There are such many upsides to buying an Elephant bike that it’s no longer easy to know where to begin. The story started a few years ago when a small Staffordshire-based charity, the Krizevac Project, was given its hands on a fleet of old Royal Mail postal bikes. The virtually indestructible Pashley frames were destined for the scrap heap but had been given a new rent of life in Africa. The antique motorcycles had been stripped down and serviced with the assistance of young offenders in a neighborhood prison who had been operating closer to passing their cycle preservation certificates.
The motorcycles had been then shipped to Malawi, wherein game wardens used them to trip across a black rhino sanctuary’s perimeter fence. The wardens were delighted, but the neighborhood elephants were much less inspired. They directly objected to the unique “Royal crimson” Post Office paint process and frequently charged the wardens. The bikes were again to the workshop where they have been resprayed to a greater “bush friendly” shade of inexperienced. The result was happier wardens and elephants and more secure rhinos.
When you purchase an Elephant motorbike (perhaps they have to have been called a Rhino motorbike?), the charity uses that money to donate a second bike to its social business enterprise, which is also in Malawi. Owning a motorbike, their approach to securing paintings, generating a profit, and getting invaluable training. You purchase one; they deliver one. However, it’s the antique “purchase one, get one unfastened” provided, however, with an ethical twist. In the past three years, the Krizevac Project has despatched 17,446 bikes to Africa – suppose how many lives have improved.
The motorcycles are despatched in transport bins, and every inch of space is packed with donated books, school supplies, gear, and sewing machines. So 98 loaded containers have made their way across the ocean. From a complete stock of over 20,000 postal motorcycles, only approximately 2,500 Elephant bikes are left. When they’re long gone, they’re long gone. So the charity has spent the beyond 12 months considering what to do.
They’ve determined to mix their twin passions of recycling and remodeling lives and give you a Cycle of Good. They’ve skilled neighborhood humans to make satisfactory handmade items in Malawi using traditionally published cloth and recycled materials, like your vintage bicycle internal tubes. The concept is to forestall inner tubes going into landfills and, as an alternative, be sent to Malawi, where they are converted into everything from wallets and pencil instances to backpacks, shoppers, and pc cases.
The plan is that motorcycle stores and cycle golf equipment within the UK and elsewhere will gather vintage tubes and donate them, equipped to be upcycled. There is a tube counter at the website, and currently, it stands at eight,221 “inner tubes accrued so far.” Let’s get it to ten 000. We can help by shopping for those merchandise from the website and, someday, hopefully, from independent motorbike shops, too. All proceeds from the sale of Cycle of Good merchandise move on to fund other non-earnings enterprise developments in Malawi and, possibly maximum crucially, the walking of a kids’ center supporting thousands of children to offer them a better start in life. In the countless debate over whether or not it’s better to present or to receive, it seems we’ve got a clear winner – it’s best to do both!
