Bike aid for Africa

To ensure that your Headwater cycling holiday runs as smoothly as possible we train all our bike reps to the highest standards and, every bike that Headwater supply is thoroughly cleaned and checked between each tour. As part of our on-going maintenance routine we will often need to replace parts which, although still serviceable, don't meet the standards for safety, reliability and comfort that we have set outselves. With over 800 bikes in use throughout the season, we soon build up quite a stockpile of used parts!

So what to do with these parts?

Obviously we don't just want to see these items go to waste so, in December 2008, Headwater teamed up with the charity Re~Cycle to provide parts for their cycle projects throughout Africa.

Re~cycle's mission is to provide bikes, equipment and training to Africa where their partners distribute the bikes and teach riders the skills to repair and maintain them. The bikes also help health/AIDS workers reach remote villages and even provide an ambulance service in remote Namibia.

To help them in this quest Headwater have donated a huge selection of assorted spare parts to their base in Colchester, including around 150 sets of brakes and brake levers, over 70 rear derailleurs, 50 front derailleurs and 100's of other assorted parts. Our ongoing commitment to the project will mean that everything we replace on our bikes in the future (even old brake blocks and worn tyres!) will be reused. Headwater will be taking these supplies of servicable used parts to Re~Cycle at the end of each summer season.

You can help too!

You can help Re~cycle to continue their work by donating your old bikes, tools, bike manuals or old (working) mobile phones. Smaller items can be sent to their warehouse in Colchester, or check out their website at www.re-cycle.org for details of where you can take your old bike.

You can also bring your old bikes and/or spare parts to our offices here in Cheshire if that is more convenient. We will then pass them on to Re~cycle when we deliver our stocks of used parts.

That's exactly what the parents and pupils of Kingsmead Primary School did on their recent Big Donate Day, when their generosity resulted in a mountain of bikes being donated.

In fact, the response was so impressive that we enlisted the help of local news programme, Granada Reports, to see if anyone could help with the delivery of the bikes to the Re~Cycle warehouse.

We'd like to thank everyone who contacted us with offers of help and, in particular, Stuart Brown of Backstage Events who will be transporting over 140 bikes down to Colchester on our behalf.

We'd be happy to receive even more old bikes and parts though! So if you'd like to bring something along to our office simply call Mike Wheeler on 01606 720006 (or email Mike.Wheeler@Headwater.com) to arrange a convenient time.