The two-wheeled wonder who repairs kids’ bikes for nothing
Laura Clements meets Mike Jones – the man who repairs bikes and hands them out to children in Wales – for free...
WORKING alone in a shed in Newport, one man has repaired more than 150 bikes and given them away for free to struggling families.
Mike Jones, 45, doesn’t want praise or indeed any recognition, but it is thanks to him that 20 children from Maindee Primary School were able to pass their cycling proficiency test.
His mission is simple, he says: “Trying to get free recycled bikes to deserving kids in need because every child should own a bike.”
When he found out Maindee Primary School had to cancel its cycling proficiency test because only three children out of 20 had their own bikes, Mike immediately set to work.
“Because the area is quite deprived and only three out of the 20 children who wanted to take part had bikes, they had to cancel the whole thing,” said Mike.
“So I fixed up 20 bikes and gave them to the school so the kids could do their proficiency tests. Then they did an assembly and they gave them their certificate and the bike to take home as well.
“So each kid got to take the bike home that they had learned on. That was quite a thing.”
The effect of simply giving a bike to a child can be profound and it’s all the thanks he needs.
What started off as a “sort of cycling Santa” has grown into something much bigger, says Mike.
“It’s kind of exploded really,” he said from his home in Bassaleg. “It started last October, when I just happened to buy a bike from a charity shop for £2.50 which I cleaned off a little bit and offered free to a good home.
“I literally had four days’ worth of phone calls from people asking if it was gone. They said they needed bikes for their kids because Christmas was coming.”
Recognising that there was a real need, Mike carried on with his project. He said: “I just went from there and asked people if they had any bikes they weren’t using that I could possibly fix up and donate and it exploded from there. I’ve done 165 bikes now.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, Mike has had calls for bikes from NHS staff and key workers.
“I’ve done bikes for a couple of nurses,” said Mike. “I’ve even had two junior doctors who caught the train down and rode their new bikes back to Cardiff.”
The former IT manager said he had turned to fixing up bikes after he became a full-time carer for his wife, Rachel, who suffers from a chronic illness.
“It means I’m now at home as her carer,” Mike explained. “Going from working in IT five or six days a week to home was a bit of a change, so I was struggling a tiny bit with it.
“I need to be here for Rachel, but there is a lot of time when she’s resting and I’m sitting around watching daytime television, which is not something that’s me at all. It wasn’t good for my mental health. I needed a project and this happened, purely from that one charity shop bike.
“It’s good feeling useful again and not having to justify not working, because even if you are caring for someone, you feel like you have to constantly explain to people why you’re not working. That was a big part of it really.”
Mike uses Twitter to spread the word and has seen his followers soar from 300 to nearly 2,000. Welsh Cycling has lent him their van to pick up and drop off bikes and the Principality Building Society has donated a batch of brandnew bike helmets along with some tools for his workshop.
Generous supporters send him bits and bobs in the post too, sometimes anonymously, to help him out. It’s things like this which help “keep the project alive”, says Mike, who has been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of people.
“There’s always a voicemail on my phone every morning from a charity or just a local family struggling for some reason or another,” he added.
“It’s great handing the bikes over to kids. I’ve had families who are really struggling. I’ve taken bikes to houses where they’ve got no carpets on the floor, never mind anything else.
“I’ve had autistic children come who can’t go and look at a bike in a bike shop because they can’t be in a public space and I can give them time and space to choose in the garden and have a little try-out with their parents.”
A keen “hobby cyclist”, Mike is entirely self-taught and picked up his bike repair skills from fixing and maintaining his own bike over the years. Initially, he worked outside on his drive in all weathers until a fundraising group on Twitter called Total Mountain Bike set up a Go Fund Me page to buy Mike a shed.
Mike is reluctant to stop, knowing there are so many families out there whom he can help.
“There’s just so much need, I can’t really stop now,” he said. “I did say I was going to stop after Christmas, but it’s gone beyond that and I’m going to keep going as long as there’s the need.
“At the moment, if I wanted to collect 10 bikes a day, I could, no problem at all. I get used bikes, outgrown bikes, I’m even getting classic bikes that I remember from the 1990s in immaculate condition because they’ve just been sat in peoples’ garages for 20 years.”
Mike would rather let his work do the talking and prefers to keep a low profile. He didn’t even go to the assembly at Maindee Primary School because he felt too uncomfortable.
But he does want to flag up that there are bikes available and he is always ready to take donations. He can be contacted on Twitter @PuffaJones.