Bizstartup.ie - NewsOn your bike in Phibsboro

And while Bedos may indeed be stubborn, there's no denying that her idea is genuinely great: taking in abandoned or unwanted bikes, repairing them, and then selling them back to the general public at a reasonable rate. And that's not the half of what she does: there's also community training, bicycle maintenance workshops and cycling lessons. But more of that later.

Originally from France, Bedos trained as a political scientist, and went on to work with a number of community development groups both in France and in Ireland before founding Rothar.

“As well as my interest in community development, I am also a keen cyclist, so when I came to Ireland seven years ago I was a bit surprised by the lack of bikes on the road, but also the amount of abandoned or vandalised bikes you’d see on the streets.”

Bedos decided to take action, starting up Rothar in her spare time while also holding down a full time job. However, when she was made redunant from the latter, she decided to throw herself full time into developing Rothar.

Asked to describe the project, she calls it “a bike shop with a twist”.

“It is a proper bike shop – we sell bikes and bike accessories, we do repairs – but it’s not for profit so every penny is re-injected back into Rothar. There is no profit sharing.”

As well as having recycling partnerships with the likes of Dublin City Corporation and University College Dublin, Bedos says people bring in bikes they either don’t want or need any more. “About 70pc of the bikes we get into the shop will go back out onto the street after some repair work. Before this, a lot of bikes in Dublin went straight to the dump, which was obviously a waste.”

Having more bikes on the streets of Dublin will help lower pollution, Bedos says, but there is also a sense of civic and social responsibility at work in Rothar.

“It’s also about social inclusion,” Bedos explains. “We offer work placements for people who may be socially excluded, such as people who’ve been to prison, and we also visit youth groups in the community, training them in the basics of bicycle mechanics.” As well as this, Rothar has also donated bikes to charities and to marginalised groups such as asylum seekers, who can’t afford the expense of public transport.

For Bedos the project has already proved itself a success because it has led to job creation. “Our chief mechanic Gareth is on the pay roll, so that particular goal of mine – to employ another person and provide them with a job – has come true.”

As well as this, 20–25 people volunteer at Rothar, helping to run the shop, dismantle non-repairable bikes, save and stock salvaged parts and help with the Fix Your Own Bike sessions which are offered to the public.

Her advice for people getting into the not-for-profit sector is pragmatic.

“There is a lot of risk involved, so if you’re not able to handle that, I’d advise maybe getting a job where you’ll still be able to do similar  work but not have that risk.”

However, Bedos says that if you are able to cope with the uncertain nature of starting your own business in a not-for-profit sector – she herself poured her redundancy package into Rothar – and you’re as stubborn as hell, you should be okay.

“I also think it’s important to have people around you you can trust completely. I’m certainly very lucky to have that, but of course, it takes time to build up a team.”

And while she admits that with no public funding Rothar is not 100pc secure, it has grown beyond her expectations. This is partly to do with winning a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland award in 2009.

“I won just after opening  my first shop. It was great to have people say ‘this is a good idea’. And then of course the press coverage I got brought people into the shop.”

Going forward, Bedos hopes to open a “proper  training centre” in the autumn  and would also the bike mechanics training conducted at Rothar to be recognised by FETAC. “I don’t know when it will happen because it’s not an easy thing to do and there are a lot of obstacles, but I’m working on it at the moment.”

And finally, the burning question, how did a French person think of the Gaelic name Rothar. “Well actually it was my Irish business partner who suggested it. Obviously I didn’t have a clue what Rothar meant when I first heard it, but now I think it’s really quite catchy!”

Visit the Rothar website for more information.