Access Bike has been at Fromehall Mill for 6 years this week!
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The workshop space has been a little transformed in that time. It's absolutely full of bikes and parts of bikes at the moment... and we also have a lovely door out to the garden/river where there used to only be a window.
We've achieved so much since we've been based at the Mill but there's so much to tell you about just from the last few months (and what's coming up) that we'll stick to that!
- Monthly market ride this Saturday November 5th!
- Updates on our crowdfunder
- Our work with Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership
- Big Green Week - including Project Manager James' presentation to the Cycling Summit hosted by Stroud's MP Siobhan Baillie
- Our screening of MOTHERLOAD with Stroud Cargo Bikes and their new website
- Access Bike Sessions at Archway School and the Apperley Centre
- Opening times over the coming months (and Christmas party Tues 20th December - save the date!)
- Bikes we've sold recently
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Remember, remember it's the monthly family cycle ride this Saturday 5th November!
As it's firework night, please dress in bright clothes or bring extra lights!
Every first Saturday of the month there's a family cycle ride from Brimscombe to Stroud Farmers Market. Riders meet from 10am in Brimcombe Mills (home of The Long Table, Stroud District Kids' Stuff and Stroud District and Cirencester Furniture Bank). You can grab a free tea/coffee or children's drink thanks to The Bike Drop (who are also based on the site), before riding out at 10.30am. We ride as a group, with music from a loudspeaker, along the A419 into town, taking the lane and forming a block around young riders.
The idea is to have a monthly celebration of cycling, bring cyclists together, and push for better cycling infrastructure. There's always a few cargo and/or electric bikes, so between 10am and 10.30am there's a chance to ask other riders about their bikes - and maybe even try something out.
James from Access Bike will be there - will you?
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Updates on our crowdfunder
Since the beginning of August we've been crowdfunding to support young people being supported by Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS). By the end of August we'd raised enough money to support fourteen young refugees and asylum seekers aged 16 to 18 at a very special camp at Thistledown Farm. With support also from the wonderful GARAS team, we were able to host these young men for three nights in nature. Everyone pitched in and looked after each other. The camp held a myriad of language, nationalities and life-experience that, for people born and living in the UK, we can only try to imagine.
Many expressed their love of being in the countryside, saying it brought back the feeling of ‘home’. A former Kurdish shepherd aged 17, was so pleased to see so many sheep. New friendships were found on walks in the forest and stories were shared while cooking on the fire. As the nights fell, brave voices sang songs, people laughed and danced and spoke their truth.
... and last week we reached the point where donations were enough to buy half our planned order of lights, locks and helmets. 25 sets arrived last week. One small problem... they were delivered to our friends at The Bike Drop in Brimscombe Mills instead of us at Access Bike in Fromehall Mill. Its an easy mistake to make, the Bike Drop used to based at our site... There was only one thing for it... time to make like The Bike Drop, crack out the cargo bike and take on the last mile delivery ourselves (2.6 miles, actually - Ed).
Thanks to a bulk discount from Oxford Products, we've been able to get a great set of kit - and add a multi-tool to the sets too - see the picture above! We'll start distributing these soon - the first few have already been passed on to GARAS to start handing out.
Please keep telling people about our crowdfunder so we can raise the full amount and fund 50 sets and 10 bikes too! You can read more about the camp at the link.
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Our work with Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership
Last Friday, Project Manager James met with 7 young people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Chad, Kurdistan and Sudan, currently being supported by Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS).
These refugees and asylum seekers will all receive support from Access Bike, thanks to funding from Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership. That will involve travelling with them by train from Gloucester to Stroud, teaching bike mechanics and building a bike with them in the workshop, and going on cycle rides from Stroud Train Station. At the end of the 6 week programme, participants will receive a bike, lights, lock, multitool and helmet.
GARAS is the first organisation we are working with as part of this scheme, but we're also setting up further sessions with other organisations working with young people in Gloucester, including the Youth Support Team.
The funding also covers research and the production of a feasibility study regarding a cycle hub at Stroud Train station, and production of a couple of new cycle route guides from the station.
Email us at accessbike@cscic.org ot message us here if you'd like more information.
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Big Green Week
The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature.
On the Tuesday we held a town-centre drop-in bike fixing session at Transition Stroud's pop up space on London Road as part of #GreatBigGreenWeek. Transition Stroud put on various events looking at sustainable ways to manage the cost of living crisis. The workshop tools, workstand, a helmet and some lights, puncture repair kits and leaflets were all transported by bike trailer - getting a pretty good system for this together now, get in touch if you'd like us to do something similar at your event! Message us here or email accessbike@cscic.org.
To open the week, Project Manager James presented to the regular Cycling Summit hosted by Stroud's MP Siobhan Baillie, talking about the history and purpose of the project, its role as a youth space as well as a bike workshop, emphasis on removing financial barriers to owning and maintaining a bike, and connections with other bike projects locally and nationally.
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Our screening of MOTHERLOAD with Stroud Cargo Bikes and their new website
At the end of Great Big Green Week we hosted a screening of the wonderful MOTHERLOAD movie after sunny and musical monthly market ride! Afterwards we had a great panel with local mums and cargo bikers Beki Aldam, Maria Ardley, Kiera Jones and Imogen Shaw.
It was great to see a colourful range of cargo bikes parked up outside The Subscription Rooms, and kids colouring in bikes... and how fantastic that the The Stroud Red Band decided to welcome us into town!
Thanks to everyone who came and contributed.
If you missed the film, check out the trailer and more - or even rent the film at the website motherloadmovie.com.
The event was co-hosted with the Cargo Bikes of Stroud group, who have a new website - stroudcargobikes.org - featuring profiles of six local cargo riders and their bikes.
If you ride a cargo bike, make sure to fill in their survey, which will help create more profiles on the website: tinyurl.com/StroudCargoBikeSurvey.
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Access Bike Sessions at Archway School and the Apperley Centre
Over the summer James and volunteer Max spent 4 days supporting James Jeffrey from Atlas Camps with a cycling sessions at Archway School - with over 100 children coming to cycle, and tens of bikes fixed and young people learning some basic bike mechanics or getting their hands on spanners for the first time.
We had another session in October half-term, with around 30 kids building their cycling confidence riding routes around the car park - and are hoping to run further sessions at Archway during the school holidays in 2023. James takes all the tools and kit needed for a 'mobile bike workshop' from Access Bike in a bike trailer, taking a couple of children's bikes piled on top for children to try riding.
This Monday, James went to visit students at the Apperley Centre, a college for students with special educational needs in Stonehouse.
He again took a mobile workshop - this time together with a bike to donate on his trailer, and spent an hour with the students fixing up a bike they already had at the college, teaching some basic bike maintenance, and playing some bike games.
The students were delighted to accept the donated bike - which young Access Bike volunteers Alfred and George had helped fix up last week.
James is hoping to visit again soon to help the college develop their cycling club offer.
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Opening times over the coming months
On Tuesday 20th December we will have a Christmas party - more details to come.
We will then close over the New Year until Tuesday 10th January when we will be open from 2-6pm for booked sessions only. To book a space please email accessbike@cscic.org or message us on Instagram or Facebook Messenger.
Project Manager James is also about to go on paternity leave (his second son will arrive sometime in the next month).
Callum will cover James on Thursdays, when we will still have a drop-in session for young people aged 13-25 from 2-6pm, and booked sessions for adults from 10am-1pm.
We are currently seeking to arrange staff to cover James for Tuesday booked sessions in November and December... and excitingly progressing with plans to start women-only sessions on Mondays. We'll update everyone as soon as we can - please follow us on our social media channels (links below).
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We've sold lots of refurbished bikes lately - it's always a delight.
Check out Michael with his new Peugeot Harvard, Emily and John with a pair of new bikes, and Al with an Apollo County matching her helmet.
If you're looking for a second-hand bike, email accessbike@cscic.org or message us on Instagram or Facebook Messenger.
If you've a bike to donate, we're not going to be ready to accept many donations till the New Year - but please send a picture in the meantime by email and we'll let you know if its something we can do something with - and how to get it to us.
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Thanks for reading this far. We'd love it if you could share our news with your friends, colleagues, neighbours and any other fellow cyclists!
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