Elephant bike: review | Martin Love

Built for posties and now refurbed by a charity for people in Malawi, the Elephant bike is the ultimate feelgood bicycle

Remember when postmen used to wobble down the road on those bright red delivery bicycles? Many of those bikes have been scrapped, but the Krizevac Project, a small charity in Staffordshire, has been slowly collecting these sturdy three-geared machines, renovating them and shipping them to Malawi. Over the past six years they've stockpiled 20,000 and so far managed to send 7,000 to Africa. British prisoners now help with the repairs, allowing inmates to gain their Cytech qualification, too. To help raise funds to refurb the rest of the frames, Krizevac has set up a 'buy one give one' initiative called Elephant. For 250 you get a brilliant workhorse of a bike, with a great backstory and the knowledge that a second bike will be heading to Malawi to change a life (elephantbike.co.uk).

Price: 250 (rrp 645)
Frame: Mailstar, 18in or 22in
Gears: 3, hub
Colours: 4
Weight: 23kg