NZ Post bikes help people change gear

Pathway would like to say a big thank you to New Zealand Post for their recent donation of nine retired postie bikes to the Pathway Bike Repair Programme. The donation is part of New Zealand Post’s efforts to re-“cycle” retired delivery bikes as they transition from bikes to buggies for their mail delivery vehicles.

So far the bikes have been a great boost to the programme. Once received they are tuned, repaired and touched up by the Pathway Bike Apprentices in Christchurch Men’s Prison Youth Unit. The bikes are then donated on to people leaving prison in need of transport.

One recent recipient of a bike told a Stuff reporter: “It’s kind of funny because my mum and two of my aunties have been posties. Postie bikes have been in our garages or in our driveways for all my childhood, so it’s ironic that I now have a postie bike to get around on. I think my mum gets a bit of humour in that. “I don’t have my driver’s licence,” he continues, “It gives me the self-reliance and freedom of not having to rely on other people to drive.”

The donation also benefits the young apprentices who work on the bikes. “I’m doing it mostly because I want to get experience,” an apprentice commented to the reporter. “I love the mechanical side of it... it makes me feel like I’m not in jail, it feels like I’m at home.”

Pathway expects approximately 80 bikes to be donated by New Zealand Post in the coming year.