Techbuyer is doing something different this month to highlight the value of redundant IT parts. While the company is typically associated with refurbishing old data centre equipment and reselling it, there are often things it receives that simply can’t be sold on. According to the company, these redundant parts still have worth, and to prove it TechBuyer commissioned Harrogate sculpturist Steve Blaylock to create something truly unique.
After 100 hours of painless sculpting with almost 1000 redundant IT parts, Blaylock created a bike that uses a heatsink for the pedals and seat, has handlebars made from the copper stripped from cables, and features green eyes pulled from a server fan. The sculpture also includes five redundant HP BL460c Gen8 servers on the base, SFPs, CPUs and server memory as the spokes, and weighs 60kg.
“Every year around 50 million tonnes of e-waste are produced worldwide, and data centre and networking equipment will inevitably make up a significant part of this,” explains Astrid Wynne, sustainability manager at Techbuyer.
“We refurbish excess and redundant IT equipment so that more IT hardware is reused rather than thrown away before its end of life. The bike is a fun and creative way to show the importance of reusing equipment, which is what Techbuyer is all about.”
According to Techbuyer, the bike has been attracting crowds as it tours landmarks across Yorkshire, including Ripon Cathedral and Fountains Abbey, although it’s set to get its biggest crowd at its home in Harrogate. That’s because the bike is set to greet both racers and spectators near the finish line of the UCI Road World Cycling Championships later this month.
