Recycle A Cycle

There was an article recently about how African parents spend more on their personal needs namely alcohol and mobiles than on their children’s education and health needs. The story is no different in India where the running of the household is often left to one responsible parent, often the wife.

That sets the context for the latest beneficiary of a recycled cycle.

Parvathamma is the wife of a typical labourer and she herself runs a small tea shop in a village near Kengeri where she lives and also serves as an occassional domestic help. With some savings, she managed to get her 2 sons – Shivaraj, aged 12 and Amar, aged 13 to a not-so-nearby school where she had to pay some nominal fees and also save some money for their books and uniforms. Being the self respecting woman that she is, she refuses to accept any donations for their education from the well-off families where she works. When she realized that the school was a bit far off for the kids to walk – 3.5 kms to be precise, not being able to afford the school van fees and with no BMTC buses plying in the area, she wondered what she could do about it. Thatz when RR Cycles, Madivala bought back an old/unused cycle – a kid sized Hercles MTB – from one of their customers, fixed it and made it available to these kids.

Of course, they could do with another cycle, but right now, they manage to share the cycle between them by taking turns, with one kid taking both the bags and riding to school and the other walking along. The next day, he gets to use the cycle while the other walks along. Well, Parvathamma did want to pay for the cycle in instalments, but when the concept of CycleRecycle, one of the projects of Ride a Cycle foundation, was explained to her, she was convinced and said “God bless the donor’ as she always says when she cannot return a favour.

She laughs lovingly when Shivaraj says he wants to become a doctor and Amar says he wants to become an engineer. Hope the cycle makes the long journey to their destinies a little shorter and more enjoyable.

If any one wishes to donate an unused cycle in this regard, please write to us. The kids are about 4 and half feet, so any cycle that suits this height would be great. If you have cycles of other sizes, there are other beneficiaries waiting. All you have to do is drop the cycle at any of the RR Cycles stores at Madivala, Ulsoor or Yeshwanthpur or alternatively, you could contact them for the cycles to be picked up.

What do u do when you have a cycle that you dont use and there is a needy student who can’t afford one?
You recycle the cycle and that is exactly what Balaji, Deb and Satabdi did – and we have the first 2 cycles now being used by 2 students – one each from DSF and ILP

Manohar is a bright student from the Corporation boys School Malleswaram, studying in the 10th standard - a very important milestone if you are studying the state syllabus in Karnataka.
He visits the Dream School Foundation (DSF) for his extra classes in Maths and Science and aspires to be a Software Engineer.
Both his parents work to barely manage the family and a cycle for Manohar would be out of their reach.

When DSF approached Ride a Cycle foundation which is anchoring the Cycle Recycle project in Bangalore, he had to be the first choice for the first cycle.
Special thanks to RR Cycles of Madiwala for giving some used cycles in addition to refurbishing the cycles.

This is just the beginning.. 5 more bikes and their lucky owners are on the way.

Yes we have been able to make some headway with cyclerecycle.

Yes a cycle has been recycled and more are in the pipeline.

We will put up the details soon.

Also there is a surprise waiting… wait and watch..

Hello world,

CycleReCycle.in is a project aimed at recycling cycles that are unused, broken, abandoned and bringing them back on road.

The project borrows ideas from http://www.recycledcycles.com/, http://www.kiva.org/ and http://thebicycleproject.blogspot.com/

The goal is to build a platform where people can contribute time, money, effort, equipment, information so that more and more cycles can get onto the road.

The project will be run on a not-for-profit basis.

Please get in touch with us if you:

1. Have an old/unused/broken cycle/cycle-part and want to give it away
2. Know abandoned cycle/cycle-part and can help retreive it it
3. Have time to spare to collect cycles, get them fixed or donate them
4. Know people who need cycles for their mobility
5. Have knowledge of cycle fixing and can help fix old/broken cycles
6. Know mechanics who can heelp fix cycles
7. Know manufacturers/vendors who can provide cycle repair kits/parts
8. Have some money to spare to help bring back a cycle onto the road
9. Have interest in the project and have ideas to make it more effective

We are all ears.