Homeless Cyclists

[ufkacbln]

I am not going to say where or when..... To save any confidentiality

I once met a homeless gentleman who had recovered from a cycle of drugs, theft and violence

He was now "touring" on his bike... A Dawes Galaxy after someone had stolen his Thorn


No fixed abode, living off casual work begging and handouts

No shame in his existence and a pride in having adopted a lifestyle he was happy with

 

[clid61]

Ni

I am not going to say where or when..... To save any confidentiality

I once met a homeless gentleman who had recovered from a cycle of drugs, theft and violence

He was now "touring" on his bike... A Dawes Galaxy after someone had stolen his Thorn


No fixed abode, living off casual work begging and handouts

No shame in his existence and a pride in having adopted a lifestyle he was happy with

Nice one

 

[RedRider]

I work with homeless people and can confirm that bicycles are as good a thing for peeps without secure housing as they are for anyone else.
There's a few projects already on the go that I've had contact with and supported clients to attend etc
Squeaky Chains (i think it's still on the go anyway) was set up by an amazing bloke battling homelessness and a few other demons. He'd toured the world on his bike picking up great stories, is incredibly knowledgeable about cycling and set up a project where the homeless and former prisoners could build their own bike, learning all the mechanical stuff, potentially becoming qualified mechanics and then get to keep ithe bike at t at the end.
Another one run by a similarly charismatic guy with a zeal for cycling is run from the ace of clubs in Clapham.
The organisation I work for has a link up with some corporate folks who fix up bikes and donate to us. We can match the bikes up with people who are making positive steps in their lives and for whom a bike makes a difference. Could be about using a bike to get to work, to attend appointments, socialise or simply to improve physical and mental health. In other words the same things we all find useful about bikes.
@clid61 my advice is contact your favoured local homelessness organisation / project and talk to them about donating.
and nice one btw

edited for typos!

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I tend to give my "crap" away to refugee charities like ASSIST

By "crap" I mean, like when I've bought 10 assorted bikes from eBay in disrepair and made 3 pretty good bikes, 4 decent bikes and then 2 "crap" clunkers that I make sure are as good as new BSO's and at least rideable and safe (so in that respect probably an improvement on when ASDA sold them). And no, my maths isn't wrong as there is usually one pile of unusable bits left to make into other things

Last one I gave away through a friend was a gas pipe ladies British Eagle MTBSO, weighed a ton, had rusty chrome north road bars but was appreciated as even riding that was better than walking 5 miles each way

http://www.assistsheffield.org.uk/news/300/got-bike-you-dont-use-anymore

There must be schemes like this in other cities