Blog Post
February 2025
Capacity building through bike maintenance training at Gear Up Lanark - A case study by Climate Action Lanarkshire
Learn how Gear Up upskilled their team to meet community needs through bike maintenance training.
Healthy Valleys is a community-led health initiative based in Lanark, who support communities in rural South Lanarkshire. Their priorities are to provide opportunities for local people, improve health and wellbeing, and build stronger communities through initiatives such as Gear Up, a Social Enterprise focused on empowering communities through cycling, walking, and wheeling.
Gear Up operates a 'not-for-profit' model, and all income generated through their activities is reinvested in Healthy Valleys to enable them to support communities in improving their health and wellbeing. The Gear Up programme is delivered by a passionate team of staff and volunteers.
Gerry Timoney started as Community And Team Lead in 2024, and has been putting his time into developing the skills, resources and expertise needed to ensure better outcomes for the Lanarkshire communities that Gear Up serve. Gerry felt that the group were ideally placed to empower the local community to take up cycling, and were fortunate to have excellent infrastructure including a fleet of various bikes.
To ensure the bikes meet the needs of the community, Gerry recognised that staff and volunteers needed to be trained on basic maintenance. The group had previously received Cycling UK funding to deliver Dr Bike repairs and saw an opportunity to train up their staff and volunteers, to ensure that affordable and accessible bike repairs are available to the community.
As a result, Gear Up introduced an in-house Fundemental Bike Maintenance Course, and have run their first 4-week programme for staff and volunteers.
The course teaches basic practical bike maintenance for beginners, including essential repairs like punctures and tubes, brakes and gears. At the end of the course, participants are presented with a Bike Maintenance Certificate, demonstrating their knowledge of fundamental bike maintenance.
The first Fundemental Bike Maintenance course started in October 2024 and ran for four weeks, with each week focusing on a different aspect of basic bike maintenance:
Week 1: Punctures & tube repairs
Week 2: Brakes
Week 3: Gears
Week 4: Chains, how to properly look after a bike and tips on how and when to use basic maintenance.
Each person completing the training was presented with a certificate.
Barriers/Challenges:
Gear Up have seen a noticeable gender imbalance for those taking up cycling in the area, and have found it can be harder to attract female participants on courses like this. They are fortunate to have Adriene and Leslie on board and will be making every effort to address this imbalance and encourage girls and women of all ages to take part in future, including female-only courses.
Funding can also be an issue which prevents Gear Up from being able to adequately plan long-term activities in advance. They are extremely grateful to their funders for making their activities and programmes available to Lanarkshire communities.
Benefits:
The training and accreditation allows volunteers to run maintenance services for Gear Up, to ensure their fleet is in good working order throughout the year and also to allow volunteers to provide basic repairs.
With further training, Gear Up see staff and volunteers in turn becoming trainers and working with other communities, groups and local schools.
What’s next:
The course will be starting back up in January 2025 with two sets of 4-week classes covering different aspects of bike maintenance. Gear Up will then be looking to expand their accreditation and offer maintenance courses with local groups and schools with their mobile stands and tools. They have successfully run Dr Bike sessions in the nearby communities of Rigside and Douglas, and hope to deliver the maintenance courses to these groups and more across Lanarkshire.
Gerry Timoney said:
“We will be looking further at opportunities and routes to effecting societal and behavioural change towards more active and sustainable ways of travel. We are in the process of expanding our provision by developing our volunteer and instructor pool and are gearing up for a busy 2025!”
Capacity building through bike maintenance training at Gear Up Lanark - A case study by Climate Action Lanarkshire
Learn how Gear Up upskilled their team to meet community needs through bike maintenance training.
Healthy Valleys is a community-led health initiative based in Lanark, who support communities in rural South Lanarkshire. Their priorities are to provide opportunities for local people, improve health and wellbeing, and build stronger communities through initiatives such as Gear Up, a Social Enterprise focused on empowering communities through cycling, walking, and wheeling.
Gear Up operates a 'not-for-profit' model, and all income generated through their activities is reinvested in Healthy Valleys to enable them to support communities in improving their health and wellbeing. The Gear Up programme is delivered by a passionate team of staff and volunteers.
Gerry Timoney started as Community And Team Lead in 2024, and has been putting his time into developing the skills, resources and expertise needed to ensure better outcomes for the Lanarkshire communities that Gear Up serve. Gerry felt that the group were ideally placed to empower the local community to take up cycling, and were fortunate to have excellent infrastructure including a fleet of various bikes.
To ensure the bikes meet the needs of the community, Gerry recognised that staff and volunteers needed to be trained on basic maintenance. The group had previously received Cycling UK funding to deliver Dr Bike repairs and saw an opportunity to train up their staff and volunteers, to ensure that affordable and accessible bike repairs are available to the community.
As a result, Gear Up introduced an in-house Fundemental Bike Maintenance Course, and have run their first 4-week programme for staff and volunteers.
The course teaches basic practical bike maintenance for beginners, including essential repairs like punctures and tubes, brakes and gears. At the end of the course, participants are presented with a Bike Maintenance Certificate, demonstrating their knowledge of fundamental bike maintenance.
The first Fundemental Bike Maintenance course started in October 2024 and ran for four weeks, with each week focusing on a different aspect of basic bike maintenance:
Week 1: Punctures & tube repairs
Week 2: Brakes
Week 3: Gears
Week 4: Chains, how to properly look after a bike and tips on how and when to use basic maintenance.
Each person completing the training was presented with a certificate.
Barriers/Challenges:
Gear Up have seen a noticeable gender imbalance for those taking up cycling in the area, and have found it can be harder to attract female participants on courses like this. They are fortunate to have Adriene and Leslie on board and will be making every effort to address this imbalance and encourage girls and women of all ages to take part in future, including female-only courses.
Funding can also be an issue which prevents Gear Up from being able to adequately plan long-term activities in advance. They are extremely grateful to their funders for making their activities and programmes available to Lanarkshire communities.
Benefits:
The training and accreditation allows volunteers to run maintenance services for Gear Up, to ensure their fleet is in good working order throughout the year and also to allow volunteers to provide basic repairs.
With further training, Gear Up see staff and volunteers in turn becoming trainers and working with other communities, groups and local schools.
What’s next:
The course will be starting back up in January 2025 with two sets of 4-week classes covering different aspects of bike maintenance. Gear Up will then be looking to expand their accreditation and offer maintenance courses with local groups and schools with their mobile stands and tools. They have successfully run Dr Bike sessions in the nearby communities of Rigside and Douglas, and hope to deliver the maintenance courses to these groups and more across Lanarkshire.
Gerry Timoney said:
“We will be looking further at opportunities and routes to effecting societal and behavioural change towards more active and sustainable ways of travel. We are in the process of expanding our provision by developing our volunteer and instructor pool and are gearing up for a busy 2025!”
