Our founders started Bikes Not Bombs in 1984 as a response to United States military backing of the Contra attacks on Nicaragua. At the time, the name was literal- we brought bikes to a place the US military brought bombs. People often ask us why we still keep the name Bikes Not Bombs even though we do so many different types of work. On some level, the bombs we disarm through our work are symbolic. Our constituents in Boston and overseas face daily challenges such as: limited access to public transportation, toxic environmental conditions, street violence, and roadblocks to education and employment– so we use the bicycle to help transform their lives.  But another reason why we keep the name Bikes Not Bombs is because sometimes we have the opportunity to work with a community that has been undermined by war, violence, and fear, and we can give them the tools and skills to change their own lives with bikes.

Not anymore. In the 80's and early 90's, Bikes Not Bombs did have chapters across the country that collected bikes for our programs in Nicaragua. However, the administrative challenges required to ship large sea freight containers around the globe eventually led us to centralize all our efforts in Boston, where we now operate as one consolidated organization. Many of our international partners have partnerships with other bicycle organizations too, such as Working Bikes in Chicago and Re-Cycle in the UK. So far, we’ve been able to meet our need with the bikes we get donated from communities in Massachusetts, and have seen many other organizations that collect bikes from their neighborhoods with which to run local youth programs or support international projects. We provide advice and manuals to other programs to help them start or develop.

Social change means a shift in the way our world works, and at Bikes Not Bombs we think that the bicycle can help us do this in a number of ways. From the way we get around, to what we have access to, to which people and which neighborhoods have which resources, the bicycle is so much more than the sum of its parts. One of our guiding principles is to challenge the forces and effects of systemic oppression. We try to do this by training people to become bicycle mechanics as a viable career path, giving communities with limited transportation access to bikes, and working to make our city and world a better and safer place to ride.

The 5,000 to 6,000 bikes we get donated each year go to one of three program areas. Between 800 and 1,000 go to our youth-led bike shop, where they are refurbished and sold. Roughly 1,000 are set aside for our Youth Pathways employment and education programs, and around 3,500 are shipped to our international partners.

We ship bikes to international partners in the Global South who we carefully select based on their alignment with our values and mission, as well as their capacity and potential to use the bikes to effect larger-scale social change. Some of our partners are social enterprise bike shops that sell the bikes at affordable prices in the local market, other partners are health organizations that distribute the bikes to village health workers, and other partners run youth programs through which young people earn the bikes by learning how to fix them. It is our goal that each bicycle contributes toward the empowerment of its user and provides increased access to social and economic opportunity.

We ship bikes to international partners that we carefully select based on their alignment with our values and mission, as well as their capacity and potential to use the bikes to effect larger-scale social change. This means that the bikes increase the social justice impacts of our partners, and provide significant social and economic development opportunities to the bike users. Each of our partners distribute the bikes in different ways. Some of our partners are social enterprise bike shops that sell the bikes at affordable prices in the local market, other partners are health organizations that distribute the bikes to village health workers and yet other partners are youth programs in which young people earn the bikes by learning how to fix them. It is our goal that each bicycle contributes toward the empowerment of its user, and provides increased access to social and economic opportunity. We are able to achieve this goal through the work of our international partners and their dedication to use the bicycle as a vehicle for social change in their communities.

We do not. The only thing we can give you in exchange for a donated bike is a tax receipt and our gratitude.

Though there are other organizations that ship new bicycles directly from the manufacturers to countries in the Global South, shipping used bikes is consistent with our goal of equitable and sustainable use of resources; using bikes that would otherwise end up in the garbage, and giving them new life.

It is critical that our international bike programs be sustainable. Sending new bikes that will only be discarded when the need for service arises is not sustainable. Instead, we ship used bikes with plenty of parts and tools, and we work with our international partners to ensure they are well trained in bike mechanics.

Shipping a container of bikes begins with relationship building between us and a potential partner abroad. This can involve months of program development, planning, and fundraising. Other resources such as staff and volunteer time to collect, store, and load donated bikes are critical to the process. BNB also invests in a fieldworker for all new projects to join the partner when the bikes arrive, to teach basic mechanics skills. On average it costs about $8,500 in shipping costs to ship a 40' container of 500 bicycles and about $3,000 in customs importation fees, and BNB recovers roughly 80% of these costs from program partners. Once the container arrives, BNB's International Programs staff invests innumerable hours in the continued development and improvement of a project.

Before we take any young people on a ride in the city, we teach them the rules of the road, hand signals, and ways to avoid incidents with cars and pedestrians. The reality is that biking in any major city comes with safety risks, but we believe that the more people that ride on the road, the safer they become. We are also partnered with a number of other organizations in Boston to help increase bike infrastructure and safety.

Our Youth Apprentices and professional mechanics spend between six and eight hours refurbishing each used bike that we sell. They strip off and replace any components that are no longer in working condition. They also overhaul all the rotational systems and replace all cables and housing. The extra time spent on the bikes, and the cost of the new components ends up providing customers with a higher quality product, one that won’t require them to continually spend money over time replacing parts or getting tune ups. Further, a small portion of each bike sold at the shop is used to provide bikes to people in low-income countries and youth in Boston through our Youth Pathways programs.

Though our overall budget is $2.5 million, that number is actually split into two budgets. Profit from the bike shop only makes up about 10% of our program budget. It is a great earned-income model that provides a sustainable source of income for our programs. In addition to being a full-service Bike Shop, we provide free clinics and workshops, open mechanics space (with support) for members, and hire youth programs alumni as often as possible. The shop also runs our Advanced Mechanics program where future bike mechanics learn the skills they will need to succeed.