beCyCle

On our quest for a better accommodation we have send this letter to the city council. Lets cross our fingers!

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To whom it may concern

Proposal for the use of the old public toilets on High street – Old Aberdeen by the beCyCle bike workshop

BeCyCle is a non-profit, all volunteer run community bicycle project that recycles old, unused bicycles and lends them out for free. The workshop provides adequate tools and competent help to meet the needs of those who like to build and repair their own bicycles or do volunteer work. It is an educational space for skills exchange and team work and benefits the local as well as the university community.

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Unfortnatly most volunteers are  gone so we’ll be closed in August except on the following Saturdays:
the 02nd – the 16th – the 23rd – the 30th

bad news: we’ve been robbed on Sunday last week. Our best bikes are gone. Bikes we invested a lot of time in. Fortunately though, a couple of days before the robbery we’ve installed an alarm system which we got from Jim Watson of the Crime Reduction Unit (see one of the previous posts) and it certainly did the job. And luckily, two police officers were in the next building when the alarm went off. So all the tools and spare parts are there and we can continue our work. We lost more than 10 bikes – some really good ones. But we hope that this incident will have some good consequences after all. We need a better, bigger place! We need electricity and light! So that we can keep on growing and improving, yeah!

After all the good things that happened to us lately, this incident reminds me so much of that old Chinese story about the Taoist farmer and the horse and how good things turn into bad things and bad things into good ones and how the mind gets carried away and keeps perpetuating between happiness and suffering – but not the equanimous farmer! read the story here

Other than that, things are great. We get new bikes and parts and other donations weekly. Our sortiment of tools is constantly improving. We have lots of fun projects in mind, like “alley cats” and building fixed gear bikes, etc.  SO KEEP THE SPIRIT!

greeeni

With a bit of delay we did make it into today’s issue of The Press and Journal. check it out!! (also online here)  – A big THANKS again to Neil Hepburn from the lost & found department who had the brilliant idea and found us on the web and donated the bikes, and all the support we got from Jim Watson of the Crime Reduction Unit who sponsored the locks and got the whole thing to the papers. And thanks again to all of you guys and gals volunteering and making this thing happen!!!

Police help students get on their bikes – force donates 40 bicycles to aberdeen university charity

Published: 07/07/2008

ABERDEEN students have the chance to get on their bikes after police donated old bicycles to a university charity. Grampian Police have donated 40 bikes for BeCycle to recycle and lend to students so they can get around the Granite City.  read more…

We were getting a lot of support from the police lately. 40 bikes from one department, 40 bike locks from another. Good things to keep us going and growing. THANKS!!! here’s a post from the grampian police’s website We’ll post about this more soon and add some pictures and more infos. 

03/07/2008      Police support University Bike Project      Aberdeen

Grampian Police have donated 40 bicycles from the lost & found department to an Aberdeen University charity, BeCycle.

It is a non-profit, all volunteer run community bicycle project that recycles old, unused bikes and lends them out for free to students.  The initiative was launched in October 2007 by students of the University of Aberdeen and in addition to offering its bike lending service, BeCycle also provides tools and help to those who want to build and repair bikes.  The project places a strong focus on skill exchange and team work and offers an ideal opportunity for those who want to involved in volunteer work.

The BeCycle workshop facility recently moved into a new property (G34 Don Street) which is provided by the University.  The project is constantly growing and Grampian Police has just donated 40 bicycles from the lost & found department.  This comes in addition to 50 bicycles currently maintained by the projects volunteers.  Grampian Police’s Crime Reduction Unit also supplied 40 security cables and padlocks.

Crime Reduction Officer Jim Watson said:  “This scheme is a fantastic way to provide bikes for the students while they are studying in Aberdeen and we are delighted to be able to assist beCyCle with the supply of bikes and security products.”

Hannah Kruger of beCyCle said:  “We are grateful to Grampian Police for their donation.  A lot of support is coming from volunteers who are joining from across the local and the university community.  The project sustains itself through private donations of bicycles and other equipment.”