An offbeat Pittsburgh tourist destination— the Bicycle Heaven museum and bike shop — suffered severe water damage after pipes flooded over Christmas, and the owner is hoping to raise some awareness to help in the recovery efforts.
Bicycle Heaven, the museum and vintage bike shop on Pittsburgh’s North Side, has started a GoFundMe campaign after water filled multiple levels on Christmas Eve. Owner Craig Morrow said that nearly all of the main level of the museum saw a few inches of water and the basement was flooded up to four feet.
Morrow said he discovered the flooding on Christmas Eve, which was fortuitous because the only day Bicycle heaven is closed is on Christmas Day. He said it’s unclear exactly what caused the flooding and where it started, but it might related to last week’s the frigid temperatures.
“If we wouldn’t have come in on Christmas Eve, this whole building would have been flooded,” said Morrow.
Morrow said most of the damage is done to the floors, and many of the floors and all the carpet will have to be replaced. There are over 6,000 bikes in the museum.
Morrow said most of the bikes avoided any serious damage, but many vintage bike parts and other memorabilia suffered water damage.
He said both the building’s owner and Bicycle Heaven have insurance that is assessing the damage. The GoFundMe has raised about $5,000 so far, but Morrow said he would return all the funds if insurance covers the costs of all the damage.
However, Morrow doesn’t expect insurance to cover everything since the cost to transport and store all the bikes and equipment in and out of the museum will be costly. He said he expects to sell some of his rare items in order to cover some of the costs.
“I don’t expect insurance to cover everything, we are a free museum,” he said.
Bicycle Heaven is having limited visitation. There are dozens of industrial fans and driers throughout the museum to help dry the floors. Morrow said the museum’s online store is running at about half capacity while they focus on clearing and drying the museum.
Morrow has only gotten about 10 hours of sleep since Christmas Eve. His spirits remain upbeat because he believes most of the damage can be fixed.
“I could be dying of cancer or someone could have been hurt,” he said. “This is not going to break me.”
Bicycle Heaven is located at 1800 Preble Ave. in Pittsburgh’s North Side. The website is www.bicycleheaven.org.
