Process

What distiguishes an UpCycle bike from other cargo-bike manufacturers is the process behind each bike from the beginning. We primarily source our basic materials and components from found/donated steel frames and different kind of tubes and steel. The origins vary massively, but most of it comes from junkyards or left overs from industrial complexes. We have already used tables, car parts, skateboards and even shopping carts. With our current methods we manage to upcycle around 90% of each bike, primarily depending on how many upcycled bicycle components we use.

Upcycing, Schrottplatz und co.

Upcycling means for us to give new life to old things and to find new and innovative ways to use things.
One of our many sources for materials are “Schrottplätze” or Junkyards. At these places our excessive overconsumption is painfully and plainly showcased. Everything is thoughtlessly being thrown away. But we firmly believe that those “things” can be much more than trash and that our planet and our future deserves better than to simply be used to store an ever increasing amount of trash. As the saying goes: “Ones trash is and other wo/men’s treasure.”

Another essential part of our bikes are the old bicycle frames, which we get from so-called Fahrradleichen (donour-bikes, trash-bikes). These bikes have been abandoned and forgotten or are broken, bent, twisted. We are constantly finding new ways to use as much as possible of these forgotten bicycles. With some love and ingenuity those broken bikes can get a chance to be reborn as part of our mobility revolution.

Welding
with spokes

A prime example of how we are continually pushing to be more sustainable and to reuse old materials in all of our processes is our use of old bike spokes for welding. By using old bicycle spokes, we have stainless steel welding rods from a material, which would normally be discarded. This helps us move even further towards a circular economy.