is safer, accessible and more livable in general. “Bicycles are not the end all solution, but they are a wonderful messenger for a better way for people to navigate their cities.”

Serra Sól

Fabrication Coordinator

Zeno Roller

Adopt A Bike Program Coordinator and Shop Mechanic

Zeno is a city planner, lifelong bus rider, and newly-minted bike mechanic whose work focuses on infrastructure justice–the idea that defending everyone’s rights to mobility, housing, and health is critical to creating a just society. Zeno organizes with the LA Tenants Union and CAT-911, a crisis response collective that develops alternatives to policing. Previously, he worked at the US Water Alliance, leading nationwide initiatives to end the use of water shutoffs and bring infrastructure to communities that have been denied water and sanitation access. Zeno is from San Francisco and loves picking fruit, boxing, and reading science fiction.

Emma Meyers

Fundraising and Development Team

Emma is a newcomer to LA who is getting to know the city by biking around and getting frequently lost. Her two favorite quotes are “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need,” and “The customer is always right.” Taken together, they embody the ethos she hopes to bring to the justice-oriented work she engages in. Grant writing is new for her; being of service and working towards shared goals and a better future is not.

Becca Lee

Fundraising and Development Team

Krish Dittmer

Fabrication and Design Intern

Krish Dittmer is a graduate student at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Originally from Austin, Texas, Krish moved to Los Angeles after earning a bachelors of science in architecture from UT San Antonio. Krish developed a deep passion for fabrication while growing up learning to build with their dad. After the first six months of driving in Los Angeles, Krish could no longer take the packed roads, expensive parking, and aggressive drivers, and sold her car in a commitment to the cyclist/public transit lifestyle! In the summer of 2024, Krish was honored with the opportunity to work in collaboration with Re: Ciclos x SCI_ARC on the Getty PST sponsored Planet City project. During this time, Krish developed great skills in the welding shop, learning the craft of metal work and bicycle fabrication. Krish is very eager and excited to continue this great work with Re:Ciclos as they continue to create self-fashioned, human-powered, intentionally-sourced vessels that facilitate community and bring some optimism back to the world we live in.

William Kennedy

Fabrication and Bicicrofono Team

William is a bicycler, maker, artist, lighting designer, and electrical engineer. His story with bicycles goes all the way back to middle school when he looked at that old bike that he learned to ride on and hadn’t touched in years. A mundane thought came into his head.. could he use that bicycle to get to the local video rental store? He realized now maybe he could use this ride to new places, and wouldn’t need a car to get there. He took it around the block, to the local Blockbuster, to high school, and eventually fulfilled a dream of riding across the country. The bicycle became a tool of freedom, of expression, of resilience and of mobility. William now uses the bicycle to get everywhere.

William contributes his engineering skills, electrical experience, lighting design, and fabrication to the Re:Ciclos team, building skills within the organization and with all who come through the door.

Past Interns

Aiden Balandran

Aiden Balandran was our first youth intern. Aiden was 16 when he built Re:Ciclos’ first cargo bike in just ten days, along with Jimmy and Bea Miller (former Re:Ciclos Fabrication Co-ordinator).

Aiden was quick to pick up the fundamentals of metal fabrication and bike building. He was connected to Re:Ciclos via Bresee, a community organization in the neighborhood, that provides Gang Prevention Programs to the youth in the area.

After his short time with Re:Ciclos, Aiden became inspired to become a professional welder, and is pursuing education to become an underwater welder. He has also worked with Bresee as Youth Advocacy Coordinator. We are really excited to work with Aiden again in the future and admirably watch his development!

Check out Aiden’s story building Rosey in this short film on our homepage.

Yulissa Gonsales

Yulissa Gonsales came to us through her school, New Village Girls Academy’s internship program, which connects students to crafts, arts, and practices not found in the current school system.

She took to bicycles, bicycle culture, mechanics, and fabrication with extreme enthusiasm. Welding was not a skill she had expected to learn, but she became very enamored with it and made rapid progress.

A student of photography and art, Yulissa took note of the network of bicycle spaces we are connected to and walked away from the program with a new perspective on how people can make systemic change. Her own art is infused with the motivation to change her community, and she remarks that real change can be made with people power, willpower, and getting your hands dirty.

As a part of our program, she built her own bicycle from a scrap frame and used parts, even building her own wheel fit with dynamo and lamps both front and rear. At the beginning of her program with us, she never thought of riding bikes as a mode of transportation, but now she rides everywhere!

Check out this clip from a short film New Village Girls academy made covering Yulissa’s experience with the Re:Ciclos youth internship:

Sponsors

• Strong Hand Tools
• Energy Foundation

Re:Ciclos is fiscally sponsored by the Los Angeles Eco Village Institute (CRSP/LAEVI)