Storage and maintenance
Introduction
This chapter explores approaches to storage and maintenance of the bikes within the pilot projects.
Individual storage
Each project providing a bike to take home also provided a lock for the bike and made sure that children and families understood how to use them. In some cases projects ensured that younger children received locks with codes (with a saved database recording these) rather than keys which could be lost. Others supplied locks with keys and kept a set of copy keys.
Some projects indicated that storage emerged as a key barrier in early research and exploration to inform their approach. Some found that access to a safe and secure place to store a bike was an issue for many families – particularly families who live in flats or have shared gardens with no secure storage space, or young people living in temporary or shared accommodation.
Project leads providing bikes for young people to take home acknowledged the challenge that some people will have around safe storage, particularly in flats. One project which asks that bikes are stored indoors overnight found that a few young people were saying that they have to keep their bike in the bedroom, so is exploring other options. Some partners reported young people carrying heavy bikes up many flights of stairs to keep them in flats.
Some partners were concerned that storage options were not sustainable. For example, one partner indicated that families were storing bikes on flat landings, creating a fire risk. Another partner felt that although the families received a good quality lock, this wasn’t enough to ensure the security of the bike due to the likelihood of theft in the areas concerned. Partners were keen to see more community and school based bike storage options for young people.
The interim evaluation of the pilots found that rain covers for bikes, along with locks, enabled some families to store bikes outdoors. As a result the Scottish Government provided funding for rain covers or storage tents for all bikes issued through the pilots, which project leads hoped might resolve some storage concerns and maintain the condition of bikes stored outdoors. However, some of the projects indicated that they chose not to take up the offer, giving varied reasons including that they had not had demand from participants for rain covers, or that they believed that bike covers increase oxidisation of components.
One project indicated that 5 in 180 bikes had been stolen, and another found that one of the 21 issued had been stolen. These bikes had been replaced. Other projects indicated that they were not aware of any bikes being stolen so far. Most projects said that if a bike was stolen, they would aim to replace it.
A few projects indicated that they continued to explore wider storage options, such as community bike lock up or storage areas. One project indicated that 3 families (1.5% of bikes issued) had notified the project that they need to return their bike as they are struggling to store them at home.
Example: Bike for Good
Bike for Good briefs children and families about keeping their bikes safe and advises them to store them indoors if they can. Each bike is registered on the police database and has ID stickers fused to the frame. At the time of this evaluation, five of the 180 bikes distributed had been stolen and these had all been replaced. Bike for Good also maintains a secure database of the padlock codes and spare locks, in the event that young people forgot their code and could not access their bike.
Communal storage
Some of the pilot projects required bikes to be stored in schools, in clubs or at community hubs. In most cases bikes were stored in shipping containers. Shipping containers were felt to be a safe and cost effective storage solution.
Example: Rock Up and Ride
At Rock Up and Ride, each of the eight sites has been offered a shipping container for bike storage during the introductory four week sessions offered to children and young people. The shipping container could also potentially be used by young people to store their bikes, if needed.
However, some schools highlighted that storage was an issue and was very variable between schools.
We need more bike storage now. When we first got the bike shed it was empty for so long but now it’s bursting at the seams. - Teacher
A few schools highlighted that storage could be complex as it was expensive, and there could be a safety risk with children climbing onto storage containers or covered bike racks and then falling off or through. One school which had purchased adaptive bikes was keeping them at the back of a classroom as they were very large and expensive bits of equipment. A few schools also indicated that if pupils were being encouraged to store bikes safely then the schools needed to support this and lead by example.
Participant experiences of storage
Participants were asked to rate the help they received from the project in relation to storing their bike (where relevant).
| Q: How do you feel about the help you got to store your bike | Excellent | Good | Average | Poor | Very poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children and young people (n=63) | 46% | 37% | 17% | - | - |
| Parents and carers (n=41) | 37% | 44% | 15% | 2% | 2% |
A third of parents responding to the survey said that it was very important to them that the project included help with storing the bike. A third said it was slightly important and the remainder said it wasn’t at all important (15%) or wasn’t applicable (17%).
Participants stored their bikes in different locations, including:
- the garden – particularly if not many people pass the house
- a shed – a few were considering getting a shed for the bike
- in the house – in the hallway, living room, kitchen or bedroom
- in a communal area - the close or close cellar
They’re in their bedrooms. We live in a flat. It’s ground floor but I prefer them inside than outside. There’s space just by their beds. - Parent
One participant reported that they were able to keep their bike in a communal neighbourhood storage area, where everyone keeps their bikes, scooters and flickers.
Participants living in flats often carried their bikes up flights of stairs to make sure that they were safe. Participants didn’t mind doing this, particularly if bikes were light, but a few mentioned having bruises from carrying it up and down every day.
We’re on the 4th floor, but it’s fine. The bike isn’t heavy. - Young person
Some brought their bikes indoors when the weather was bad. Some had received rain covers, so were able to keep the bike outdoors in bad weather, if they had a secure space in their garden. One said that their rain cover had blown away. Some said they wouldn’t keep their bike outside even with a lock and a rain cover, as they felt it might get stolen. A few participants mentioned that they felt people had started coming round the garden or outdoor area since they got the bike, so they moved it indoors.
One young person mentioned that their bike was stolen when it was locked at the bottom of the stairs. It was replaced by the project and the child now brings it indoors. The family found the process of the bike being replaced simple.
Maintenance
Each of the pilot projects has built in approaches to maintaining the bikes to ensure ongoing and safe use.
| Project | Approach | Undertaken by |
|---|---|---|
| Angus Re-Cycles | One month safety check. Repairs as needed. | Angus Re-Cycles and Dr Bikes sessions |
| Barnardo's Gearing Up | Service every eight weeks. Repairs as needed. | Forth Environment Link |
| Bike for Good | One bike service per year. Repairs as needed. | Motion Forward |
| Clackmannanshire Bike Buddies | Service every eight weeks. Repairs as needed. | Forth Environment Link |
| Cycling Friendly Secondary Schools | Grant programme - schools lead on maintenance, maintenance kits provided | School staff and local partners |
| Equality Cycles | 3 monthly maintenance. Repairs as needed. | Active travel hubs and Dr Bikes sessions |
| I Bike | Light servicing, regular service, repairs as needed | Sustrans staff with support from local bike suppliers |
| Pedal Up Shetland | 6 monthly maintenance and repairs as needed | Community Bike Project |
| Rock Up and Ride | One service to the value of £50 | Local partners offer school sessions/ local bike shops |
The frequency of checks varied, with servicing ranging from every eight weeks to once a year. The two projects offering eight weekly services indicated that having tried this approach they would shift to 12 week services for recycled or refurbished bikes in the future, and 2 yearly services for new bikes.
The projects undertaking maintenance themselves or through subsidiaries employed qualified mechanics to undertake this activity.
Many projects undertook maintenance through school based sessions, which was felt to work well.
Doing maintenance at schools gives staff the opportunity to talk though what they are doing with the children and helps them to develop their maintenance skills. - Project lead
A few projects highlighted that it could be difficult for families to bring bikes to school or other places for a check, as they live too far from the school, don’t have a safe route and/ or the parents don’t have access to transport (with or without bike carriage). These challenges are exacerbated if the bike can’t be ridden because it needs a repair. In addition, a few partners said that it had been hard to encourage families to take up free proactive and preventative bike maintenance, to ensure long term use and sustainability of the bikes, rather than just reactive maintenance when they are damaged. One partner was concerned that if families had to contribute anything to maintenance this may not be prioritised, and may lead to more wastage and bikes not being used.
A few projects indicated that maintenance resources had been higher than expected, and that maintenance was quite logistically complex, so they would include more staff time for maintenance in the future.
A few projects stressed the importance of being flexible and understanding that some young people like to do things like cycle tough terrain and skid on their back tyres, so tyres may need replaced more frequently than expected. And a few projects indicated that the maintenance support was also useful for children and young people who already had their own bike, but it wasn’t being used or wasn’t up to an acceptable standard.
Example: Angus Cycle Hub
Angus Cycle Hub has a pop-up gazebo that they use to offer Dr Bikes sessions throughout Angus and Dundee. Young people are encouraged to take their bikes along to get checked. Young people can also contact Angus Cycle Hub for a repair. Angus Cycle Hub employs four mechanics who are trained to Velotech Silver or Gold standard as a minimum.
Example: Bike Buddies and Gearing Up
All bikes issued through Bike Buddies and Gearing Up get an eight week service carried out by Forth Environment Link’s qualified mechanics, who are Gold Velotech and Cytech accredited. Forth Environment Link also offers pop-up maintenance workshops and support at the schools involved in Bike Buddies. Gearing Up participants also took part in bike maintenance sessions.
Example: Equality Cycles
The Equality Cycles project connects with three active travel hubs in the local area to enable children to get their bikes fixed there, or get wider support to fix their bike. Families are reminded to come in regularly to get the bikes checked. Active travel hub staff are Cytech and Velotech trained from Silver award upwards. There are also Dr Bikes sessions offered through the schools.
Example: Rock Up and Ride
Rock Up and Ride works in partnership with local organisations such as Motion Forward (through Bike for Good) that provide maintenance solutions, who go into schools and run maintenance sessions. Young people get a free service up to the value of £50, as part of the Scottish Government’s Cycle Repair Scheme, and could take their bike either to a local bike shop or to school.
Example: Pedal Up Shetland
Pedal Up Shetland will work with schools to encourage children to bring their bikes to school for six monthly maintenance checks undertaken by the Community Bike Project, which has trained mechanics.
Example: I Bike
I Bike involved qualified Sustrans staff, trained to at least Velotech Silver level, ensuring that all bikes at schools meet the recognised industry standards. Bikes requiring significant maintenance work are sent to local bike shops. Bikes which are on loan come in for a service every one to two months, depending on the duration of the loan. A few schools involved in this evaluation indicated that responsibility for maintaining the fleet will pass to the school, and that teachers were undertaking maintenance courses and would be happy to take responsibility for this.
Example: Cycling Friendly Secondary Schools
Schools lead on maintenance within the Cycling Friendly Secondary Schools project, and have access to support, training and maintenance through the Cycling Friendly network of delivery partners and community organisations. Some schools have applied for funding for maintenance equipment, and some schools have capacity internally to do minor maintenance. The staff involved may or may not hold formal maintenance qualifications. Some schools also get maintenance support through other local organisations, including Sustrans, Bike for Good or their local bike shops.
Example: Bike for Good
Bike for Good offers all children free repairs through the pilot. Families receive an email or text asking them to bring their bike in for a maintenance check, or can contact Bike for Good whenever a bike has an issue. Maintenance is undertaken by Motion Forward, a fleet maintenance company and subsidiary of Bike for Good. All mechanics are fully trained and have at least two years’ experience or Cytech 2 accreditation. The mechanics are responsible for checking that all bikes meet the relevant ISO standards, and Bike for Good is Revolve accredited. Bike for Good also has £15 million liability insurance cover.
An evaluation of two projects found that some young people may have access to a bike which could be repaired into good working order, in a size that fits them. The evaluation suggested that running bike maintenance sessions to young people to help them to get their existing bikes repaired may be a useful addition to the project, and reduce the need for new bikes.
Participant experiences of maintenance
Participants were asked to rate the help they received from the project in relation to learning how to look after their bike. Most felt that the help was excellent or good.
| Q: How do you feel about the help you got to look after your bike | Excellent | Good | Average | Poor | Very poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children and young people (n=62) | 68% | 26% | 6% | n/a | -n/a |
| Parents and carers | 55% | 40% | 3% | 3% | -n/a |
Most parents responding to the survey said that it was very important to them that the project included help with maintaining the bike (71%).
Participants had different experiences of maintaining their bikes. At one project, participants talked about learning how to maintain their bikes, and felt confident checking their bikes for safety before using them and repairing punctures. These participants found accessing maintenance support easy and simple, for example for tyre replacements or gear realignment. A few suggested it would be useful to have a cycle repair multi-tool so that they could maintain their bike.
They did a full service, realigned the breaks and I promised not to be so reckless. - Young person
At another project, parents and carers liked that they were shown how to service the bike and make sure it fits properly and is safe. This helped parents to feel more confident encouraging use of the bike, and parents understood where to get more help if the bike needed repaired.
At two other projects, parents and carers highlighted that they liked how maintenance was clearly built into their agreement and was very easy to access.
“It’s good because it gets fixed if it’s broken. The bike got a burst tyre and they came to our house to fix it. We just reported it and then they called to make an appointment for two days later. It was really easy! - Parent
Four young people from two projects said that they couldn’t use their bikes at the time of the evaluation. Two participants at one project said that they had problems with their bike. These were not related to quality – one had a flat tire and the other had a problem with the chain after a stick got stuck in it. Both had been broken and unusable for a couple of months. Participants were aware that there were bike maintenance sessions at school, but hadn’t been able to bring their bikes in.
Two participants at another project also had bikes that couldn’t be used due to the chain coming off and the handle bars and seat needing fixed. These participants did not know how to get help with maintaining their bike. A few parents also indicated that they were not aware of support with maintaining the bikes
One of the bikes the chain came off but mum can’t fix it and we didn’t know we could get it fixed. - Young person
The bike I have currently needs the handle bars and seat fixed. Unsure what has happened but currently unable to ride the bike. - Young person
An evaluation of one project highlighted that participants needed access to equipment to be able to maintain their bikes, and needed time to practice skills such as repairing a puncture so they could look after their own bike.
Sustainability and bike use
The pilots had a range of different approaches in place to ensure that bikes could be used in a sustainable manner, and children and young people could have access to a bike that met their needs over time.
Two projects – Cycling Friendly Secondary Schools and I Bike – focus on developing fleets of bikes within schools, which could be used while at school, on loan or short term ownership models. I Bike offered a wide range of training sessions, with I Bike officers running 104 training sessions and the bikes being used for 412 training sessions – including Bikeability, learn to ride, skills sessions and led rides.
One project – Bike for Good - uses a bike subscription model. Families can get in touch if they want to upsize a bike and can request this as needed. At the time of this evaluation young people had had their bikes for less than a year, often a few months, and there had not yet been requests to upsize bikes. Bike for Good offered outdoor and indoor lessons, Bikeability Level 1 and Level 2 training and led rides to support bike use and support participants by answering any questions.
Three projects – Angus Re-Cycles, Equality Cycles and Pedal Up Shetland – offer bikes to young people as their own, but with the intention that they are returned when they grow out of them or no longer need them. Angus Cycle Hub plans to refurbish and re-use the returned bikes. Equality Cycles uses a flexible approach, with young people owning the bikes and with the option of either returning the bike and exchanging it for a bigger bike, or handing it down to younger siblings. At Pedal Up Shetland the plan is that the young person keeps their bike, but if they outgrow it they can return it and get a bigger one.
Three projects – Gearing Up, Bike Buddies and Rock Up and Ride – offer bikes to young people to keep. Gearing Up and Bike Buddies offer adult sized bikes to young people in older age groups, and the bikes should be possible to use through to adulthood. Rock Up and Ride offers the young people the bikes to keep, after a series of four sessions to build cycling skills. Young people can sell them and buy a bigger bike if they grow out of them.
It was important that the children got appropriate cycle training as well as kit as part of the offer. - Teacher, quoted in project final evaluation form
Projects planning to re-use bikes within the project for multiple children said that the amount of times a bike could be recycled and the cost of doing so would depend very much on each bike and how they are used and stored. One project found that bikes were getting quite well used - ‘battered and bruised’ – and that they could take quite a bit of resource in terms of repair and refurbishment. Another project suggested that they expected the life cycle of a bike to be around 7 years, but that this would depend very much on maintenance. Projects also highlighted that the process of taking bikes back, refurbishing them and re-issuing them required resources, logistics and infrastructure.
Participant experiences of sustainability
Participants were positive about the support they got to use their bike. Around three quarters of children and young people said that the help they got to take part in cycling activities, learn to ride the bike and plan their routes was good or excellent. Parents also indicated that it was very important to them that their child received support with learning how to ride a bike safely, plan their route and link to cycling events and clubs. A few parents said that their child needed more support riding their bike, and that it was important to include enough support for young people who may take more time to learn new skills.
| Q: How important was it to you that the project provided: | Very | Slightly | Not at all | Not applicable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Help with safely using the bike | 86% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
| Help planning safe routes | 63% | 12% | 10% | 15% |
| Links to cycling clubs and events | 37% | 29% | 17% | 17% |
Parents and carers also indicated that it was important that the project provided the opportunity to swap the bike for a bigger one, a bike that would last a long time, and a replacement if the bike is stolen.
| Q: How important was it to you that the project provided: | Very | Slightly | Not at all | Not applicable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replacement if bike is stolen | 56% | 20% | 3% | 22% |
| The opportunity to swap the bike | 78% | 10% | n/a | 12% |
| A bike that will last your child a long time | 63% | 27% | n/a | 10% |
In discussion with parents, carers and young people there were varied views on how long the bike would last them. Those in the older age groups (upper secondary) often found they could use an adult bike and this would last them for a long time, as long as they looked after it.
I think it will last a long time. It looks brand new. I think it will last a long time if it’s well looked after. And especially if they come to fix the bike. - Parent
Many participants were aged 10-12 and often parents felt that the bike would only last them a year, 18 months or 2 years, because of how quickly their child was growing. Many participants were unsure what their options were when they outgrew the bike. Some said that they would go back to the project, to see if they could exchange the bike for a larger size. Some said that they would pass the bike on to younger siblings.