Preston Pedals: life changing community group getting green and teaching refugees English

Founded in 2022, Preston Pedals now has over 600 members and offers three main types of support for everyday cycling: free fix and be practical sessions for people to learn how to fix and maintain their bikes at workshops by engineers; social rides led by British Cycling qualified ride leaders; and community participation to encourage people to come together through cycling.

Their new initiative sees Preston Pedals working with Talk English Fulwood, a group that teaches English to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, with Julie Ridley, coordinator of Preston Pedals, saying: “[Talk English] identified that there were people that first of all needed a bike and it could be something that would be life-changing, but they couldn’t afford one.

“We’re able to use those bikes and match them in terms of height and whether they want a male or female frame,” Julie said. “They will work on that bike for three weeks; the person works on that bike and gets shown how to repair and fix things and at the end of it they get to keep the bike.”

Preston Pedals receives bikes from private donations and organisations such as Active Lancashire, a charity that partners with projects to create healthy lifestyles through sport and physical activity. The sessions will be run as two groups, one group will first be paired with donated bikes while the second group will learn how to maintain bikes they already own.

"It’s a group of people who have bikes already but want to know how to fix things that go wrong to be able to feel more confident going out on a bike,” Julie explained. “Hopefully it will give people a good grounding in how to look after their bike and make sure everything is set up well.”

Franc Ashcroft, one of the engineers leading the repair workshop who previously ran the Ribbleton Bike Revival project, said: “It’s just great isn’t it, people come and it breaks all sorts of barriers. One chap I had here today couldn’t speak much English, it just shows that people from other places can come here and achieve something.

“For me, show people how to fix bikes, get people on the road, I just love it.”

In just over a year Preston Pedals has made a positive impact on the community and are always looking for members, with Julie, Franc and the rest of the Preston Pedals team hopeful of getting more bikes back on the road for years to come.