Cardiff Cycle Workshop’s Jon Howes explains the journey a bike takes through his business, from its initial donation to the repair process and finally the moment it goes to a new home.
Here at Cardiff Cycle Workshop we have been recycling, or reusing, bikes for 14 years. To date, we have sold 7475 bikes, and last year was our most successful, with a total of 872 bikes sold. The emphasis on sales is not accidental – without that revenue, the enterprise would fail quite quickly.
While a team of volunteer mechanics help to repair the donated bikes there are the same costs associated with any business; rent, utilities, materials and of course, staff like me.
Those costs must be covered if the enterprise is to be financially sustainable, only then can we hope to promote “sustainability” in a wider sense. In this case study, I hope to show you how we go about that.
Stage 1: A bike is donated
It all starts with donated bikes. One of the reasons bikes lend themselves well to the circular economy is a ready supply of unwanted bikes. Obsolescence, children growing, and people ageing are just some of the reasons why members of the public donate bikes.
Coupled with a desire to see things repaired and used again, our supply of donated bikes, while seasonal to a certain extent, is very reliable. The bike we are going to follow through the recycling process was donated on Tuesday 25 June.
It’s not in bad condition, despite being around 20 years old, as it had been stored in a garage. I asked Jo, the donor, why she wanted to donate the bike to us; “I just didn’t want to see it go to waste” was her reply.
Another key factor in attracting donations is our non-profit status. As a social enterprise, we aim to increase people’s access to cycling in Cardiff. The benefits of more people cycling, to the community, are well documented and it seems that the public recognises this and wants to help us achieve our mission.
The public supports us not only through donating bikes and volunteering as technicians in the workshop (both activities are a staple of the third sector) but also by paying for repairs, training courses, bikes and, in the case of corporate customers, utilising our on-site bike maintenance services.
As a relatively simple machine, bikes are, potentially, easily repaired – another reason why they lend themselves well to reuse.
Stage 2: Check whether the bike is reusable
The first stop for our donated bike is an initial assessment of viability by a staff member. This is based on several factors: Is it repairable? How long will it take? Can we easily get components for it? How much will it cost? Do we need this bike in our range? Will anyone want to buy it? Will the final price offset any costs?
Written like that it sounds a bit complicated and whilst the parameters might change from week to week, these are generally decisions that we can make pretty quickly.
If the bike is deemed unviable, we will strip it for any usable components. Some components, such as tyres or chains, will have a lifespan and if they are worn we won’t use them. However, many items can still be used and we have built up a large stock of “harvested” parts over the years.
If the bike is to be repaired one of the volunteer mechanics will complete an assessment and, with the help of a Volunteer Supervisor, undertake any required repairs. We will always try and use reused parts in the first instance, with brand new parts being fitted when that is not possible.
We keep a comprehensive stock of components for use by both the recycling and commercial repair workshops. Without immediate access to replacement items, either new or recycled, the enterprise cannot function efficiently.
Very quickly we would find half-finished bikes building up while we waited either for suitable donor bikes or ordered parts to arrive.
Stage 3: Repairs begin
Our bike in question required a new fork as the old stem had seized into the steerer rendering it unusable, as well as new hub bearings, a chain, cables and brake pads.
The recycling workshop is supervised by a staff member, with the repair work undertaken in the main by volunteer technicians.
I asked Richard, a long-standing volunteer, why he chose to donate his time and he said: “Bikes are wonderful machines; efficient, cheap, convenient, non-polluting, and they keep you healthy, so on my retirement, an opportunity to help restore and recycle bikes, especially making them accessible to the less well off, seemed like a great thing to do.”
The work of the volunteers is critical to the success of the recycling program. If the bikes were recycled by paid staff, the costs associated with each bike would increase massively.
To cover those costs, the prices we charge would also have to increase. It is doubtful that we could sell the bikes at these prices, as this would pretty quickly render the whole venture unviable. While the desire to buy a reused, sustainable product is real, the desire to save money is stronger.
Final stage: Quality assessment and sending the bike to a new home
The final stage of our bike’s repair journey is a PDI or Pre-Delivery Inspection. This is a quality control process carried out on every bike by a qualified staff member. It is vital for a few reasons, customer safety being first for obvious reasons.
Secondly, a reputation for reliability differentiates us from other sources of used bikes, such as Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace. Yes, our bikes may be more expensive than ones you find on the web, but the customer knows where we are and the bikes are all sold with a 3-month warranty.
Thirdly, it means customers return or recommend us. Achieving social aims is pointless if the product is poor; customers will simply not come back and they will certainly tell others about their poor experience. Pretty soon we wouldn’t sell the bikes we refurbish and we would not meet our social aims.
Lastly, it means we can be proud of the bikes we produce, an important factor in maintaining staff and volunteer engagement. Thankfully the Dawes got through its PDI with only minor adjustments!
Finished bikes are photographed and posted on the Bikes for Sale page of our website. Here customers can see details of sizes and prices ahead of the weekly sale. We feel it is important for people to try the bikes before they buy them so have opted not to sell online.
Sales take place on Friday afternoons and the first Saturday morning of the month, using our parking bays as a display area with customers booking an appointment to come at a particular time. This format works well, enabling us to offer each customer personal attention as well as allowing customers to try several bikes.
We don’t open during the rest of the week, as, without having a showroom as such, our bikes are packed away inside. Selling demands a lot of staff time, meaning we would either need more staff or do less other work.
The buyer of our Dawes, for £180, is Emily, who visited after a friend told her about us. She told me that she didn’t want a “brand new bike” for reasons of sustainability, but also because she didn’t want her new bike to be a target for thieves. The fact that we were a reputable business and that the bike came with a warranty were also important to her.
The Dawes was the 270th bike we have sold this financial year and we are currently on track to increase our sales by an estimated 13%. However, increasing bike sales does not tell the whole story of our business. We have found that the different elements of our enterprise dovetail very well with each other.
Once a customer has purchased a bike they will very often bring it back to be repaired or book a training course to learn how to maintain it. Repair customers sometimes find that their repair job is too expensive and will come to buy a recycled bike instead.
Trainees return to volunteer as mechanics and any new cables removed from the training bikes can be utilised in the recycling workshop. This synergy is not only good for customers but also helps to sustain the enterprise as a whole.
The story of one bike
While this is the story of just one bike, it is a process that has been repeated over 7000 times.
When we started back in 2010 we were surprised with the amount of support we received. Today that support, whether in the form of donations, volunteering or purchases just continues to grow.
I like to think that demonstrates an increasing desire amongst the public to be sustainable. Hopefully, we’ll be able to satisfy that desire for a long time to come.
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