Freecycling Through West Sale

Winter commuter bike now with added luggage.

• Book: England: The official F.A. History
• Miles Travelled: 12 – a small diversion to my usual commute
• Source of Take: Freecycle

About 6 years ago I found myself working in an environmental charity in London. Career wise it was an unusual diversion but was a logical extension to something which started with attending Greenpeace meetings in a room above a pub in Leicester whilst studying at Leicester Polytechnic. Among the many things I learned whilst working for the charity was the burgeoning number of groups trying desperately to encourage and help people to reduce, reuse and recycle. I joined and have continued to use Freecycle, mainly in a giving capacity – I loathe the idea of throwing stuff away that still has life in it and that’s the very essence of Freecycle – you have no more need of something, it still does what it says on the tin, you advertise it and someone local takes it off you… Simples. I’ve given away all sorts from books to beds over those years and so it seemed apposite that I should use that source to get me going (I expect Social Media to take a while to kick in with generating books requests.)

I duly posted an OFFER, detailing my librarything account and letting people know they could choose their own book and then …. I had a post rejected email. Mr/Ms Moderator was claiming my post was a service… I have to admit I temporarily lost my shit but remained composed enough to send a vaguely sensible reply. Its here I have to give credit to the moderators who I expect spend a lot of their own time doing this for no measurable reward. We had a back and forth where the rules were explained and I elaborated on what I was doing and we reached a compromise where I decided to (regularly) list individual books.

An official history up to and including Euro 96

I listed the book above and a Star Wars book (no takers) and had a couple of responses for the England book in fairly short order. It just so happened that it was about a half mile diversion from my usual commute (I’ll come to that later) so was a good chance to strap on my newly delivered Rack and Panniers (thank you Santa Claus) and cycle into work to head some things off at the pass ahead of my ‘full’ return to work after a New Year break.

So, the long and short of it is, I have book 2 delivered and have notched up my first 12 miles cycling with a rack and panniers – blessed relief from a heavy rucksack to be honest. Now I’m away to put a couple more books on Freecycle.

Card Tricks to Culketh

Card Tricks to Culketh

      Book: 165 Card Tricks & Stunts by Jean Hugard

      Miles Travelled: 30 9diversion to work and back included)

      Tumbles Taken: 1

So book 1 was a magic book and strictly speaking fell outside of the rules but remember rule 1 – these are just guidelines. This was an order from the ailing online empire but was just 10 miles away as the crow flies so was duly chosen as book 1 of the nascent project

Its worth saying at this point that I hadn’t really thought through what would be in each posting so I can’t tell you much about the book that Amazon doesn’t other than I bought it in a job lot of magic books on ebay and when they arrived they stunk of cigarette smoke – I had to stick them in the garage for months before I could go near them. Magic and cigarettes -  that winning combination.

I can’t tell you much about the recipient other than he shared a name with a Premiership football manager and appeared to be still in bed at 10:30 when I delivered the book (all the curtains being closed a giveaway – perhaps it was a late night of smoking and practising card tricks?)

As for the journey it was a pleasant enough rural road ramble north and west from Altrincham to Culketh on the other side of the M60. Two notable landmarks passed on the way: Dunham Massey Park (of which more in a later post) and the Warburton Toll Bridge which crosses the Manchester Ship Canal and is free to cyclists but charges all of 12p to cars (or at least did the last time I drove across it. As a cyclist it’s an unavoidable bridge as the only other crossings are a good way away and are in the main Motorways…. It’s here that the listed tumble (see above) occurred much to my chagrin. On this particular crossing the traffic was being controlled by lights and down to one lane. The first crossing I waited and let traffic through before me. The second crossing I stole a march and barged into the cordoned off area where I though I’d pootle along on the ‘pavement’ area. The cast iron ‘kerb’ had other ideas and in the wet condition unceremoniously dumped me on my arse – oh how the driver first in line must have laughed – the b*stard! I'll spare you the gory, bloodied knee picture.

Wikipedia can give you the lowdown on the bridge:

Warburton Bridge is a privately owned Statutory Tolled Undertaking which incorporates a public highway road length. The high-level cantilever bridge crosses the Manchester Ship Canal on the B5159 road, connecting the A57 with the A6144, and was commissioned under the Rixton & Warburton Bridge Act 1863. The original stone bridge spanned the River Mersey prior to its later diversion into the Manchester Ship Canal. The toll operation has a significant impact with maintaining the smooth flow of traffic into the surrounding areas. Along with the detection of unauthorised vehicles, attempting to use this three ton weight restricted route. Both bridges and the unadopted approach roads are privately maintained. It is one of the few remaining pre-motorway toll bridges in the United Kingdom, and the only one in Greater Manchester

So one book delivered and more to come – onwards and upwards.

The Rules

Well there aren’t any really, more a set of guidelines… what do you take me for? Some sort of Authoritarian?

In a nutshell, I aim to distribute as many books as possible to as many people as possible, generally within return cycling distance of Altrincham - WA14 4PH, to pick a random postcode (mylocal boozer). For the winter I’m going to limit this as far as possible to 50 miles (i.e .within 25 miles of above postcode) – when it gets a bit lighter and warmer (and I get a bit fitter) I may extend the distance. I will attract takers, I hope, by the use of various Social Media. I will share as much info as the takers are happy to share on this blog so if you have specific reasons for wanting the book, are happy to have a picture taken or will provide a review, all the better (but you don’t have to do any of these things if you don’t want).

I’m happy to deliver direct to your house or to meet you outside your local village landmark, whichever you’re comfortable with. If you live miles away but really want the book I can post but I’ll want a contribution to cost – I’m thinking minimum Amazon charge (£2.81) – any surplus goes into the pot – if it’s a large item which will cost more I’ll advertise the fact.

For every book I deliver by bike I will add £1 to the charity pot plus 1p per mile travelled (return) – so £1.50 for a 50 mile return journey.

The aim at the moment is to contribute to the Key 103 cash for kids Xmas charity next December (2013) (http://www.key103.co.uk/charity/about-us/about/ ) with monies / toys to be handed over on December 1^st.  If you want to contribute having received a book please do at http://www.justgiving.com/booksbybike - I’ll be adding a monthly amount at the end of each month.

I’m also expecting to get fitter and lose some weight as a result of my endeavours and I’ll be contributing £5 per lb lost (current weight 200lb) and will also encourage friends, relatives and complete strangers to sponsor me accordingly.

I hope you will help me in helping raise funds and awareness for vulnerable children throughout the Greater Manchester area at a time when services provided to them are becoming increasingly threatened.

Raison D'Etre

This may be a dull post to get things going but it by way of an explanatory note to put some context in place.

We’ve been in our current house for about 4 years – moved back up north from the Southlands mainly due to a decent job offer (made when ‘between jobs’). The missus gave up her job and didn’t want to try and get into the local office up here, partly because it was a bit of a trek and partly because she’d been doing the same thing since leaving school.

A combination of some crappy temp jobs and our attempts to create life (a baby not  Frankenstein) was leaving her stressed so I researched ‘home business opportunities’ and an online Amazon / ebay type thing seemed the most doable… and it worked for a while, we made some good purchases to set the business going and things went well but then ‘big’ players moved into the Amazon marketplace, hovering up stock and selling it dirt cheap using automated low pricing software with the advantage of being able to secure average weight postage pricing through Royal Mail by selling in bulk… so something that would cost us 4 or 5 pound to post would cost them a quid, hence they could still make money from a penny sale (with that £2.80 Amazon add on for postage). So sales started to dry up a little and then along came Matthew to put a stop to any hopes of putting time and effort into making this thing work.

We’re still hanging on with Amazon and I get stuff listed on ebay when I get the chance but I have a stack of stock in the garage and in the loft, much of it would only fit the 1p bracket so not even worth listing. I’ve been donating to charity shops, selling some via car boot and small lots on local free ads but it’s a slow process and I’m loathe to sell to someone who’ll be able to do the bulk thing, which is where ‘Books by Bike’ comes into play.

I got back into cycling last year when we moved office to one about 4 miles as the crow flies from my house and I started commuting by bike. I’m back cycling fairly regularly but using a lot of the same routes. I had the idea of cycling books to people a while ago (I don’t claim it’s unique – I’ve since found others who’ve tried it) and this seems to be a win – win: I get to cycle some new routes, my book pile goes down and some folk get free books.

So the goal is I’ll list some free books on G+ , Twitter and wherever else. People who live locally will want them and I’ll take them there when I get the chance (hopefully sooner rather than later). I’m hoping I might get some stories, meet some interesting people and get to know the area better and if all else fails I’ll get some fresh air.

Rules to follow… because if we didn’t have rules, where would we be? France (with apologies to Al Murray)

UPDATE - I'll be doing a charity thing on this that I haven't quite finalised - want to link into Key103 toy appeal for next Xmas if they're doing it again