Glasgow Bike Club Update

By BryanJardine
Monday, 09 February 2015
Peer Mentors at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome
It’s been a busy few weeks catching up with all the Glasgow Peer Mentors, finding out who braved the weather on their bikes and who chose to hibernate over Christmas and New Year. Everyone was dead keen to get stuck back into some training and move forward with Bike Club.

Hey guys,

First update of the year for Bike Club Glasgow.

Our first training of the year was a 2 hour introduction to bike maintenance. This took place at none other than the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and was facilitated by Robbie Hawthorn from @glasgowlife. The guys learned about safety checks, setting their bike up to suit them and puncture repair. Time really flew by with this one and there are loads more guys who are looking forward to learn such skills. As not all the peer mentors were able to attend this session, the plan is to have another training date where the guys who attended will lead the session and help the others catch up on the basics they missed. Then a mechanic will come in and teach them the more detailed repairs and maintenance, which will help to boost their confidence as peer mentors.

Carrie Blair @BikeClubCentral and I had a great visit to Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institution Polmont. The main reason for the visit was to meet Colin Geddes who runs a Build Your Own Bike project for the Young offenders. The setup is impressive with a well kitted out workshop including several work stations, a huge walk in tool store and lots of relevant info on the walls. Colin leads the way putting young people through maintenance qualifications which help with their rehabilitation into the community, leading up to and beyond their release. We were fortunate to have quite a thorough tour seeing a variety of workshops and their newly refurbished learning centre.

Finally one of my aims this year is to produce a short film showcasing all the great work Bike Club is doing in Scotland. Youth Scotland have been kind enough to loan me their GoPro to start gathering footage for this film. They have also provided me with some great training to help me get to grips with getting the best from the camera.

Here is my first attempt at a film if you fancy a wee watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbt2B6xwFYo

Anything you need to know please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at bryan.jardine[at]ctc.org.uk

For regular updates follow me on Twitter: @bikeclubglasgow

Disabled and non-standard cycling Cycling UK in Scotland Youth