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OFF TRACK SPOKES Recycling profits?


Are the growing number of not- for-profit bicycle recycling schemes having a detrimental impact on your bicycle business, asks Carlton Reid


SWIFTLY SIDE-STEPPING the quip that many bike shops are not-for-profit enterprises, the bicycle recycling segment seems to be thriving, with most towns and cities having at least one bicycle recycling outlet, taking in donated bikes, refurbing them and either shipping them to Africa or selling them locally for low, low prices. Some bike shops I’ve spoke to hate these schemes, believing the ones that offer cheap servicing have a massive impact on their workshop takings. Others see them as an essential part of the sub-retail mix, taking up the slack in an otherwise underground second-hand bike scene and selling bargain basement bikes that many IBDs won’t touch. Clearly, enterprises such as the London Bike Kitchen, in


Hackney, are extremely popular with bicycle culture vultures. LBK is an award-winning non-profit that supports folks in becoming self- sufficient and proficient in bike maintenance. “We cover maintenance topics like adjusting brakes and how to fix a puncture, and riding topics like assertive cycling and fitting your bike to your body,” says Jenni Gwiazdowski, LBK’s director. “Sometimes we show films, other times we just have a chat over tea.” Similar enterprises are popping up all over the place, aiming to harness the social and economic power of the bicycle, raising money for charitable work or collecting bicycles for dispatch to Africa. Are they bad for your business or are they doing society a favour by providing cheap - sometimes even free - bicycles for those who may not be able to afford bike shop prices? The more people on bikes the better, right?


Some of the community bike schemes are run from


pokey, pop-up locations, but not all. “We have the largest collection of bikes in one place,” says Jole Rider’s Bike Shed (pronounced ‘jolly’) in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The Bike Shed


is a registered charity, sells refurbished secondhand bikes with proceeds from sales and repairs going to Jole Rider’s bikes4Africa project to get children to school. While some bike shops may grumble about these bicycle


“Care to share what you think of these schemes? Get in touch...” @Carltonreid


recycling enterprises, they probably have to do it under their breath because the schemes are doing it “for a good cause.” Bristol’s Life Cycle has its donated bikes repaired and cleaned by prisoners thanks to a partnership with HMP Bristol, a scheme funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Others “refurbish and repair donated bikes for asylum seekers, refugees and those on low incomes.” Aberdeen’s BeCycle says: “We gather orphaned bikes, fix them up and bring them back to life. This is a community-based workshop which lends out bikes for free, and also offers tools, spare parts and competent help to anyone keen on fixing or building their own bike.” Is BeCycle taking away trade that should, by rights, go to Aberdeen’s IBDs or is BeCycle helping to sustain a local bicycle culture that, in a circle-of-life way, ends up benefitting Aberdeen’s bike shops? I’d say the latter but, then, I don’t own a bike shop.


I’m also biased because I’m mates with Merlin Matthews


(that’s his real name), founder of Re~Cycle, the UK’s biggest and best-known bicycle recycling charity. Re~Cycle receives abandoned bikes reclaimed by councils and the police, as well as those donated by members of the public, and sends them to Africa where they provide transport for those who would otherwise spend significant time walking to reach essential services and resources. Re~Cycle also refurbs Pashley bikes from Royal Mail’s surplus-to-requirements postal delivery fleet. Care to share what you think about these schemes? Do


you grumble they’re stealing your servicing business or do you think they fulfil a societal need?


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MTB street is the 29er-ing of BMX...


@2_flat


Wondering what the Twitterati have been up to this month? Look no further...


Help settle our office debate, Ed Says Die Hard is the ultimate


Christmas Movie Steve Says Home Alone. Do you agree or is it something else?


@PlanetXBikes


We're proposing to install a new BMX track with start/finish


station at Brown's Field, Chesterton. What do you think?


@Camcitco


Expect proposals for significant improvements to Tooting


Broadway to come forward next year. Focus is on improved pedestrian facilities.


@WandsworthRking


There'll be a few jobs appearing on the site in the next


weeks. We're going to have to move office, agaaaain. @Vulpinecc


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