Funding sought for “world’s first 100% recycled aluminium bikes”

Californian bike brand ReCycle is attempting to get crowd funding for what they’re calling the "world’s first 100% recycled aluminium bikes”.

ReCycle, based in Los Angeles, have three different aluminium (the Yanks call it 'aluminum') bike models and they’re looking for $105,000 (approximately £65,000) in pledges on Kickstarter to get the project off the ground. 

“Our prototypes are alive, well and rolling down a street near you (if you live in Los Angeles),” says ReCycle’s Bryce Edmonds. “Against so many odds, we’ve managed to create a head-turning bicycle made from 100%-recycled aluminum making it the greenest transportation option available anywhere.

“Now, it’s time to roll The ReCycle forward and start reducing carbon output and waste by reusing aluminum through a closed-loop, recycling mission to create new and awesome bikes from old and worn out materials.”

ReCycle have three models in the range: a cruiser called the mBula (main pic), a fixed/singlespeed bike called the Moshi Moshi (above), and an all-terrain bike called the Mudmaste (below).

They’re initially looking for 50 orders for their mBula because that’s the minimum their bike builder needs to keep the prices reasonable. From there, they’re after 50 orders for each of the other two bikes.

Backers are rewarded with various products depending on the size of the donation. A $35 pledge, for example, gets you a T-shirt while a pledge of $2,250 gets you the singlespeed version of the mBula bike… so you're effectively buying a bike for that price and supplying one of the 50 orders ReCycle need.

The most noticeable feature of the range is that each frame is built without a seat tube. Why?

“We took out the seat tube because it’s not necessary and just looks so damn cool,” ReCycle say on their Kickstarter page. “It’s probably as simple as that. Plus, why do the same when you can do different and better? That’s a pretty decent life motto as far as we’re concerned.”

The bikes come with some very distinctive forks and dropouts, and the mBula and the Mudmaste are both belt driven and run on NuVinci N360 continuously variable internal hub gearing (they're also available as singlespeeds).

If you’d like to donate, head over to the Kickstarter page.

Incidentally, remember the Blaze laser-projecting bike light that we told you about last week? Blaze Components were looking for £25,000 through Kickstarter. They reached their target in five days and currently have pledges totaling well over £33,000.