MarinMartin
Marin Fan
Hi everyone. Did you miss me? (Actually don't answer that....). I won't bore you with the details so the short version is I went through a difficult time, had to give up cycling completely because of my health and it all went downhill from there. But that's enough negativity...because things are looking up. Not being able to do my 24 hour races was devastating but it gave me the opportunity to look at things differently and am now going to attempt one of my biggest (non bike related) dreams this year.
About 5 years ago I decided to try and teach myself how to fix bikes so I devised a plan to take scrap bikes, fix them up and donate the money to charity. I could only ever afford a £10 apollo to start me off but that rusty old mismatched heap was the best thing ever to me so I want others in my - then - financial situation to be able to experience cycling) It went brilliantly until a small group of people started bullying and harassing me over it and with my anxiety taking over, I called it quits as I couldn't cope. Well after 4 years I've decided to start it again to give me the interaction with bikes I need even when I can't train (I'm a bicycle addict...if you don't like it, you're in the wrong place
). On a much smaller scale this time, just doing a handful of bikes at a time as the biggest difference between then and now is the fact that then I was unemployed and had all the time in the world, now I work full time so only get to play around with them on rare days off and evenings, but still donating the profits to a local charity - Cornwall Hospice Care. I've supported them through various ventures over the years after my grandad spent his final weeks there and the hospice was a major support for us all through such a horrible time.
So my plea. I don't want to call it begging or scrounging (I know it is) but if anyone is just throwing bundles of parts out because they're no longer any use or past their prime, they could still be used to fix the type of bikes I have. I'm more than happy to pay for them, just hoping I can find cheap job lots of parts as I only sell the bikes around £20 (maximum I'll ever sell a bike for is £25 as I want to keep the ethos of keeping bikes as cheap as possible for those who can't afford a lot) so anything I can get cheap means more money for the charity.
Apologies for my first post back being a beg. Please don't interpret this as me being a scrounger as that's what happened the first time. I'm not asking for top parts, just cheap bundles of old surplus parts that are worth next to nothing.
Thankyou.
About 5 years ago I decided to try and teach myself how to fix bikes so I devised a plan to take scrap bikes, fix them up and donate the money to charity. I could only ever afford a £10 apollo to start me off but that rusty old mismatched heap was the best thing ever to me so I want others in my - then - financial situation to be able to experience cycling) It went brilliantly until a small group of people started bullying and harassing me over it and with my anxiety taking over, I called it quits as I couldn't cope. Well after 4 years I've decided to start it again to give me the interaction with bikes I need even when I can't train (I'm a bicycle addict...if you don't like it, you're in the wrong place
). On a much smaller scale this time, just doing a handful of bikes at a time as the biggest difference between then and now is the fact that then I was unemployed and had all the time in the world, now I work full time so only get to play around with them on rare days off and evenings, but still donating the profits to a local charity - Cornwall Hospice Care. I've supported them through various ventures over the years after my grandad spent his final weeks there and the hospice was a major support for us all through such a horrible time.So my plea. I don't want to call it begging or scrounging (I know it is) but if anyone is just throwing bundles of parts out because they're no longer any use or past their prime, they could still be used to fix the type of bikes I have. I'm more than happy to pay for them, just hoping I can find cheap job lots of parts as I only sell the bikes around £20 (maximum I'll ever sell a bike for is £25 as I want to keep the ethos of keeping bikes as cheap as possible for those who can't afford a lot) so anything I can get cheap means more money for the charity.
Apologies for my first post back being a beg. Please don't interpret this as me being a scrounger as that's what happened the first time. I'm not asking for top parts, just cheap bundles of old surplus parts that are worth next to nothing.
Thankyou.
