Number of free bike requests on Freecycle increasing?

[abo]

I've given away a fair bit of stuff on Freecycle, and got a couple of bits too (an excellent wardrobe for my daughter's room )

So I get to see the offers and wanted trickle through my email as they get posted, which is how I cambe by my wife's lovely Peugeot bike.

But over the last month or three I've noticed the number of 'WANTED: bike' type posts on the increase. I'm just wondering whether it is due to the warm weather and people want to get out and about, or if the mental fuel prices are encouraging people out of their cars?

I bought my bike initially to go riding with my kids. But I've got to admit, I think I've driven my little Fiat twice since I got the bike. As all the daft little journeys I used to do are now done on the bike (the nice weather has helped the transition mind...) Anything needing a bit of loadlugging has been deferred until the family car is available. In fact, the Punto is currently sat on the drive with an expired MOT

 

[Nebulous]

We've given away a few bikes on freecycle. Sometimes it was difficult to even get anyone to pick them up. We would offer the bike, agree a time and they would just not appear. Never anything fancy, but serviceable leisure bikes, generally after our children had grown out of them. Putting them on ebay for 99p is a surer way to get rid of them than freecycle.

 

[andytheflyer]

I've just moved my daughter's 20 yo MTB (well, BSO then...) on Freecycle - I must have had about 15 responses within a day. Gave me a dilemma though - is it first come first served, or can you give it to whomever sounds the most deserving? I gave it to the first responder, who pitched up in a Volvo estate and I'm sure could have paid say £25 for a bike, when I suspect there were people who wanted it and couldn't afford to pay that.

Anyway, there seemed to be a lot of demand out there - which surprised me.

A couple of years ago I swapped another daughter's MTB at my LBS for £20 worth of bits. Took him about 2 months to sell it on - so I didn't think there was much demand, which is why this time I went for Freecycle. Maybe there wasn't then but there is now.