The Pedallers' Arms

In the early hours of Monday morning two unidentified people broke through the big red door at the front of Pedallers’ Arms. They also broke into our storeroom at the back.

A kind soul working at KD Brothers (the garage nearby) alerted the police who informed us of the situation.

The thieves got away with the cash on premises and our drill. Fortunately they didn’t steal any of our tools or stock as far as we are aware.

One of our number got out of bed at 6AM (while theoretically on holiday) to attend the scene. They spoke to the police officers on site, secured the building and bought and fitted a new safe.

Later that same day two of our number stayed late to reinforce the door in an effort to make it harder to break in in the future.

Security improvements are as of now an ongoing concern and many of us are now devoting large amounts of time to this task.

We will continue operating as normal, teaching you how to fix your bike, offering advice and help where needed and selling parts and accessories at the lowest price we can.

The estimated cost of this to us is £1-2k. The bulk of this cost is actually due to the damage caused and includes:

• Cash
• New drill
• Emergency boarding (arranged by police, billed to us)
• New safe
• New locks
• Various security upgrades
• Etc

There is also for many of us a large emotional cost in having yet another fire to put out.

Any donations at this time or in the future are always welcome and appreciated, no matter how small. If you can’t afford to give us anything that’s fine, we will do our best to help you regardless.

With love,

Pedallers’ Arms.

We’ll be taking a break for the month of August. At the time of writing, we still have appointments available for the rest of July which you can book here.

See you soon!

Afternoon all,

As the lockdown eases, we will soon be re-assessing how we operate our sessions and increasing the number of slots available will be up for discussion.

In the meantime, we only have 12 appointments a week available. So please remember that we are only able to accommodate urgent or critical repairs to your main bike.

Is your bike unsafe (e.g. brakes not working/pads worn) or difficult to ride (e.g. gears slipping)? Or maybe a critical component has broken? Do you rely on the bike for getting around? Then go ahead and book an appointment.

If you have another bike that you can use, then please hold off until we are able to accommodate more people in the workshop, or pay a bike shop to repair your bike. Please consider that there may be people out there whose need is greater than yours.

Also, a reminder (as stated in the booking information) if you do not turn up, and have not cancelled 5 hours before the session then you won’t be able to book for 2 months.

Finally, please remember that we are all volunteers! 🙂

Happy cycling!

We remain open for essential bike repairs on Mondays and Thursdays, by appointment only. We will continue to prioritise the safety of the people in the workshop which means we won’t necessarily be offering the same learning opportunities that we aim to in normal times.

Depending on the nature of the repair and the level of skill and experience required to complete it to an acceptable (safe) standard, our volunteer mechanics may decide to make the necessary repairs to your bike themselves (with you watching and the mechanic explaining) rather than supporting you to carry out the work yourself.

We have shortened the appointment slots to 1 hour 30 minutes to allow time to ventilate the workshop in between bookings. All the other Covid measures we have had in place since we re-opened in autumn remain the same.

To book an appointment click here.

• at present we are only able to accommodate critical/urgent repairs to a bike you rely on
• maximum of two mechanics and two people with bikes to fix in the workshop at any one time
• face coverings must be worn in the workshop
• handwashing facilities provided in the workshop and hands must be washed on entry
• two marked out work areas and social distancing required
• nitrile gloves available
• used tools put in a tub at the end of each appointment and disinfected

Having been closed to the public for all except key worker repairs since March, we are now opening our door once again for repairs by appointment. Things will feel quite different to the Pedallers’ that we are used to (by the way, it was our tenth birthday earlier this month!).

Even with the government new national restrictions being introduced on the 5th of November we will remain open as bikes are an essential form of transport and so servicing them is still permitted.

If you just need to purchase a spare part or want to buy accessories e.g. lights or a lock then you can but we will not be available to give you advice, you will not be admitted to the workshop and you will not be able to use tools from the workshop.

You can find out more about booking a drop-in session where you can access our booking system

We’re still not open to the public yet – it’s taken a bit longer than intended for a few different reasons – but we’re nearly there! We’ve got our new procedures ready to go and will be spending a few weeks trialing them before, if all goes well, opening around mid-November.

Visits will be by appointment only, and to safely manage capacity they will only be available for repairs that are necessary to keep your main bike riding safely. We will announce more details and the link for online booking in a few weeks.

We will be rolling over membership to next year for everyone who’s paid up for 2020 – though of course we’d welcome anyone willing/able to support us by paying their 2021 membership.

As of now we are no longer offering separate key worker repairs, as this was a stop-gap whilst we were unable to re-open.

Thanks for your patience and support, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you soon.

We are working hard to get Pedallers’ Arms re-opened before September. To reduce the risk we are planning an appointment system to stop the workshop being overcrowded, as well as hand washing stations, screening the counter, and zoning the workshop to provide adequate space. We take our responsibilities regarding Covid very seriously & fixing your bike often takes much more time than shopping, for example, which is why our measures might seem more severe.

We are well aware that lots of people will be unable to use public transport so will be relying on their bikes more than usual so this is just keeping you updated that re-opening is a priority to us. We will let you know how things progress. Thanks for your support.

Pedallers’ Arms