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Bike Generation
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- About Bike Generation
- Courses and activities
- Information for organisations
- Information for young people
- The Life Cycle Centre
- The future
- More about our values and our approach
- Get involved
Bike Generation is Life Cycle UK’s youth project and offers a range of bike maintenance training courses and cycling activities to young people.
The project takes an exiting and innovative approach to its work in Bristol. Our primary goal is to enthuse young people with a genuine interest in all things cycling. We equip them with practical mechanical skills; help them to develop an awareness of cycling-related issues; enable them to build a range of transferable skills; and promote both their personal and vocational development. By making the most of the experience and expertise that Life Cycle UK has developed over a number of years, the project is able to engage successfully with a new generation.
Our target client group is young people aged 13 -19, who are at risk of social and educational exclusion, or who may be at risk of (or with a history of) youth offending. We offer the opportunity to engage in some meaningful activity and training in a non-academic environment. Through our structured courses we are also able to link in with young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) or who, for other reasons, are finding it difficult to be successful within mainstream educational programmes.
All Bike Generation activities aim to give young people opportunities to:
- Take on new challenges
- Learn useful, practical skills
- Build confidence and self-esteem
- Develop team-working, communication and problem-solving skills
- Meet positive role models
- Develop wider key skills
The project is based at the Life Cycle Centre, which is located at The Park Local Opportunity Centre in Knowle. The centre includes a custom-designed workshop, training and group work facilities and BikeBack, Life Cycle UK’s recycling initiative.
Bike Generation has been made possible thanks to a three-year grant from the Tudor Trust along with a number of smaller grants from other funding bodies.
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The 6-week Bike Generation course in bicycle maintenance and cycling awareness is a core focus for the project. This is an inspirational six-session course which offers a truly positive learning experience to young people and an ideal alternative curriculum activity to schools and organisations.
- Taster Sessions - one-off basic bike maintenance and cycling awareness sessions for schools and youth projects.
- After-school, evening and holiday bike maintenance workshop sessions at local youth clubs and projects on an outreach basis.
- Bike Clubs - informal club days where young people can try a number of different activities in one session.
- Additional activities.
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Life Cycle UK and Bike Generation have run sessions and courses for a number of organisations in the Bristol area. We have worked with Connexions, the Youth Offending Team, Pupil Referral Units, and Youth Services, as well as a number of schools and local youth projects.
We can offer organisations and referral agencies:
- An ideal alternative curriculum activity for young people in the form of our 6-week course.
- A range of activity sessions that will promote the vocational and personal development of participants.
- Activities that young people actually want to do and genuinely enjoy.
- Experienced instructors who support and empower young people to build practical skills, increase individual, community and environmental awareness and develop core ‘wider key skills’.
- Practical support in assisting young people to document their achievements for credits in wider key skill qualifications such as ASDAN.
- Vocational experience for young people who have successfully completed a Bike Generation course – we can facilitate work placements with local bike shops and within Life Cycle UK’s own bike recycling initiative, BikeBack.
- Custom-designed premises at the Life Cycle Centre which includes a training and group work area, a professional standard bike workshop with 8 workstations and the additional support facilities offered by The Park Local Opportunity Centre in Knowle.
The Project subscribes fully to the values of the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ Strategy and is committed to placing these at the centre of its work with young people. As a result, we can make a great difference in helping organisations and youth agencies to achieve their individual targets and objectives and contribute to successful outcomes for their young people.
Life Cycle is committed to the provision of training and activity appropriate to the client group and which responds to both organisations’ needs and those of young people. We aim to be flexible. Where possible, we are happy to work with organisations to customise the content and duration of courses and sessions in order to fit in with their own ongoing programmes.
We want to develop successful partnerships with a range of agencies and client groups from both the statutory and independent sectors. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with organisations, therefore, to explore how they could use Bike Generation as part of their service provision.
If you are interested, please contact us. Or indeed if you want to come and visit the Life Cycle Centre to see our facilities for yourself, we are always happy to show you round.
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Bike Generation is a project created to give young people a chance to get involved in the world of bikes and cycling. We run a number of different activities through which you can learn how to maintain and repair your own bike, learn important cycling skills and get out there riding on some fantastic routes and trails.
We have an amazing new home at the Life Cycle Centre where we run a number of our activities and we will also be offering sessions and events in other locations in Bristol through schools and local youth projects.
Come along to one of our courses or sessions and you will have a great time. Meet new people, learn new skills from down to earth and experienced staff and simply indulge your interest in bikes. With Bike Generation you will find:
- Courses and activities that you will really will enjoy – bike maintenance, mountain biking, cycling skills and so much more
- Customised workshop facilities with professional standard workstations – all the latest tools and equipment.
- The Life Cycle Centre which not only features our fantastic new workshop facilities, but also a wide range of maps, guides, manuals, cycling magazines and DVDs
- Additional activities including bike art, bike refurbishment and recycling, single day cycling trips
- Bike Clubs – informal club days where you can try a number of different activities in one session.
- Experienced instructors in bike maintenance, mountain biking and cycling skills
If you are interested in attending one of our courses ask you teacher or youth leader to contact us. Or if you want to come along to one of our additional activities, keep an eye out on our Events page on the website.
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Bike Generation is based at the Life Cycle Centre in Knowle, Bristol. Developed in Spring 2008, the centre is home to BikeBack, our bike recycling initiative, as well Bike Generation.
Life Cycle UK, as an organisation, offers a wide range of training and activities and we wanted to develop a specific facility from where to operate some of these services. The Life Cycle Centre gives us the ideal platform for this and offers Bike Generation a base of its own.
We have created a modern, spacious and well-equipped facility, which offers young and old alike a perfect place to indulge their passion in bikes and cycling.
Shaped from recycled and reclaimed products and materials, the centre reflects Life Cycle UK’s commitment to the environment.
The centre is based at The Park, Local Opportunity Centre in Knowle (map showing location).
Facilities include:
- A custom-designed workshop with eight bike maintenance workstations, professional workstands and a full range of tools.
- Bicycle recycling and storage facilities
- Training and group work area
- Meeting area
- Resource library featuring maps, guides, magazines and DVDs
- For more information, you can take a tour of the Life Cycle Centre.
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To date the Bike Generation project has concentrated on bike maintenance courses and taster sessions as well as some mountain biking activities. These have proved to be popular and successful with both young people and organisations. We have also developed our base at the Life Cycle Centre which enables us offer activities in the ideal setting.
We now hope to develop the project further in a number of areas:
Currently our 6-week courses are structured in order to offer young people alternative curriculum activities, which enable them to document evidence for their ongoing learning programmes and wider key skill qualifications. However, we plan to develop these courses into a more comprehensive programme with a view to securing accreditation from both vocational and cycling bodies.
We also hope to introduce a number of activity-based events from autumn 2008. We want to give young people the opportunity to get involved not just in riding their bikes and improving their riding skills, but encourage them to develop a lifelong involvement with cycling.
Planned activities include:
- More opportunities for mountain biking
- Cycle training and riding skills – urban and off-road
- BMX
- Cycle orienteering
- Bike art
- ''Wacky Bikes" events
- Bike refurbishment and recycling
- Guided rides and single day cycling trips
During school holiday periods, we would also like to offer short sessions for young people attending independent youth clubs and programmes.
For more information on any of these plans please contact the Youth Programme Manager.
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Bike Generation - more about our values and approach
At Bike Generation we work to maintain some fundamental values that lie at the heart of our approach. We aim:
- To specialise in working with young people who are disengaged.
- To provide an innovative service to young people and organisations who are looking for alternative curriculum activities.
- To provide an environment where young people are challenged, motivated and encouraged to reach their potential.
- To enable young people to relate in their own way to the many different facets of cycling activities that are supportive, diversionary, educational and enjoyable.
Life Cycle UK has broad experience of providing bike maintenance training over a number of years. We have run a number of bike maintenance courses for schools, youth clubs and organisations such as Connexions, and young people have always responded well and enjoyed the experience. With the inception of Bike Generation, we decided to take this further.
Our bike maintenance courses are designed to cater for a range of levels and competence. We aim to engage with young people who are interested in learning practical mechanical skills and give them the opportunity to develop, both vocationally and personally.
The Project subscribes fully to the values of the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ strategy and is committed to placing these principles at the centre of its work with young people.
Our goal is also to furnish young people with information on a range of cycling issues, encourage links to local community cycling activities, and promote access to both local and national resources.
As an organisation, we feel it is important to promote road safety awareness and safe riding practices and we incorporate these aspects into course content. There is also a focus on the beneficial impact that cycling can have on the individual, the local community and the environment.
For young people, it’s not just about the cycling itself. It’s about the gear, it’s about the lifestyle and it’s about the image. At Bike Generation we understand this. We enable young people, therefore, to relate in their own way to the many different facets of cycling that are supportive, diversionary, educational and enjoyable.
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Bike Generation - get involved
If you are a young person, or from an organisation that works with young people, and want to know more about Bike Generation, or want to get involved, please contact Nic Gharbaoui at our main office or send Nic an email.
We are also open to suggestions as to how the project is developed in the future and would welcome ideas from organisations that work with young people and, especially, young people themselves. If you have any suggestions please let us know.
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