Brightwayz in the Community
Here at Brightwayz we love to get out and about to lots of local venues to meet local people and share our love for active travel and safe streets for all. From the fun of smoothie bikes and play streets to the chance to get bikes secured and fixed or skills learnt, our community activities provide benefits for all.
The activites we offer depend on the venue and our host but our smoothie bike is a big hit - giving visitors a chance to pedal their own smoothie. A tasty, healthy reward for getting on a stationery bike and peddling to make fruit become smoothie is not just a fun activity. It is also a good way to get children and adults into a saddle even if they can't cycle or haven't done for years. It's also a great conversation starter to talk about cycling and what they like about it.
BikeRegister Cycle Security Marking
Our cycle security marking service is also popular at our community events. We offer this free of charge - cycle owners bring their bikes to us and we clean a patch to apply a uniquely-coded cycle security sticker. We note the frame number from the bike and other key details for the owner on a corresponding card. They then register their bicycle using their phone with BikeRegister - the national cycle database. Then, if the cycle is ever stolen they can easily find all the bike details. If the bike is recovered (many are, but it can be hard to find the owners), the police can return the bike to its rightful owner.
Cycle Checks and Repairs
At many of our community events we are able to offer free cycle checks and basic repairs thanks to Big Bike Revival funding from Cycling UK. Other popular activities include our Bike Kitchens - you bring your bike and our mechanic will service it with you whilst explaining what he is doing and showing you basic maintenance tips to give you the skills to keep it in good shape. Our Learn to Fix workshops are another activity - these go into a bit more depth with teaching you cycle repair skills and include giving you a chance to practice repairing punctures and other basic repair tasks.
Not Just Cycling
Our community events are not just about cycling - but about making streets safer for all. Our Brightwayz team provided the support for a very popular School Play Street trial in Kettering in 2022. Our efforts are now focused on collaborating with our local authority to make it easier for communities to organise their own regular play streets and community street events.
We work with a wide range of local partners to do these events and are grateful for the many free venue opportunities offered to us from organisations such as Wicksteed Park, Kettering Green Patch, Kettering Town Council and Kettering Buccleuch Academy.
Our community activities are funded from various sources including Cycling UK, Northamptonshire Sport and others, as well as by ourselves here at Brightwayz.