The idea of Chris Schmelz, Simon Hellyer and Rory Harding, The Crooked Spoke is a not-for-profit venture, run entirely by volunteers.
At their Buller St workshop, they have all the space and tools anyone would need to fix their bike and a collection of parts to help get bikes and people back on the road.
Taking broken or discarded bikes that would otherwise be rusting away, the men open the workshop on Friday afternoons to anyone who wants help fixing up a bike.
"People think fixing a bike is beyond them, that they have to go to a bike shop to get their bike fixed, but it's not, and they don't."
People might not realise they did not have to spend hundreds to fix a bike.
"This $5 bike here will do just as good as a $500 bike and you can have it going in a few hours. It's 20 years old and it will last another 15 years."
The workshop had been running for about three months and people who had used it seemed pleased with what they learned.
For example, one woman had learned how to replace her old bike's brakes, after being told at a bike shop the bike was not repairable.
The idea was to help people learn how to fix and look after their bikes, rather than have it done for them, with an emphasis on people sharing their skills with each other, Mr Schmelz said.
"We grew up around bikes, our families rode bikes, but we are still learning how to fix them and we want to learn off other people too."
They wanted to encourage everyone to learn to love cycling and to try to encourage a culture which would eventually see Dunedin attitudes to cyclists and cycling change.
"Dunedin is really intolerant of cyclists," said Mr Schmelz, who was recently the victim of a hit-and-run incident in Mailer St.
His collarbone was broken when he was knocked off his bike.
Cycling was fun, free, fast, there were no parking costs and it was good for people and for the environment, he said.
To contact the workshop, call 03) 477 8546.
