Look around the Recycled Cycles warehouse and you’ll find just about anything necessary to fix up a bike.
And that’s a good thing, because it’s exactly what the space is used for. Hence the name of the Goodwill program.
There are boxes of handlebar grips, ranging from standard white to hot pink. Tires and rims of all sizes line some shelves to go along with brakes and chains. Then there’s the massive amount of bikes just about everywhere you look. And we mean everywhere – like a bike lovers Christmas morning kind of everywhere.
We’re talking rows and rows of kids bikes with superheroes and Disney characters. Mountain and road bikes, BMX racers and maybe even a beach cruiser or two. It’s hard to tell with that many piled in one spot – and that’s just the ones they’ve gone through. One bike even had bottle rockets taped to each spoke, which we assume was done at one point to set a new land-speed record.
All the bikes have been donated to the program since March of last year, when Goodwill was first approached by the Central New Hampshire Bicycling Coalition. The coalition has an annual bike swap in May and wanted to see if Goodwill would help. The non-profit organization provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people facing barriers, so they connected with the women’s prison and set out to fix up some bikes.
And it turns out that the 100 bikes that were fixed up all sold at the 2013 swap. At that point it was just a pilot program, but with that kind of success there was no reason to stop – and with a $10,000 grant from the bicycling coalition, it wasn’t that hard to keep it going. What started out in an office space on North Main Street is now housed in the large warehouse off Locke Road.
“We were all so excited about the pilot program,” said Kelly Paquette, Recycled Cycles program manager. “When we first started, we had no idea if we’d get 10 bikes or 10,000 bikes.”
Goodwill already had the space, and it was perfect for the bike shop – and is it ever space that they need. The grant allowed them to buy tools, bike stands to make the rebuilds a lot easier and hire a paid employee.
That employee is Dorrie Wallace. Wallace has been with the program since day one and began as a program participant. She works along with volunteer Curt Crow, who has been fixing bikes for years in his home workshop and is a member of the bike coalition.
With more than 1,000 bikes fixed and sold in the year and a half since the program began and hundreds more in the warehouse, Wallace and Crow have seen bikes in all conditions come through the door. Some are just about brand new and in need of a tune up, while others require a little more TLC.
“We get anything,” Wallace said.
“Some are in perfect condition, even new in the box, and some that are beyond repair,” Crow said. “That’s why we do an evaluation to see if we can repair it.”
During the warm months, when everyone is typically seeking a new ride, the duo work on the bikes that are quicker fixes. The fall and winter is when some of the more in-depth projects take place.
“In the spring and summer, we try to get as many bikes done as we can,” Crow said
And don’t think they don’t notice a Recycled Cycles original when they see one.
“I’ll be up by the store and I see someone riding and I’ll say ‘that’s one of our bikes,’ ” Wallace said.
The bikes are brought in from Goodwill stores all over N.H., Maine and Massachusetts after being received as donations.
“We get donations from everywhere,” Paquette said. “People can go to any Goodwill store and drop it off and it will get to us and it keeps all the bikes out of landfills.”
They are looked over to see if they are salvageable, and if the entire bike cannot be saved, it’s broken down for parts. Paquette estimates 95 percent of the parts used are recycled.
“We mix and match a lot,” Paquette said. “It’s all about recycling and reusing.”
While it looks like chaos at Recycled Cycles, there is some order to it all. With hundreds of bikes on hand, there’s got to be.
In addition to the annual swap, where the program sold 200 bikes this year, the refurbished pedal machines are sold at the Concord Goodwill store on Loudon Road. So if you’re in the need for a new ride that’s not necessarily new, then you should check out the selection.
“Someone can get a safe and reliable bike for somewhere around 30 bucks,” Paquette said. “And all the money goes back into Recycled Cycles to keep it going.”
Some of the nicer donations, like the 1967 purple Schwinn that Crow fixed up in his home shop, are being stashed away to be auctioned off one day. There’s also been talk about having a Christmas sale at the warehouse and one day turning Recycled Cycles into a community bike shop, but those are a few of the things still in the works.
“We’re getting there one step at a time,” Paquette said.
Paquette is also looking to add a few more volunteers to help with the large quantity of yet-to-be fixed bikes. To find out more about Recycled Cycles, email Paquette at kelly.paquette@goodwillnne.org or call 369-3010 ext. 5703.
