PRO BIKE SERVICE CIC
High quality bicycle training & servicing enterprise
YES! WE'RE CLOSING! Join us - Sat 2nd July at Joan's, E1 6LA, Shoreditch!
Although we are folding our company and have been asked to leave this site far earlier than expected, and as advised by our counsel, within a very short notice period, we are determined to let as few of our Community Projects collapse as possible. Pro Bike Service CIC volunteers strive to honour their word and be accountable and responsible for their actions, behaviour and agreements. It is built into our Code of Conduct.
In the short remaining time we are permitted to stay here by our landlords, the London Legacy Development Corporation, please wish us luck in seeing that as many of the things we’ve created, collaborated upon or been gifted can remain within the community, a fitting Legacy to the Olympic Spirit our founder came here to serve, in the area he grew up in, East London.
Our Sustainable Cycles programme is dear to all our hearts, and the above musical legends were so moved, they offered to wave huge DJ fees so that EVERY PENNY donated can go to, arguably, to some of the most disadvantaged in the country. A country we may add, continuing to, fail so many.
We are determined and have gone to extreme lengths to save our community assets from collapsing but really….why is this difficult when you’ve actually been doing ok?
SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE
We have also been informed that, upon departure, our 30sqm site on the corner of a 3100sqm garden may be replaced with….
wood chip (?!?)
Hopefully the wood chip in this area of prime real estate will be used for mulch, or better still, as a substrate for mushroom cultivation, perhaps taking the coffee waste from the amazingly good and hyperlocal Roasting Shed as feedstock and serving the mushrooms on the delectable pizzas from Made in Puglia – creating a circular system as first held on this Mobile Garden Site by the ingenious and talented team at R-Urban and Public Works
…now THAT would be a great legacy!
With so many to thank, firstly, we have to send a big shout out to Sarah, Geoffrey, Ludo and the team at the Soho Restauraunt Group, who generously gifted the BASEMENT of their venue to our fundraiser with ONLY THREE DAYS NOTICE when our planned venue fell apart at the 11th hour! [three weeks to organise a party like this, with this calibre of performers, is a little tricky!]
As we have been studying our legal rights, engaging solicitors, project curveballs and without legal assistance from the government for these thing, trying to achieve all this with no income, it’s a little challenging. We are continuing to work as fast as humanely possible to ensure the new tenant, gifted the site we were occupying, can make best use of this land with their proposed wood chip, or whatever else may seed and fruit spores and propogate in this area after we leave…here’s hoping for a Circular Economy model!
That said, we relish a challenge… so what else are we celebrating?
- 300 bikes gifted to local victims of crime and/or those living below minimum wage, especially those with complex and layered needs such as legally settled refugees
- Over £100k revenue generated (our founder has also drawn on average £7,400 P.A for the last seven years – meaning the value added locally by locking-in assets has been compounded)
- Open courseware, IT and Management tools created – nothing we’ve created is copyrighted. Exponential problems need exponential solutions!
- Pioneering reuse and upcycle initiatives, running stalls on the local Roman Road and Broadway Markets and even having to turn down a workshop space in Selfridges due to capacity issues!
- Winner of the 2019 ‘Social Inclusion’ Pitch at the end of London Tech Week
- Winner of TFL’s ‘Added Value’ Award for ‘open sourcing our technologies’ (including supporting the build and launch of Handlebars Repairs Ltd (now rebranded fettle.cc) after our founder turned down a co-founder role there.
- Collaborations with/Lectures/Inspirational Talks given at: Loughborough LDN, UCL, UAL, Stanford and MIT Universities.
- Running a pilot with UCL for a non-clinical health intervention, utilising the bicycle as a tool for preventative as well as restorative health (childhood inactivity, obesity, early onset Type 2, depression, anxiety, etc) – driven to support the ‘NHS Long Term Plan’ ‘People Powered Health’ etc..
- Interviews by the Head of MIT’s Sloan School of Business & the Chair of Loughborough LDN, plus Schumacher College, on how we could deliver so much impact from a 10x3m footprint with volunteers alone (simple – we’re gift-centric, not reward-centric).
- The £35,000 workshop we designed and hand built, being gifted to a project working with UK Veterans*, assisting them to heal from PTSD, on an established permaculture site run by the non-profit, Ediculture (*tbc, requires CIC Regulator approval which we hope to receive)
- As much of £15,000 as possible raised for the Sustainable Cycles programme we spent three years designing for Pupil Referral Units, piloting with Newham, hoping to restart in September. The three year programme was designed to run in-house, unsupported, in the 4th year. We can still achieve this.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Canalside, Hackney Bridge
London, E15 2SJ
exact map location
Access is via the canal towpath directly opposite Bar90
Workshops
Discover the workshop trainings available & how to secure places
[we still aim to create and/or inspire others to create/build upon the 'bike wiki' we were creating, to not only make cycle training much more accessible, but the information, bang up to date...
...anyone keen to run with this baton?]
News & Media
Keep up-to-date with our latest news and here
Pro Bike Service C.I.C. was built to accelerate the transition to an inclusive, empowered, resilient and regenerative economy, specifically within the domain of Active Mobility.
We’re a high end bicycle training and servicing enterprise operating within self-contained premises, capable of being deployed on meanwhile sites to encourage, support and champion a growing number of safe cyclists. We’re skilled and tooled up to service most types of micro mobility vehicles; regular, folding, e-bikes, cargo bikes, recumbents and e-scooters
Our offerings are available to the entire community, utilising and leveraging the power of gift economics. We believe deeply in the transformative power of active travel, social inclusivity and the need for trust, sharing and stewardship within community
Our business model is regenerative and sustainable. We recycle, upcycle or minimise our waste streams, striving for zero pollution whilst offering products and services that directly contribute to the short and long term wellbeing of our community
Our systems and processes are truly open source. We believe there should be no barriers to education, no limits to collaboration and we actively encourage and support innovation and entrepreneurship.
Who's going to fix my gravelbike/e-scooter/recumbent/Brompton now??
For a short while, we’re still located here
Where capacity allows, as always, we share whatever advice we feel is most suitable for the outcome you seek, so after this huge closing party, DO contact us if the advice you seek is not readily available elsewhere. Having working in the area for seven years and led monthly meetup groups for all Active Mobility Providers on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for close to six years, we have a keen understanding of the community’s needs, desires and potential.
As always, the safety and wellbeing of our team and our community come first and although restrictions have lifted, we expect our community to take whatever steps they feel necessary to protect themselves and others, based on solid evidence. Please, if you are ill, test and stay at home. Our policies can be viewed here
Current meanwhile site: analside, Hackney Bridge, London, E15 2SJ, map location