What happens to old bikes?
Our aim is to re-use as many bicycles as we can, giving them a new lease of life. We have a team of qualified mechanics who are all specialists in refurbishing all the many different types of bicycle.
We are a social enterprise, and so sell many of the bikes that we refurbish which helps support our work promoting cycling. 75% of people who buy a bike from us would probably not otherwise buy a bike, so every bike donated is helping someone else take up cycling on a quality second hand bike.
We also provide bicycles to other organisations, charities, youth groups etc to encourage others to cycle, usually in conjunction with cycle training.
Bicycle recycling
But not every bike can be repaired - many are either too damaged or rusty, or they are simply not worth repairing. Most of these bikes have at least some usable parts, which we take off - everything from bells to wheels, racks to light brackets. These we use to repair other bikes and to make available to cyclists as spare parts for their old bikes.
The rest of the bike is then sent to a local metal recycling yard as scrap metal for recycling.
Off to the bike station in the sky
The only parts of the bike that end up in landfill are the tyres as unfortunately they cannot be recycled, although we are always looking at things to do with them.
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