In our modern and consumer led society it can be difficult to escape the pressure to buy new products. The bicycle industry is no different. New technologies are developed all the time and new models and components released year on year. Subsequently of course, new bikes and new components can be expensive. Not only that, but the energy and raw materials required to manufacture new things is significant, contributing to the problems of climate change and natural resource depletion. The constant supply of and demand for new, in our case, bicycles leads to another issue, disposal of all the old bikes.
These three issues were what drove us to start Cardiff Cycle Workshop and are the three principal issues that buying a recycled bike can address. Our bikes are not expensive to buy. Typically the price of an adult bike will be £120 to £150. Some are more, some are less according to the quality of the bike, whether it has had any new parts fitted and how much work it needed. In many cases our bikes will cost only a third of what you would pay for a new one. Not only are they affordable, but reliable too. Every bike is serviced and then checked by a different, qualified technician and all bikes are covered by a three month warranty.
The energy required to recycle a bike is of course a fraction of what is needed to make one from scratch. By utilising parts in good condition that have been harvested from other bikes, we don’t need to use new ones, saving energy and resources in that way too. That’s not to say we never use new parts, sometimes it’s necessary, but we will look for a re-use option first. In the past bikes that people did not want anymore may have well have been scrapped, now we can give them a new lease of life, saving material from entering the waste stream and cutting the amount of energy and resources required to deal with it. Naturally we cannot reuse everything (sometimes bikes will be stripped for parts rather than reconditioned) and we do produce a certain amount of scrap metal ourselves. We make sure to deal with our waste responsibly of course and regularly send our waste metal for recycling.
By buying a reconditioned bike you can help us #reduce, #reuse and #recycle. Not only good for us, but good for our community and, dare I say it, the planet. You will also get a serviced and reliable bike for a fraction of the cost of a new one. We hope to see you soon!
