This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Revolve KC is the community bike shop on Troost: a 501(c)(3) that takes donated bicycles, refurbishes them, and either sells them cheaply or gives them away to people who earn them. The earn-a-bike route is a two-and-a-half-hour safety course and a riding test, or ten hours of work on the shop floor — more than 1,500 people have completed it. The shop trades like a shop, selling retro, classic and vintage bikes alongside parts and accessories, and it has been doing so on Troost since 2011.

Description

Revolve KC is a community bicycle shop at 5509 Troost Avenue, operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.1 Its stated mission is providing “under-served communities with in the Greater Kansas City Region with reliable bicycles for transportation and recreation,” and its operating formula is compact: “Revolve rescues, refurbishes, and redistributes bicycles as the solution for healthy lifestyles, and affordable, earth-friendly transportation.”1

In practice it is a working bike shop. Donated bicycles come in; staff and volunteers repair and tune them; the bikes then leave either as low-cost sales — the shop’s stock runs to retro, classic and vintage machines — or through the Earn-A-Bike programme, which has now been completed by more than 1,500 participants.1 Parts, accessories and clothing are sold alongside, when available.12 Sales revenue supports the mission, which places Revolve squarely in the Registry as a trading business rather than a purely grant-funded charity.

Earn-A-Bike has two routes, as documented in 2017: complete an online safety course of about two and a half hours, score at least 70 percent on the test, then book a riding test; or put in ten hours of service at the shop and pick up the safety knowledge hands-on.2 Both routes end in a free bicycle, and both are built around the same objective — that the rider knows what they are doing before they are in traffic.

Revolve sits on Troost, on the corridor that has been Kansas City’s dividing line, and the location is not incidental to a transport-equity mission. Its immediate neighbours are two universities — Rockhurst and UMKC — and student volunteers have been a substantial part of its labour. By 2017 the shop had, between those two campuses, put more than 1,200 donated bikes into students’ hands over six years.2

The shop’s outreach has run to specific groups rather than a general public: veterans, Latino residents, LGBTQ riders through a programme called Gears 4 Queers, and, from around 2017, refugees and other area nonprofits.2

Its founder, Elizabeth Bejan, framed the work in 2017 as wanting to “resource and refurbish bikes as a solution for a healthy lifestyle that is affordable.”2 The same piece noted the position Revolve occupies in the local trade with unusual candour: “Although RevolveKC is a nonprofit, the shop competes with the for-profit shops in Kansas City.”2

Goods and services

  • Refurbished used bicycles for sale — retro, classic and vintage1
  • Earn-A-Bike programme — free bicycle via a safety course and riding test, or via ten hours of volunteer service12
  • Bicycle repair and refurbishment1
  • Bicycle donation intake2
  • Parts, accessories and clothing, as available12
  • Community outreach programmes — veterans, Latino residents, LGBTQ riders (Gears 4 Queers), refugees2
  • Volunteer placements, including for university students2

History

The idea for Revolve was generated in 2009; the shop opened its doors in 2011 and has been a 501(c)(3) serving the community since.2 A search-surfaced account states that Theresa Van Ackeren, owner of the Waldo shop Family Bicycles, partnered with Elizabeth Bejan to found the nonprofit, and that Bejan — who grew up in a first-generation Ukrainian-American household in Kansas City, Kansas and had worked with Hurricane Katrina evacuees — co-founded it with her.3 The Van Ackeren connection is not first-party and is recorded rather than asserted; if confirmed it is a substantive link, because Family Bicycles went out of business in early 2020 and its mechanic went on to open Bicycle Depot KC in Waldo in 2022.4

In March 2017 the shop was described as sitting on the corner of 51st and Troost, with a second shop on Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas.2 The current address is 5509 Troost — the 5500 block, which is a block or so south of 51st — and no Kansas location appears on the current site.1 Neither the move nor the fate of the Central Avenue shop was sourced this pass; both are flagged. The Kansas location matters for Registry coverage specifically because Wyandotte County is persistently under-documented, and a community bike shop on Central Avenue would be a notable entry if it still trades under any name.

A separate community bike shop, the 816 Bicycle Collective, operates in the same tradition at 31st and Troost. It is a distinct organisation and is not covered by this page.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Revolve KC — official site, home and About Us pages and revolvekc.org — asserts: a nonprofit community bike shop providing bicycles to underserved communities in the Greater Kansas City Region for transportation and recreation; 501(c)(3) status; address 5509 Troost Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64110; phone (816) 835-3310; email info@revolvekc.org; hours Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, closed Monday and Sunday; services comprise the Earn-a-Bike program (1,500+ participants have completed it), bicycle sales of retro, classic and vintage bikes, and bike repair and refurbishment; mission statement “Revolve rescues, refurbishes, and redistributes bicycles as the solution for healthy lifestyles, and affordable, earth-friendly transportation” and “Revolve is dedicated to providing under-served communities with in the Greater Kansas City Region with reliable bicycles for transportation and recreation” [sic]; the organisation sells used bicycles, accessories and clothing to support its mission. Primary currently-operating proof. (Fetched 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. Natalie Wagner, “Meet the Neighbors: RevolveKC Community Bike Shop,” The Sentinel (Rockhurst University), 23 March 2017 — asserts: the shop is located on the corner of 51st and Troost; “While the idea for the shop was generated in 2009, doors opened in 2011”; “A second shop is located on Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas”; Elizabeth Bejan is “the owner of RevolveKC” and is quoted wanting to “resource and refurbish bikes as a solution for a healthy lifestyle that is affordable”; two Earn-A-Bike routes — an online safety course of about two and a half hours with a test requiring at least 70 percent followed by a scheduled riding test, or ten hours of service at the shop; “Between Rockhurst University and University of Missouri Kansas City, more than 1,200 bikes have been donated to students in the last six years”; the shop sells parts and clothing when available; bikes arrive as donations and are fixed and tuned by employees to be sold or given away; “Although RevolveKC is a nonprofit, the shop competes with the for-profit shops in Kansas City”; outreach programmes for veterans, Latinos and the LGBTQ community through a Gears 4 Queers program, and work with refugees and other area nonprofits; Rockhurst student volunteers, one of whom, Ryan Sparks, is quoted. (Retrieved 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  3. Search-surfaced summary of Revolve KC founding material, surfaced against and bikecollectives.org — asserts: in 2010 Van Ackeren partnered with Elizabeth Bejan to open a nonprofit bike shop, RevolveKC; it has been a 501(c)3 servicing the community since 2011; Revolve, Inc. is located at 5509 Troost, Kansas City, MO 64110; Elizabeth Bejan grew up in a first-generation Ukrainian-American household in Kansas City, Kansas and worked with Hurricane Katrina evacuees before co-founding the nonprofit bike shop with Family Bicycles owner Theresa Van Ackeren in 2011. Not retrieved directly — recorded as search-surfaced. Note the internal date tension (partnership 2010, opening 2011) against footnote 2’s “idea generated 2009, doors opened 2011.” ↩

  4. Tyler Schneider, “Bike Depot opens in Waldo,” Martin City Telegraph, 1 July 2022 — asserts: mechanic Bruce Homstad was “formerly of Family Bicycle, another neighborhood shop that went out of business in early 2020,” before joining Bicycle Depot KC at its March 2022 opening. Cited here only to date the closure of Family Bicycles, the shop run by Revolve’s reported co-founder. (Retrieved 2026-08-14.) ↩

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/revolve-kc · record updated 2026-08-14