A new social enterprise hopes to repurpose some of the estimated 500,000 bikes which end up in landfill each year while giving young adults with disabilities a taste of working life.
Shop manager Kieran McMahon in Brainwave Bikes.Simon Schluter
Brainwave Bikes,which opened on Saturday in a 700-square-feet superstore in the south-eastern suburb of Dingley with 600 reconditioned second-hand bikes,claims to be an Australian first:an initiative to reduce landfill,generate income for Brainwave Australia (a charity for those with brain injuries or neurological conditions),and provide work experience for those young people through the WISE job placement program.
“We are hoping to be the Officeworks or Bunnings of this category,” said Paul Bird,chief executive of.
“We want to avoid pity purchases. Someone buys something from a charity,but it’s not good quality so they don’t buy it again,” he said.
There are some real gems among the 600 bikes,all of which are available to buy online at.
Amid the retro bikes and funky mountain bikes are a girl’s cute 12-inch (30-centimetre) pink bike with dolls seat for $35. There is also an adult vintage 48-centimetre bike with a duck blue frame and wire basket,leatherlike handles and caliper rim brakes for $100.
Shop trainee Daniel Coats,24,who is a client of Brainwave,is excited about his job. His duties will include interacting with customers and mechanics and organising his own transport and lunch.
Kieran McMahon and trainee Daniel Coats working to repair a bike.Simon Schluter
“Brainwave Bikes has given me a purpose in life,” he said.
His mother,Vicky,added that this is the first time in his life that Daniel had been given a chance and been accepted as himself.
“This sparks something in them. When it comes down to it,they want to work and earn money just like any other young person,” Bird said.
The need is great. At the said only about 54 per cent of the nearly 4.5 million people living with disability were in the workforce – a participation rate that has not changed in 28 years.
And Australia has the seventh-lowest employment rate for people with disabilities.
Each year about 500,000 bikes end up in landfill. The numbers are predicted to swell because during 2020-’21 – in the middle of lockdowns – Australians imported 1.75 million bicycles.
“The good news is that people took up more cycling during the pandemic. That’s a big tick. But half[the bikes] will end up in landfill,” Bird said.
Kieran McMahon is the manager of the superstore.
“Bikes don’t just have one life. It is not a use and dispose thing,we want to complete the circle and we have ability to do that,” he said.
“It’s the first superstore for used quality bicycles which have been refurbished and tested.”
Bikes can be dropped off at Mercedes-Benz car showrooms,some hard rubbish collections organised by Cleanaway,some council transfer centres,some local Scout groups and 99 Bike shops.
The enterprise is also supported by the Newsboys Foundation,Lord Mayor’s Foundation,City of Kingston and Chain Reaction.
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