It started with one abandoned bike on a Kalamaja street.
In 2024, our founder Rafi watched the city tow a perfectly good steel-framed commuter from the corner of his block. Frame straight. Tires holding air. A €30 fix away from being someone's daily ride.
That bike · and a hundred others like it every month · was on its way to a scrap yard in Maardu.
So we started asking questions. How many bikes get abandoned each year in Tallinn? (Answer: over 4,000.) How many get refurbished and resold? (Answer: almost none.)
Today, Rescue Bikes works with the city, the police, partner repair shops, universities, and refugee NGOs to recover, refurbish, and redistribute bikes.
Manufacturing a new bike emits roughly 250kg of CO₂. Every bike we put back on the road is a bike that doesn't get built. That's 450 tonnes of CO₂ kept out of the atmosphere.
We're a small team in a workshop in Telliskivi, Tallinn. Three mechanics, two community organisers, and a founder who still does most of the recovery runs personally.