Our Work

Building with Recycled Materials

Re:Ciclos, translated to English, means Regarding Cycles, as in cycles of life, cycles of materials, cycles of generations of humans…We live in a society of excess and our project salvages some of those excesses in the form of bicycles, bike parts, scrap metal and other materials to create cargo bicycles. Through this process, we interrupt the cycle of excess and waste to create a resource for community members that normally cannot access cargo bikes due to socioeconomic barriers.

Additionally, Re:Ciclos creates cycles of knowledge transfer and skill building, through an internship program designed to educate, empower, and create hands-on opportunities for underserved young adults. Our youth interns build up their resumes, gain job skills and expertise, and help us increase the number of cargo bikes in our communities.

CARGO BIKE LENDING PROGRAM

Our client Jamie bringing groceries home in a cargo bike

Our Re:Ciclos CBLP (Cargo Bike Lending Program) serves community members facing socioeconomic barriers to acquiring a cargo bicycle for their daily activities. If you or someone you know is someone who might qualify, please get in touch. We work on the honor system – no need to show us proof of income.

CUSTOM CARGO BIKES FOR PERSONAL OR BUSINESS USE

Re:Ciclos works with young adults in an internship program designed to expose them to a variety of skills, from fabrication and mechanical systems on bicycles to client relations and community outreach. If you are in the market for a cargo bicycle that is made custom, locally, independently, conscious of natural resource preservation and based in capacity-building, we are here to fit the bill. We can custom build a cargo bicycle to your application and specification while teaching our interns unique and vital skill sets.

Please drop us a lineif you think you’d like a cargo bike from us so we can talk about design, budget, timeline, and more.

All proceeds from custom cargo bicycles help our organization stay afloat and provide vital workforce, skill-building and community-based experience for our interns, in turn building our capacity, theirs and yours in combating systems of social and environmental oppression locally and globally.

METRO ADOPT-A-BIKE PROGRAM

Many people in Los Angeles cannot afford a bike, meaning that they are denied access to sustainable, accessible, liberating mobility. In response to this challenge, Re:Ciclos partners with LA Metro to distribute bikes to communities that have been deprived of resources. Re:Ciclos tunes up bikes from Metro’s lost and found and gives them to people in need, with a focus on unhoused and immigrant communities.

We partner with organizations like the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), the LA Tenants Union, Skid Row’s LACAN, IDEPSCA, Hollywood Food Coalition, Homeless Health Care, and other local groups to do bike giveaways. To date, we have distributed over 130 bicycles to folks in need, increasing transportation access across the city.

We’ve heard from program participants that the bikes they receive open up opportunities that were prohibitively expensive or time-consuming. Participants ride their bikes to work, school, and medical appointments; they are able to run errands, get more exercise, improve their mental health, and ride to parks and the beach with their families. Learn more about the program here, and get in touch if your organization would benefit from a bike giveaway.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND MUTUAL AID PARTNERSHIPS

Intersectional work ensures that Re:Ciclos and anyone we collaborate with is operating across the many places where systems of oppression continue to limit and negatively impact BIPOC communities. If you work with community organizations with populations, projects, missions and/or directives aimed at fighting unjust systems of oppression and they could use cargo bikes in their functions, Re:Ciclos is enthused to work together. Please reach out and we can start a conversation around mutual aid and cross-pollinating our efforts toward a just, balanced and empowered world.

INTERNSHIPS

Internships at Re:Ciclos are open to young adults ages 16-24 years old. Whether you are in high school, vocational/trades college, university, in an after-school program or simply a young community member who would like to learn how to fabricate cargo bikes and help your community, please reach out to us.

We have limited space and staff, so please be patient as we work to increase our capacities to provide more opportunities for interns to learn to build cargo bicycles and help our communities kick the car habit wherever and whenever feasible.

Internships generally involve learning some basics around:

Shop safety
Principles of metal fabrication
Basic bicycle mechanics
Welding experience (mostly MIG)
Client relations: Working with cargo bike recipients through the interview and design process.
Community outreach: Aside from building the cargo bikes, we make the effort to reach out to mutual aid community organizations who either can use a cargo bicycle in their operations and/or have members and clients who would benefit from one.
Did we mention shop safety?