FREE BIKE FIXING: Lottery-funded workshops head for schools and clubs across South West Wales

A punctured tyre or a slipped chain is enough to put a bike in the shed for good, and for a lot of children that is exactly where it stays.

A Swansea trainer is trying to stop that happening, with free workshops heading for schools, community centres and club rooms across Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Llanelli and Carmarthen.

Cycle CPD, based on Europa Way in Fforestfach, has won backing from the National Lottery Community Fund for a programme it calls Rolling Resilience.

Chris Dower loads mobile work stands and professional toolsets into a van and runs the sessions on site, in whatever room a group can offer.

Groups provide nothing else. The tools come with him, and while riders are encouraged to bring the bike they actually ride, Cycle CPD can supply bikes for those who do not have one.

Sessions run with small groups, from three people upwards, and are pitched at whatever the room already knows. Nobody needs to have fixed a puncture before.

The aim is a rider who can set a bike up safely, spot a problem before it becomes a breakdown, handle the simple repairs, and recognise the point at which a bike needs a shop.

Dower is a qualified lecturer who led bicycle maintenance teaching at Gower College Swansea, and has been training professional mechanics since 2021. He is a Level 3 Cytech Master Technician.

“Bicycles provide low-cost transport, health benefits, and independence, but basic mechanical issues often prevent people from using them,” he said.

“With support from The National Lottery Community Fund, we are taking workstations and tools out into the community to host maintenance workshops.”

He said he wanted long-term partnerships with councils, schools, cycling groups and youth services across the area. “Delivering training directly in familiar settings removes travel barriers and gives participants the experience and confidence to keep their bikes running safely.”

The funded work splits three ways. School sessions are aimed at pupils who ride in every day, community sessions at young people in deprived areas, and club sessions at mixed-ability groups including parents and ride leaders.

Cycle CPD has already run a women’s maintenance day at Hafod Trails, with a family workshop planned for later in the year.

Charlie, who owns Hafod Trails, said the sessions changed how riders felt about their own bikes. “Teaching people more about their own bikes gives them independence on and off the trails,” they said.

Alongside the funded work, Cycle CPD runs commercial Cytech qualifications from Fforestfach for bike shop staff, self-employed mechanics and people entering the trade, and describes itself as the first dedicated Cytech centre in Wales.

Cytech is the trade’s accreditation scheme, owned by the Association of Cycle Traders, and has been running for more than 30 years.

The funding was announced in May and the sessions are now being booked. Cycle CPD says places are limited.

Schools, youth organisations, councils and community groups can register interest through Cycle CPD’s enquiry form or by emailing chris@cyclecpd.co.uk.