Empower, Repair, Ride…
Our Kaupapa
RAD Bikes’ core purpose is improving access to cycling, minimising waste and developing community well-being.
RAD wants everyone in Ōtautahi to have access to bicycles, bike tools, parts and servicing advice. We do this while actively reducing the number of bicycles and associated parts going to landfill, repairing and restoring bikes to increase their useful lifespan. Providing a safe and welcoming environment for people to connect, learn new skills and help one another is at RAD’s heart.
Our Vision
RAD aims to become a full-time operation in a permanent central Ōtautahi/Christchurch location.
We want our thriving community to become a truly resilient organisation running a range of educational, environmental, social and charitable initiatives.
RAD looks to share expertise and equipment supporting complimentary groups and community bike workshops to do fantastic work within their own communities.
Vibrant large-scale community bike workshops around the globe illustrate to us what success can look like and confidence in how we can achieve our vision.
Our Story
Beginning as a Gap Filler project in 2013, RAD Bikes was established to test the idea of bicycle recycling and assisted DIY repairs in central Ōtautahi/Christchurch.
In 2015 RAD became it’s own, free-standing organisation, the RAD Bikes Charitable Trust. Since then RAD has grown and proven it’s place within Ōtautahi’s cycling and waste minimisation communities.
During 2020, RAD significantly expanded services to address increased demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the greater challenge of Climate Change. A second indoor workshop was established marking a significant step towards achieving our long term vision of a real and permanent home.
RAD turns 10!
We were stoked and humbled to celebrate our 10th Birthday in Oct 2023!
We trawled the photo archives and put together a collection of the RAD antics, journey and amazing whānau, that we’ve been lucky to grow…
"The most important lessons one can learn from people reclaiming, remaking, and redistributing bicycles at a local level are precisely those upon which the foundations of a more equitable society must begin: mutual aid, skill sharing, reusing resources, teaching, learning from one another, and realising that there is plenty of everything to go around"
Zack Furness, One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility