About Us

A brief history of Paradise Cycles

 

Paradise Cycles started off as a stencil used to brand up the frankenstein bikes we built to get around during our first year living in London, as undergraduate students at Queen Mary University. These bikes did their job nicely, saving us the money that would have gone on bus and tube fares, until they were inevitably replaced, upgraded, or broken down and sent to the scrap metal yard.

A few years later in 2012 the company was founded as a fledgling social enterprise, supported by the Queen Mary University of London Enterprise Programme. After acquiring two bicycle trailers & a collapsible gazebo with the funds from QM, we were able to run weekly "pop-up" repair workshops on campus and the Bonner Street entrance to Victoria Park.

 

Bonner Gate (Victoria Park) Pop Up Workshop

[Pop Up Workshop at the Bonner Gate entrance to Victoria Park - 2013]

 

These workshops provided a convenient place for local cyclists to get advice about cycling in the city, and to learn about becoming more self-sufficient with bike repairs and adjustments.

In October 2015 we built on our initial efforts to support a stronger cycling community in Mile End & Bethnal Green by opening our workshop at 63 Roman Road.

From this location we started providing affordable repairs & services, as well as one-to-one repair tutorials for those wishing to learn the tricks of the trade

In 2016 we began offering bespoke bikes on a sold unseen basis, where we work with you to specify the type of bike, style, fit, finish etc. This gave our customers the option collaborate with us in selecting the components needed to assemble the optimal bike for their needs.

2017 flew by, as we expanded our workshop into the rest of the ground floor of our premises, hired some skilled mechanics, trained a few apprentices, and fixed and built a lot of bikes.

 

Future Plans

As we move through 2018 we plan to start hosting bike maintenance classes, as well as a wider range of one-to-one tutorials, & making our spare workstations available for hire to enthusiastic home mechanics looking for somewhere to fix their own bikes.