Our story

We are The Edinburgh Bike Station, Scotland's largest bicycle recycling charity, taking in nearly 10,000 old and discarded bikes every year. Every bike donated supports our work promoting cycling, sustainability and our community outreach projects. We aim to make cycling accessible for all by broadening public understanding and promoting cycling as an activity that can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter what level of experience.

Why we need your help?

We recently experienced a destructive and, as yet, unexplained fire on our premises. The fire completely devastated the interior of the main building and we have been left with a large hole in the roof of our workshop and office space. The damage exposed asbestos and has left us operating at a substantially reduced level. We have lost a large number of recycled bikes and parts, specialised equipment, our workspace and our office. Community projects have been put on hold and we are struggling to keep afloat after the damage done.

As The Bike Station is not just bricks and mortar, but the staff and volunteers and engaged members of the public that have kept it going these past 15 years, we will not be giving up and, collectively, we are working very hard to keep The Bike Station running. We want to continue our activities in the cycling community and beyond, offering our cycling support services, knowledge and sustainability initiatives.

Even though we are all working very hard, we won’t be able to get through this difficult time on energy alone and would be grateful of any help you may be able to afford us. Although our premises were insured, unfortunately the insurance won’t be enough to cover all damage caused by the fire, as well as the increased demand on our available resources. We are doing all we can to keep the Bike Station going so that we can keep serving the community but we have had to reduce our social services and outreach projects as well as our educational programmes due to the lack of space and equipment. This has had a negative impact on our already difficult situation.



We would like to ask you to please help us to survive through this tough time. We want to rebuild the Bike Station, to make it a stronger organisation. We want to continue to support environmental sustainability by recycling bikes, provide cycling information and support to all, as well as offering free Dr Bike bicycle safety checks and family friendly cycling advice.

We would like you to ask for your kind financial support to enable us to:

Rebuild the training workshop so that we can begin working with youth groups and the community again;

Refit our Fix Your Own Bike area. We need tools and workstands to facilitate the training sessions we offer to the public, whilst providing easy access to professional equipment, mechanical advice and our cycling expertise. This will allow us to teach members of the local community how to repair their bikes themselves;

Replace office equipment to aid the support of our social and community projects;

Replace our educational and training materials;

Overall any donation will contribute to our survival and recovery after the fire so we can carry on our core activities (to promote cycling, providing refurbished bikes to the community, recycling bikes and reduce barriers to cycling) during this difficult time.

How can you help?

Support our crowdfunding campaign

Spread the word, by telling your families, friends and colleagues about our campaign, The Bike Station and our current situation; you can help us to find more supporters

Like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter. Share our posts and retweet us

Show your friends our website, or send them a link to this page - they might be able to help as well

Our rewards

We want to use your kind donations to invest as much money as possible into rebuilding The Edinburgh Bike Station, therefore we won't spend your money on any marketing materials.

We have decided to offer our services as incentive for your kind donations. The more support you can afford us, the more we can do for you in return. Our rewards could be the perfect gift for any bike lover and we would be happy to help you support your local bike charity whilst giving a loved one that special bike themed Christmas present.

Last but not least, we also simply hope that by donating to the Bike Station you will feel satisfied in the knowledge that your good deed has contributed to our future in the community.