The day begins with rain, grey skies and the winding open of our hangar door – and as lights flicker into life they reveal a wonderful Aladdin’s cave of bikes of all shapes, sizes, types, age and colour.  “We are back Tony”.
The kettle is on and the team trickle in for our breakfast meeting of tea and croissants, coupled with an outline plan of campaign for the day.

Hot drinks steaming in everyone’s hands, and our first visitor of the day arrives. Ian is on his 3rd day of work for Dyce Carriers, driving a 45ft curtain sided wagon loaded to the hilt with a wonderful donation of bikes.  These have been collected for us by Rotary Clubs in and around Ellon, north of Aberdeen, and a cracking job they have done too!  This is actually the 3rd delivery we have received - from the lands beyond the north - with the total bikes donated now chalked at 565.  Ian does a wonderful trick of reversing his huge trailer into our space and we begin to unload - with the added fun of a sweepstake to guess the total inside.
Well done you Barry.
And thanks to Jason and his guys at Dyce Carriers – You too have helped change the lives of 565 kids!

Whilst unloading is in progress, a second delivery arrives from Sleaford in Lincolshire.  Rotarians Graeme, David and Colin have been driving since 6am to deliver their Club’s collection of bikes4Africa.  Such is the dedication of everyone involved in this unbelievable business, that is bikes4Africa!  Coffee, photos and a tour of the hangar finishes off another jaw-dropping visit for people who have never seen such a sight.
A massive thank you to all the Rotary Clubs involved - I wish we could take each and every Member to see the incredible difference that they are making in Africa.

Just as all the unloading is finished - and life just happens this way - our Community Payback team arrive!  We work in partnership with Wiltshire Probation Service and the team of six today, led by Lynn, now join in the fun by filing the bikes into the different rows.
Drop bars – shoppers – major works – no works and - the occasional, oo la la, that’s interesting - kind of bikes!  

Bikes stored, stacked and counted we split up and each team has a task to achieve today.  The work never stops here; with over 4000 bikes to either service, strip or ship out - which happens every other month - there is never a dull moment. Today we are turning a forgotten corner into a fully kitted out harvesting area for our donor bikes. This will then be opened up on MyBikeJumble day for the vintage pieces we have found and cherish.

A moment out to take stock of the various projects running today and I’m approached by two squaddies, in the market for a new old bike.  We get chatting and all the while they are grinning – they cannot believe the size of the collection of bikes we have.  I know this feeling - it’s like being a child again!  We talk further about possible connections and finish on the prospect of organising a families’ fun bike ride for base personnel, given it’s an Army base we are pitched on.
Keep an eye on us and Charity Bike Rides for future events.

It’s lunchtime and the crew rest a while to share stories of bike rides, speeding tickets and cat attacks!  You can see it in all our faces that we are happy to be here.  I have immense respect for these guys and their stories.  I sit and listen like a dreaming schoolchild sometimes, but right now we have another visitor.  

A previous customer from one of our MyBikeJumbles, held here every 2nd Saturday of the month. He bought some handlebars from us and I remember talking at length with him about two wheeled shenanigans at the time, so I am pleased to see him back again.  It turns out he is the father of Andy Cook, a Chippenham Wheelers rider and famous in these parts and beyond.  He asks would we mind if next week he rides out with a small group of veterans to see our project?  Of course we wouldn’t mind; it would be a pleasure to have them, so we now have that to look forward to next week.  

More tall tales of gear ratios and tyre choice; I have my attention drawn to another van that’s arrived.  Initially I think it may be an unscheduled bike drop off but out pops a friendly young guy called Clive.  He is a committed cyclist from Cirencester who seems to have a passion for all things two wheeled.  Clearly we have a lot to talk about. This is one of the things that I really love about riding a bike - strangers can share common ground very quickly.  Now Clive is interested in bmx’s and shows me some pictures of him and his son’s work which has involved restoring bikes to their former glory.  I am instantly interested and we agree he can take an old bmx that has seen better days on the promise - his - he will restore it to the bike it once was. I look forward to seeing the finished piece and will post up pictures when we have them.
All of this and I still have a sandwich to finish!

Now, pretty much all day our man Dick has been out gathering bikes from four corners of the county and returns triumphant at the wheel of our van, followed closely behind again by our trailer, thankfully.  Hills Recycling have been cleared out of bikes today and their stocks reset to zero.  We all muck in to unload each bike making sure each is safely parked away for a specific purpose later.  Dick shares with us his own tales of the day, including the cups of tea he has had with ladies who say they are too old now to ride a bike, hence the donation.  
That surely cannot be true Dick?  You have to be dead first, I’m thinking?

So it is getting towards the end of our day and gradually people begin disappearing leaving only their good work as evidence that anyone was here at all!  We put away the kettle and sweep up left over cake crumbs into the bin.  Tony and I switch off the lights as we look back at the slightly changed order of bikes and bike bits.  Locking the doors as we go, we muse on the fact that another fine day was had at the hangar.  But there is another in store for next week!  
Tony says “I wonder who we'll meet next week?”
I ponder, I really don’t know – but it's fun finding out!

Alex Brown – Head of Engineering

    

Rotarians with some of the unloading team [well those still standing], plus Vicky and Dick 

On the last Wednesday of 2011 we will have our End Of Year Celebration.
We will be loading our 6th container of the year with bikes, books and education resources for African schools.

And the highlights of 2011 which we will be celebrating include...

1.   Launching Badge-A-Bike : our Virtual Gift to support bikes4Africa
     Connecting our Learning Development Centre in The Gambia to the World Wide Web
     Running our first Teacher Development Workshops for Gambian teachers
     Holding our first My Bike Jumble : these will now be held every month
     Gaining the support of journalist and broadcaster Jon Snow
     A visit from Jim Moulson, President, Rotary International Britain and Ireland [RIBI]
     Loading our Silver Jubilee Container in July [that was our first 25 containers away!]

So, if you’d like to take a well-earned break from the effort of eating mince pies and watching TV, why not come and join us at the Container Loading? [Between eating more mince pies, and raising a glass or two, we might have you loading a few bikes too.]


Another special bike gets loaded

Challenging weather conditions caused an extremely difficult decision this week.

High winds sweeping parts of the country, coupled with health concerns, meant that on reaching Ironbridge on Day 03 of LE JOLE 2011, jole rider had no choice but to cancel this ride for Eddie’s health and safety.

Eddie Sedgemore, aged 69, left Land’s End on Saturday to begin his epic 2011 mile cycle ride to John O’Groats and all the way back to Land’s End in just 22 days.  Eddie was doing this mammoth bike ride to raise funds for jole rider so that more African children can get to school by bike.

We are all bitterly disappointed and none more so than Eddie himself, who was very difficult to convince that cancellation was in his best interests.

On a positive note, Eddie is raring to go again.  This man will not be restrained! 
We have spoken with our corporate sponsors about this and all have expressed their enthusiasm to support Eddie in achieving his goal. 

In addition, all the Rotary Clubs we are connected with along his route share the very same ambition to support the endeavour.
They all wish to remain involved when Eddie has a second go.

Eddie and ourselves have pinpointed Sat 12 May 2012 for his second attempt to beat his Guinness World Record.

We have, however, added another mile to the distance as a penalty for the delay.
The ride next year will be called LE JOLE 2012, the target being 2012 miles instead of the comfortable 2011 this year!
We have sealed the Donations Bottle and will carry over the cash donations received until we open the bottle again next May.
Eddie's fundraising page on JustGiving will also remain open for donations until after his ride next May.

This time we will be inviting company for Eddie. 
An invitation will be issued to all those that might like to join Eddie on the ride.  That might be for a complete End2End of 1000 miles or for just a day’s ride between overnight stops.
Keep watch on Charity Bike Rides for news.

So, from Eddie and jole rider, a great big Thank You to everyone, including all the Rotary Clubs and Rotarians, who supported Eddie on his epic journey and particulary all our corporate supporters and suppliers of his hi-tech equipment, which included...
The terrific Storck Raddar electric bike..
SatMap which guided Eddie through the twisting country Lanes..
Sport-Cam which recorded the high points of Eddie’s ride from the handlebars..
Retrieva Tracking device which meant we knew where Eddie was every moment of the day

All these devices performed brilliantly for Eddie, unlike the weather of course! 

 

Please take a look at the other images from Eddie’s ride on flickr

 

On the last Wednesday in July we loaded our 25th sea container, packing in 408 bikes and a whole load of books for African schools.

Our loading team included 20 young people from Hackney Volunteer Police Cadets [VPC].
The Cadets travelled all the way to Hullavington for the day to help us.
They also sponsored, and badged, a fleet of 101 bikes.
The bikes will all go to the same Gambian school.
The bikes were all Mongoose mountain bikes donated by Center Parcs to bikes4Africa.

The sponsorship of these bikes was the first part of Hackney VPC's bikes2Gambia project.
The second part involves cadets going out with jole rider to The Gambia next year, to work on bikes and on jole rider's other education projects alongside young Gambians.

Thank you also to Martin, Helen and Ironbridge Rotary Club for the fantastic books.

Thank you, Gillian, for the yummy 25th celebration cake.

Thank you too, Mr A, for helping Hackney VPC raise the funds to sponsor the bikes.

 

 

Rotary President for Great Britain & Ireland, Jim Moulson, visited jole rider to take a closer look at the charity's UK operation.  In April jole rider presented to Jim's Annual Rotary Conference in Dublin, where Rotary Members representing more than 1800 Clubs from around the country heard how jole rider, with their Rotary partners, are changing lives in Africa.  Now Jim wanted to see and understand more, and at the same time meet Rotarians, Mike Naylor and John Crawford, who went to Gambia with jole rider earlier this year.

Jim was amazed to see the bikes all neatly waiting in rows to be shipped to schools in Africa.  He said, "You have to look at each bike as being another student walking to school and the sooner they can get to Africa, the sooner they will change lives. And that is just a money thing - £10 a bike will do that". 

Rotarian Kevin Pitt of KP Despatch was also on hand to explain how his company works with jole rider to move bikes from Center Parcs villages from all over the country to the Hullavington BikeStation.  Jim also met Les, a jole rider volunteer.  Father of Les, Electric Eddie , this September will be riding more than 2,000miles to raise £15,000 for jole rider.  Jim will be welcoming Eddie to his home turf in Paisley, Scotland, on his way up to John O'Groats from Land's End.  You can follow Eddie and his bike, on facebook. 

Jim didn't actually get on his bike of course, at least not this time, but he could see there were plenty to choose from!