You may not have heard of Cycling Without Age? It is an initiative that started 8 years ago in Denmark and has now grown across the world. Essentially, using a specially designed bike called a trishaw, volunteer pilots take elderly and isolated members of the community out for bike rides to get fresh air, a break from their care home or residence and a chance to reconnect with the community. You can find a lot more information here: www.cyclingwithoutage.org

On Fri, Jun 19, 2020 Richard Turnbull  wrote to ChiCycle to announce he is starting up a Cycling Without Age project in Chichester! He kindly asked if we would be interested in supporting his project. We are very enthusiastic about his initiative and will make some space available on the ChiCycle website in case Richard needs somewhere to advertise further details of this local scheme.

He has explained that there are already successful chapters across the country, locally in Weymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton, but not yet one in Chichester. Richard has applied and been successful in creating the official Cycling Without Age Chichester chapter which is great news!

Richard is now in the process of trying to make the idea a reality. The trishaws are purpose built and as you may imaging, not cheap.He has applied to WSCC for funding through the Community Initiative Fund scheme and currently have a live fundraiser on their site. The council are keen to back ideas that are supported by the community, so the more backers there are, the more chance of the council approving the funding.

If you want to support Richards vision  https://www.spacehive.com/cycling-without-age-chichester. I will also be looking for volunteer “pilots” once we have the bike. If anyone is interested in sparing some time to ride the bike and bring smiles to people’s faces, then they can register here: www.brightride.org.uk/cycling-without-age-chichester.

The ChiCycle team believe it looks like www.brightride.org.uk is Richards project website so we assume the best way to get in touch with him is through the following links.

admin@brightride.org.uk
+44 (0)7821 810552