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Bike Donate

Give Your Old Bike A New Life: Donate It!

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Donate Your Old Bike Today!

If you listen to KCBX or any other public radio station, you’ve probably heard announcements asking for donations of old cars to help sustain their programs. You donate a car, it gets sold at auction, a percentage of the proceeds go to your favorite public radio station (and you get a tax break).

It may surprise you to know that Bike SLO County has a similar program – but instead of cars, we accept bikes. When you donate your old bicycle to Bike SLO County, your gift works in a number of ways:

  • By donating your old bike instead of throwing it away, you’re helping the environment by keeping it from heading to a landfill before its time.
  • Your bike will be tuned up and given a new life, giving someone else years of joy and transportation.
  • Your bicycle may be sold to someone looking for a gently used bicycle. The proceeds help Bike SLO County fund our other programs (Bike Education, Bike Valet, Bike Advocacy, Kidical Mass)
  • Your bicycle may be donated to someone through our Ride Well program, which serves SLO County families and individuals in need, for whom a bicycle may provide much needed mobility.
  • You get, at your request, a receipt of your gift that allows you to deduct your donation on your taxes.

Bike DonateWill We Accept Any Bike?

Great question! While we do accept most bikes, we can’t accept all bikes.

  • We do not accept “department store” bikes (Next, Roadmaster, Magma, modern Free Spirits). Why not? These bicycles are often constructed with very low quality parts in non-standard sizes and are not designed to be serviceable. Due to their limited compatibility, we are not able to make sure that they are safe to ride.
  • We do not accept bikes that are beyond help. That rusted bike that has been buried in wet leaves for the last 3 years? No thanks! Use your best judgement. When in doubt, call Michael at 547-2055 and ask us if your bike sounds like a good candidate for donation.
  • We do accept most other bicycles and will repair them (or use them for spare parts). “Old” does not mean we won’t accept it – it’s about quality, not age.

What’s The Next Step?

Ready to give your bike a new life? Bring your bicycle to the Bike Kitchen, 860 Pacific St, Suite 105, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (map) any Friday, Saturday or Sunday between the hours of Noon – 5 PM.

Thank you for helping make SLO County an even better place for bikes!

 

Giving Tuesday 2015

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Lend a hand for Bikes on Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday, often stylized as #GivingTuesday for purposes of hashtag activism, refers to the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving, December 1st in 2015. It is a movement to create a National Day of Giving and Philanthropy at the beginning of the holiday and Christmas season.


To mark this #givingtuesday, anyone who wants to celebrate the powerful positive role that giving plays in our world is being givingtuesday_sliderasked to donate & share their own ‘unselfie’ on their favorite social media sites & by email. What’s an #unselfie? To take an unselfie, write on a piece of paper the name of the charitable cause you’re supporting on Giving Tuesday. It could be as simple as “#Bike SLO County” or as involved as “I support better bikeways in SLO County” or whichever reason you feel moved to give.

Add the tags #unsefie, #givingtuesday and #bikeslocounty, then hold the piece of paper in front of your self (or even in front of your face) and snap an unselfie. We’ll even have some preprinted sheets available in our office (map), or you can download PDF or JPEG color or black & white versions online: Color PDF version: Color JPEG version : Black & White PDF version : Black and White JPEG version

End of Year Campaign

Giving Tuesday kicks off Bike SLO County’s annual End of Year fundraising campaign. SLO County had a fantastic 2015, with lots of countywide bike projects completed (bike lanes in Paso Robles on Riverside, Union and Creston roads, a fantastic bike and pedestrian bridge & trail in Morro Bay, new bike lanes and green striping at Arroyo Grande High School, the very first blacktop bike safety course in California at Oceano Elementary, buffered bike lanes in Los Osos on LOVR, new green lanes on Broad, California & Madonna streets in SLO) and major projects funded for the coming years. We’re hoping you’ll help make 2016 even better. Our goal is to raise $25,000 for safer bikeways around SLO County by midnight, December 31st. Please consider a donation on Giving Tuesday, or anytime before the end of the year at bikeslocounty.org/donate

Donate Your Old Bike

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Every year our Bike Kitchen helps thousands of people learn to fix their own bicycles. We’re able to accomplish this because we have all the parts, tools and knowledge that people need to get the job, whatever it is, done. We can teach people to build a bike from the ground up, to fix the junker they found at a garage sale, or to simply tune up their bicycle or fix a flat. We serve all types of people, and are committed to creating a safe space for everyone.

Bike Kitchen Hours ExpandOne of the ways the Bike Kitchen earns enough money to continue to provide these services is through the sale of gently used bikes. All of the bicycles we sell are bikes that have been generously donated, by people just like you. When a donated bike arrives we get to work, tuning it up with care so that it’s in the best possible shape when it gets back on the road (or trail).

Who Donates Bikes?

All kinds of folks donate bicycles to us. Sometimes when someone buys a new bike they think of us and donate their old one. Every now and then we receive bikes from people who are getting on in years and are focusing on other interests. Many bikes come from people whose eyes are bigger than their storage (too many bikes, not enough space).

Regardless of who you are, we hope that you’re someone who will donate your old bicycle to the Bike Kitchen. We’re usually able to offer a wide variety of bikes for sale, but every now and then donations slow down and the number of bikes for sale dwindles. This is one of those times. Please consider a donation to the Bike Kitchen, and remember that your donation is tax deductible. Just ask us for a form and we’ll gladly provide one to make your write-off as easy as possible.

We accept most bikes, other than “department store” bikes like Next, Roadmaster, Magma, and modern Free Spirit bikes. These bicycles are often constructed with very low quality parts in non-standard sizes and are not designed to be serviceable.

Ready to donate? The Bike Kitchen is open from Noon – 5 PM, each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Have questions? Call us at 805-547-2055 during Bike Kitchen hours or email tyler@slobikelane.org.

Like Bikes?

Become a member of The Bike Coalition – it’s free to sign-up and we’ll keep you informed every month about bike events and issues in SLO County. Click this link to join: I Like Bikes!