Another Day At The Hangar
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
