BR Bikes and Repairs

Give us a call! (414) 374-3261 (English) or (414)-573-4237 (Spanish)

About Us

A man crouches down to inspect a bicycle. He is wearing a beanie, a puffy coat, jeans, and a light blue disposable face mask. The bicycle is a Diamondback Vital 2 hybrid, with the front fork in the foreground.

BR Bikes and Repairs is Champaign-Urbana’s trusted neighborhood mechanic. We offer a full range of services, and sell refurbished bicycles. Latinx owned business. Feel free to contact us with any questions about our services!

Our Story

When Bernabe Romero was a kid in Mexico, he liked to build bicycles out of the spare parts he would find at the garbage dump. That hobby got put on hold when he came to the United States–until his partner Theresa was accepted to graduate school at the University of Illinois, and Bernabe and his family moved to bicycle-friendly Champaign-Urbana.

Three people stand in the foreground along Kickapoo Rail Trail. On the left is a child who is almost shoulder height to the two adults. A white woman with medium blond hair and jeans stands in the middle, and a Latino man with a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt is on the right. They are all wearing bicycle helmets.

Here, Bernabe rediscovered his love of bikes. Like many immigrants in this country, Bernabe’s experiences pushed him to want to become his own boss. He likes to take an old bicycle and restore it into beautiful working condition. Bernabe does repairs with care and an eye for detail. He is happy to work with customers to find the best option for their needs.

We moved in 2023 to our current location, in the space adjacent to Itty Bitty Bike Shop/Parasol Records in downtown Urbana.

Our Values

We love to see more people riding bikes, and we aim to provide excellent service to all our customers. We are unapologetically pro-Black, pro-trans, pro-Muslim, pro-immigrant, pro-Indigenous, pro-woman, and pro-working class. We value disabled folks and bodies of all sizes and ages. We believe we have a responsibility to keep the earth clean, harmonious, and sustainable. Neutrality favors the oppressor, so we don’t aim to be neutral. We believe in the radical idea that all people are worthy of dignity.

The sun is setting to the left, and the sky is orange, purple, and blue. In the foreground there is a darkened gravel path that turns toward the left, surrounded by green prarie grass. At the bend in the road is a person riding a bicycle. It kind of looks like they are literally riding into the sunset.

Land Acknowledgement

We live, work, and ride our bikes on the ancestral lands of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Kaskasia, Myaamia, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ nations. We honor all indigenous people and recognize their current and historical struggle in the face of genocide. Globally, colonization has often threatened and displaced indigenous people. We also want to honor the indigenous people in our community who had to leave their ancestral homes: the Q’anjob’al, Mam, K’iche’, and other nations. No one is illegal on stolen land.