randyjawa 

Bicycles for Humanity - Thunder Bay is about to send its eight shipment of bicycles to far away Africa. That will bring the grand total of bikes shipped to over 4000 units, plus parts from another two to three thousand and eight shipping containers, all of which have been turned into bicycle workshops.

I am proud to be part of this and anyone, who wants to, can make it happen in your own city.

Below is what approximately eight hundred bicycles, compacted by turning bars and removing pedals, looks like when sitting side by each. Approximately 530 of them will be bound for Namibia on November 5, 2011.







As soon as we create some floor space, this coming weekend with our impending shipment, we will be receiving about another 200 bicycles, or more, from satellite communities. Yahoo!!!

mikeybikes

That is totally awesome!

Puget Pounder

very inspiring

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Very cool Randy.

Do you have any post-delivery pictures of the Shipping Containers being used as bike shops? Those containers are so awesomely useful and its very cool to see what creative things people do with them.

fubaru

Before I relocated to Mississippi I volunteered at Workingbikes.org in Chicago - they have a similar program. Mountain bikes go to Africa, others get refurbed and given away locally or sold to support their efforts. They ship or give away around 5,000 bikes a year.

C&Vers in the area should note that in addition to providing rewarding volunteering opportunities, they have what might be the world's largest parts bin. As you might expect, their stash of old Schwinn and other American bikes is amazing. Check 'em out!

bikemore 

Bikes not Bombs in Boston ships a similar number. A large number of the bikes go to Ghana, but they got to the Caribbean, Central America. Other places.

I think I've helped out in loading 3 - 4 containers - not much, but it is interesting to see. I've often wondered what other cities have done. From the outside Boston's Bikes
not Bombs seems pretty substantial.

bikemore 

A article in Mother Jones that times a little more background.

https://motherjones.com/politics/2002/03/cycles-change

Also that they don't just give the bikes away. I think I saw some pictures where locals have to bid on lots of bikes as they come out of the container. A few are reserved for
training new mechanics. This would be in Ghana where they are lots of work has been done in the past.

WNG

Noble work Randy! And impressive logistics and photos.
Curious, if not shipped overseas, most of these would be scrapped by recyclers for money.
Has there been any followup to these shipments to assure someone or some group isn't simply doing that locally and profiting by shipping it as scrap to China?

randyjawa 

You bet. Two of our volunteers went to Africa and traveled with a shipment, in Namibia. Another volunteer did the same thing in Sierra Leone.

I believe, absolutely, that our bicycles are reaching the people who need them. In fact, the head guy in Namibia, came to see our operation. He wanted to find out why our shipments are so much better, from a quality point of view, than almost any other chapter of B4H.

That fellow and I jumped on a couple of my vintage road bicycles and toured Thunder Bay, completing our tour with a stop at a local high school, also partnered up with B4H, where he gave a talk and answered questions. That night we had a benefit, where he again spoke, and the proceeds went to help him pay for his ticket from Africa to Thunder Bay.

For anyone interested, please take a moment to visit the Thunder Bay B4H website. There, you will see some of the work we have managed to do, including the movie made by our group Where On Earth Is My Bike?

balindamood

That's fantastic!

David Newton

This is GOOD!

TimmyT 

Congratulations, Randy! That is some shipment.

Good on you for helping others, too!

illwafer

way to go, randy.

marley mission

good stuff randy

randyjawa 

Well, the bikes are in the shipping container, the seal is on and the whole works is on its way to Africa...



After the last volunteer had departed, I locked the gate to the B4H storage facility grounds, headed for home, via the Dump route, saved a nice old Falcon Black Diamond step through and a Raleigh Competition, in my size, from certain death, since both had been pitched into one of the blue scrap metal bins, a place from which few things ever return...





Yahoo!

bane

That's an accomplishment to be truly proud of. Good work.

Preynmantis

Awesome work!

zukahn1 

I love seeing bikes being used as usefull transportation and not just toys to be threwn out because they have a bent spoke or flat tire. Great work!

curbtender

Thats fun, thanks for saving a bike! It's to bad we can't give them away here without ruining our lifestyles...