A stylish customised bicycle inspires three youthful men to establish a bicycle restoration hub in Katlehong (ward 49) Phadima section.The ‘7 K STUNTS’ restoration and customisation centre which deals with mending bicycles has become a community elevating hub for most young people in Katlehong because most children bring their old bicycles to be revived in the workshop,they also see it as an intriguing zone for entertainment and sharpening their mechanical expertise, the centre also offers repairing, reconditioning, renewing and painting services for bicycles which were declared un-usable.The bicycle restoration hub was formed by Kgotso Moloi, Karabo Kgolane and Kutloano Mofokeng.
Kutloano Mofokeng one of the founding members of the bicycle redeeming hub explained in great detail, stating that: “Karabo Kgolane’s unique and stylish bicycle immensely inspired us to pursue this concept of reviving the life span of bicycles, Kgotso Moloi who is one of our partners consolidated our burning desire when he also assembled his own flamboyant bike; it further made us realise our dream because most people in our community admired and praised the bicycle, thereafter we all erected ourselves bikes and they all attracted tremendous attention. “We appreciate our first client ‘Hurricane’, a famously known business mogul in our area, he approached us and requested us to design and erect a bicycle for him after he witnessed what we can do, he was very pleased with our work,” he revealed in appreciation.He continued expressing himself, stating that: “Beside the high demand for restoring bikes, we are also offering a therapeutic and counselling session for our employee who is a drug addict, he expresses his frustrations and adversities which led him to be a drug addict while his on duty, he’s also trying very hard to change his lifestyle, because what we are doing in the centre adds value to his life.
This hub also acts as a safe haven for parents and children, because we offer events that revive the link between parents and children when we host ‘bicycle riding around initiatives’.“In the future we want to create a bicycle accessible Spares and a factory,” he disclosed.Karabo Kgolane took the opportunity to divulge how he discovered his passion of fixing bicycles, saying that: “I discovered my bicycle fixing skills from a young age but I took them for granted at that particular time, until I bought a broken bicycle last year; but i couldn’t fix it because of the years i wasted not pursuing my passion, my skills were redeemed when i found an old-aged mechanic who fixed my damaged bicycle, by doing that he reminded me of my long lost passion.
I started fixing bicycles again from that certain period, i have also managed to add other vital skills like painting and restructuring of a bicycle to my expertise,” he shared.One of the co-founders of ‘7 K STUNTS’ Kgotso Moloi outlined how their remarkable work has kept him hopeful, stating that: “My spirit for our tender aged company was uplifted when we received pleasing feedbacks after we created two exceptionally great bicycles:one was made for a local businessman ‘Hurricane’ and the other one for an ANC Youth League WTT cordinator Papi Nkoane,the overall production of both bikes rejuvenated my spirit because people were applauding and praising our work; but we just need more equipment to take our work to unforseen heights,” he vividly uttered.
