Cycling Without Age - West Devon and East Cornwall
Everyone has the right to feel the wind in their hair.
Who We Are and What We Do
Trike Rides for All
Volunteer pilots take local elders and care/nursing homes residents out on ‘trishaw’ cycle rides to feel the wind in their hair. Bringing generations closer together using special trishaws (three-wheel cycles with a passenger cab out front). They have electrical power assist, so no need to be super-sporty to be a volunteer cycle pilot. Rides are comfortable, fun and free. They enable people to experience the city and nature close-up from the bicycle. There’s opportunity to regain social connection and for people to tell their story in the environment where they have lived their lives. The work builds bridges between generations and reinforces trust, respect and the social glue of our society. Our cycle pilots and passengers alike enjoy the physical and emotional well-being benefits. The joy of riding in the trishaw cab stimulates spirits to fly and stories to flow!
The History
‘Cycling Without Age’ a non-profit global initiative, founded in Copenhagen in 2012 and has now spread world-wide. Each local chapter is run by volunteers with our guiding principles of generosity, slowness, storytelling, relationships and without age.
The idea for a branch formed about the same time in the towns of Tavistock and Launceston. We have a core of committed cyclists and community minded people in our areas and their love of cycling can be coupled with individual goodwill to create a resource to improve the lives of older and disadvantaged people near us. This pool will allow us to train a team of ‘pilots’ and supporters to operate the rides safely and enjoyably. Safety, security and safeguarding will be at the core of what we do.
We have decided to pool our resources to avoid duplication on organisation and admin. There will however, still be a trike for each town. We are now registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). This allows us to put in place ‘best practice’ governance to manage the project for the long term. We have formed a committee of 5 Trustees to steer the work as we develop, consisting of an accountant, lawyer, business persons and cyclists with experience of nursing homes.
Team work
We are better together
