Women’s Cycling Workshops

Learn to ride and improve confidence, learn road rules and practise basic bike maintenance with qualified women instructors from Pedal Ready and WACC (Workshops for Accessible Cycle Care)
These workshops are for women from a migrant, former refugee or low-income background, (and their friends!).

When/Where	Newtown (Join the Facebook event)	Naenae (Join the Facebook event)
August	Saturday 10th 10am-12noon	Saturday 24th 10am-12noon
September	Saturday 14th 10am-12noon	Saturday 28th 10am-12noon
October	Saturday 12th 10am-12noon	Saturday 26th 10am-12noon
November	Saturday 9th 10am-12noon	Saturday 23rd 10am-12noon

Newtown sessions will be held at The Mechanical Tempest workshop:

224-234 Riddiford St, Newtown, Wellington

Naenae sessions will be held at Treadwell Hall and Rata St School:

Treadwell Hall, 25 Treadwell St, Naenae, Lower Hutt – August, September and November
Rata St School, 73 Rata St, Naenae, Lower Hutt – October only

All sessions are free to attend and you’re welcome to come along to one all four.

Bikes and helmets can be provided for learners – please let us know if you need one so we have the right sizes.

We will also have some activities for children.

For more information, please email us: rebicyclewgtn@gmail.com or message on @ReBicycleWellington

Thanks to our sponsors and supporters:

Newtown charity celebrates 1000th donated bike

Press Release – March 2019

Newtown charity celebrates 1000th donated bike

Wellington charity ReBicycle EkeRua is quietly celebrating this week after it received the 1000th donated bike since the project started in 2016. Of those about 650 have been fixed up and given to former refugees, migrants and others in the community, while about 30 are part of the ‘bike library’ which is leant to adults trying bike commuting, students doing cycle skills or for family events.

The Newtown bike workshop, located at 230 Riddiford St (the old petrol station) has had a stunning year since the doors opened at the beginning of 2018. Mechanical Tempest and ReBicycle EkeRua share the workshop space which is generously provided rent-free by the owners.

Mechanical Tempest is a volunteer-run community bike workshop. The site in Newtown has given them the opportunity to help hundreds of people from all over the region gain bicycle maintenance skills and get their bikes road-ready. The workshop has been consistently busy all year with four open evenings each week.

ReBicycle Hilary and Helen — SWIS students Hilary and Helen with their new bikes

ReBicycle EkeRua has also had a busy year, running over 60 fix up events at the workshop and a dozen kids bike rodeo and family events around the Wellington region.

Coordinator Tessa Coppard says, “The rodeo events are a great opportunity for us to connect with the community and help kids to improve their cycling skills while checking their bikes are safe. We often see those same children in schools when we drop off our library bikes to support cycle skills training or out and about on bikes that we’ve given them. It’s great to see the independence and confidence it gives them”.

Tessa added that “Everything we do is made possible by our generous supporters and an awesome team of volunteers”. Helmets are donated by the Wellington City Council, to those who need them and locks or accessories are bought with proceeds from bike sales or donations.

Last year ReBicycle added EkeRua to their name; this name was given to them by Dr Vini Olsen-Reeder and means ‘to jump on a bike again’.

“We’re incredibly grateful for this name and feel it reflects our kaupapa perfectly” says trustee, Mike Townsend. “Eke can also mean to achieve or overcome, and that’s certainly what we see when people come in and learn to fix their own bikes, or kids learn to ride, or former refugees have been given a bike to help them go to courses or work”.

Together the two organisations want to thank the owners of the site, and also Wellington City Council and all the community groups who have collaborated on events for all their support this year.

Bike KREW Rodeo summer series 2018-19

This summer we’re very lucky to have received funding from Wellington Community Trust to run a series of family bike events. The summer series will include our Bike KREW Rodeo (children’s skills/obstacle course with a range bikes and helmets provided) as well as providing mechanics to help fix up or check everyone’s bikes.

Some of the dates and locations are still to be confirmed but this is what we’re currently looking at:

Nov 24th, 12-2pm – Waitangirua @ Natone Park School
Dec 8th, 12-3pm – Strathmore Christmas in the Park
Jan 23rd, 2-4pm – Naenae Clubhouse Bike Box
Saturday Feb 16th, 1-4pm – Linden Social Centre Open Day
Friday Mar 1st, 3-5pm – pre Weetbix Tryathlon event – Lyall Bay School
Sunday Mar 3rd, 11ish-4pm-ish – Newtown Festival Fair Day, Gordon Place (behind the workshop at 230 Riddiford Rd)
Sunday Mar 10th (rain day 17th), 1pm-4pm – Newtown Festival at Carrara Park
Wednesday Mar 13th, 3-5pm – Dowse Square (pre-Weetbix Tryathlon), Lower Hutt

Please come visit or get in touch if you can help out or co-sponsor an event.

EkeRua

Tēnā koutou katoa! We’ve got an announcement to make… to celebrate Matariki, the upcoming World Refugee Day and our upcoming 2nd-ish birthday, ReBicycle is growing up. We recently asked Vic Uni Te Reo lecturer, PhD and bike rider, Vincent Ieni Olsen-Reeder to help us find a Te Reo Māori name. He generously obliged and came up with a new name that we love, EkeRua. Here’s what it means:

“Eke is the general word given to ‘riding’ modes of transport. This covers all public transport, surfing, skating and cycling. In a sense, eke also means to achieve and overcome. This derivation comes from the word hangarua, recycling, which means to ‘purpose twice.’ Thus the name means to jump on a bike again.”

So from now on, you might see either name or both being used. We’re hoping to gradually introduce EkeRua into everything we do. We hope you love the name as much as we do! Kia ora 🙂

Bike months!

We’ve come out the other end of the bike silly season feeling a bit more relaxed, inspired and energized to do more!

Between February and early April we organised or supported events from Upper Hutt in the north, to Strathmore Park in the south. Bike the Trail, The ReMakery big bike fix up, our own events at Carrara Park, Newtown and Kahurangi School, Strathmore, supporting Neighbours Day in Newtown, Community dinner at Vogelmorn, the International Women’s Day event in Kilbirnie, lots of library bikes coming and going to schools around the region for cycle skills training, and lots of bike fix ups at our Newtown hub.

Somewhere in the midst of it we received some recognition at the Love Cycling awards.

While winter may be quiet on the event front, we will be continuing with our weekly workshops at 230 Riddiford St, Newtown. Open every Wednesday from 6-8pm. Come along and volunteer your time or skills to help fix up bikes for our growing waitlist. Mechanical Tempest will soon have regular opening hours in the same space, so keep an eye on their updates, if you have a bike project of your own you’d like to work on.

Neighbours Day Strathmore Park – Bike KREW Rodeo 2018

The Bike KREW Rodeo is back at Kahurangi School for Neighbours Day in association with ReBicycle Wellington and supported by the Wellington City Council Communities on Bikes Fund, Nikau Foundation, The Tindall Foundation and Thankyou Charitable Trust.

Saturday 24th March, 1-3pm at Kahurangi School, Strathmore Ave, Strathmore Park.

We are creating a temporary bike playground for children in the park. This will include mobile obstacles such as a seesaw, balance boards, slalom, and a range of textures. The aim is for kids to have fun while building skills and gaining confidence: children learn by playing.

Bikes and equipment for children from ages 2-10ish will be provided, plus trained volunteer instructors. All kids with all levels of ability or difficulty can take part.

Bring your own bike and helmet, or loan one from ReBicycle.

For Neighbours Day, Strathmore Park Community Centre are holding a BBQ from 11am-1pm, then ReBicycle will be bringing back the Bike KREW Rodeo to Kahurangi School from 1-3pm. After 3pm you can head on up to Raukawa Centre for a picnic until 5ish.

No rain day planned, but we’ll cancel by about 10am on Saturday if it’s too wet or windy. Check Facebook for updates.

Celebrate Newtown – Bike KREW Rodeo 2018

The Bike KREW Rodeo is back as part of Celebrate Newtown – Newtown Festival in association with ReBicycle Wellington and supported by the Wellington City Council Communities on Bikes Fund, Nikau Foundation, The Tindall Foundation and Thankyou Charitable Trust.

Sunday March 11th, 1.30-4.30pm at Carrara Park, Regent St, Newtown.

Bikes and equipment for children from ages 2-10ish will be provided, plus trained volunteer instructors. All kids with all levels of ability or difficulty can take part.

Bring your own bike and helmet, or loan one from ReBicycle.

Rain day 18th March. We’ll cancel by about 10am on Sunday if it’s too wet or windy.

http://www.newtownfestival.org.nz/

2017 wrap up

We’re not quite done for the year, but we’ve just leaped past a few milestones so it’s worth an update:
505 page likes
422 bikes donated
301 bikes ‘rehomed’ (including 30 bikes sold for fundraising and about 50 bikes scrapped for parts or recycled)
Our bike library consists of 24 bikes (with all our adult bikes currently on loan and the kids bikes have been out regularly to events and schools bike skills training)
Since inception in July 2016, we’ve held 15 events and volunteers have contributed about 910 hours of their time!

We couldn’t do it without the support of our sponsors and the following grants: Nikau Foundation, The Tindall Foundation, Thankyou Charitable Trust, Wellington City Council Communities on Bikes fund, and donations from Switched on Bikes and Tranzit Coachlines & Tours as well as some awesome private donors.

We’re also super grateful for the ongoing support from the following retailers and organisations: The Mechanical Tempest, Newtown Festival, Sustainability Trust, Burkes Cycles New Zealand, Bicycle Junction, Mud Cycles, Iride Store, Avantiplus, and Capital Cycles.

Thanks also to our coordinator, Tessa, who does a stellar job keeping track of orders, bikes and budgets, and is also an amazing cycle skills instructor and pretty handy with a wrench. Her partner, Stephen, for putting up with all the bikes and deliveries, our mechanics Steph and Phoebe from Wenches With Wrenches and Dave in the Hutt, and finally our very cool trustees, Leah, James and Mike all deserve our thanks as well. Plus all of you awesome people who keep turning up to our fix ups and bust ups.

2018 is going to be a busy year for us and we’re excited about collaborations planned with Strathmore Park & Raukawa Community Centres, Changemakers Refugee Forum, and others. As well as building and beautifying our new home in Newtown, we’ll be having regular open evenings and weekend learn to ride sessions in the new year, so keep a look out for those.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi

(With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive)

Once again, thank you all for your support.

Nāku noa, nā

Hilleke (Trustee and Founder)

Thank you Tranzit Coachlines!

We always thought Stuart from Green Jersey Explorer Tours was a good sort, but when he called with an offer of 5 brand new kids bikes for our bike library, we did a double-take. Turns out the good people at Tranzit Coachlines & Tours wanted to donate the bikes they built in a team building exercise to a good cause.

2017-08-29 16.44.41 — Tessa and Mike from ReBicycle, Keven and Robyn from Tranzit and Stu from Green Jersey with the new bikes.

We are incredibly grateful to Keven, Robyn and the team at Tranzit for this generous donation. The bikes will be put to good use by Pedal Ready and on loan through our bike library.
Kia ora rawa atu!

Bike KREW School Days

ReBicycle took the Bike KREW Rodeo on tour to a couple of local schools to use on their Wheels Days. Lots of fun was had at Owhiro Bay and St Ants.

Contact us if your school is interested in borrowing our Bike Rodeo or the kids bike library. The Bike Library now includes 4 brand new 24″ MTB style kids bikes (suitable for ages 9-12) and spare helmets. We ask for a small koha to cover transport costs and repairs.

EkeRua ReBicycle

Recycling pre-loved bikes to make cycling accessible for more Wellingtonians