Volunteers at a Barnes church have spent the summer repairing donated bicycles, and on Saturday morning the entire stock goes on sale in the churchyard.
The Barnes Charity Bike Sale opens its gates at 9.30am today, Saturday 12 September at St Mary’s Church, Church Road (SW13 9HL), and finishes at noon or when the last bike goes, whichever comes first. Every bike goes as seen, meaning no guarantees and no returns, and card payment is preferred.
Anyone hoping to hand a bike over has missed the window. The final take-in ran on Thursday evening, 3 September, from 5pm to 7pm, and the organisers turn away bikes brought on the day of the sale because there is no time left to check them over.
Most adult bikes sell for between £80 and £180. Children’s bikes rarely go above £50 unless they are a premium brand, and many of the smallest fetch £10 or £15. The sale raises money for charity with donors only offered a share of the proceeds on bikes that sell for more than £70.
More than half the stock usually goes in the first hour, and last year volunteers were shifting roughly two bikes a minute at that point. Altogether 550 people came to the sale, close to 200 bikes were sold and £20,000 was raised in a single morning. Buyers had been queuing from 7.30am and the line reached back to the Olympic cinema.
The Barnes sale is run by a team of around 35 volunteers, from teenagers to those in their 90s, who take the bikes in, clean them, repair them and sell them. This year’s proceeds go to Castelnau Community Centre, the Disasters Emergency Committee, Under Tree Schools, the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund and St Mary’s Church. The list of charities changes from year to year.
If you are going on Saturday
Gates open at 9.30am and buyers are admitted in groups, so queue earlier if you want a choice. Bring a card. There is no list, no reservations and no chance to inspect anything beforehand: the organisers post photographs of bikes on Instagram and Facebook as they come in, and that is the only preview. The best bikes go early. It is worth registering whatever you buy, given ongoing bike theft problems.
If you have a bike to give
Take-in days run in late August and early September, and the organisers ask donors to fill in a form on their website first. They will collect only in exceptional circumstances and only within Barnes, by arrangement at bikes@stmarybarnes.org. Bikes have to be clean and rideable with minor work, electric bikes need to be discussed in advance, and child seats, tagalongs and helmets are not accepted.
Anyone with a bike gathering dust in a shed has a year to get it cleaned up.
