Breaking the cycle: Pop-up store selling unclaimed bikes helps ex-offenders

A non-profit charity that helps get ex-offenders back on their feet has opened its first pop-up workshop and store for unclaimed bikes.

XO Bikes’ new pop-up is located at Southside Shopping Centre in Garratt Lane, Wandsworth, next to Gravity and will be open until the end of September.

The new bike shop will have a mechanic training workshop which is designed to train prison leavers to fix bikes and provide them with invaluable manual skills for future careers.

All the bikes sold at the store are lost or stolen and have been donated by the public or the Met.

The team of apprentice bike mechanics will refurbish each bike, with every bike stripped and cleaned, and all parts tested and replaced or refurbished.

Once renewed, each bike is given an orange code that links the bike back to its original mender and a pair of handcuffs that work as a bike lock.

The bikes are then sold to the public at the store, with all the money from the sales being put back into the initiative.

Owned by the charitable organisation Onwards and Upwards, which was set up in 2022 to help change ex-convicts’ lives, XO Bikes aims to break the cycle of re-offending and create jobs for people who have been in the prison system.

Pieter Strömbeck, centre director at Southside Shopping Centre, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome XO Bikes to Southside this summer.

“We recognise the difficulty ex-offenders face when it comes to reintegrating into society and are proud to be able to support a programme which not only refurbishes bikes but repairs people’s lives after being convicted.

“We hope our visitors rally behind XO Bikes and their team by popping into their store and discover more about what the charity is all about.”

Pictured top: From left, Stef Jones, founder of XO Bikes, Lisa McCormack, marketing, and Francis Pollock, a volunteer who helped set up the pop-up (Picture: XO Bikes)