News and Media

2021 and the Impact Grows

Starting as a volunteer a year and half ago, Leo hadn’t ridden a bike since he was a teenager, but after discovering our mission and purpose, was keen to join our social enterprise. As well as making us laugh, lots, he quickly mastered key aspects of bicycle maintenance and even taught himself how to repair eScooters!

Having built a bike from the frame up in Feb 2021, he started a job today as Duty Manager in a Central London workshop that specialises in e-bike and e-scooter repair. Many of us have spent 2020 questioning where we are in life, what we’re doing, and how we can thrive rather than just survive. As a multi-talented tradesman, actor, musician, mechanic and, yes, comedian, we think Leo’s choice to scale Active Mobility in the capital is an honourable one and we’re overjoyed to have played a small part in this.

Trust, Gift, Stewardship

Reeling from a reneged business agreement that nearly wiped us out at the start of the year, to riding the waves of Covid-19, the fallout from Brexit, having to close in July as we couldn’t safely access our site and ultimately losing 3/4 of our volunteer team – this year has been challenging to say the least!

Integrating these learning opportunities, cementing our values, vision and purpose, our team is now stronger than ever, we’ve gifted more this year than ever before and our 2nd site has been confirmed on the most exciting new development in London. How? In times of uncertainty, disruption and loss, we chose to lean further into trust, gift and stewardship. Unsurprisingly, trust and stewardship are the two biggest challenges separating a sixth mass extinction event on one hand, from a thriving, meritocratic, zero carbon future on the other. As for asking ‘what can I give?’ rather than ‘what can I get?’ …well, this has never been more timely.

TFL Award Winner!

Honoured to accept the Added Value Award from Will Norman on behalf of the team at TFL’s Annual Walking and Cycling Grants London ceremony.

Being recognised for the impact of our open source framework; keeping everything we create in the public domain for unlimited community benefit and support, felt wonderful. We’re transitioning towards a regenerative, inclusive and fully integrated global society and removing barriers for collective growth and impact is fundamental to this.

That’s a Wrap 2019!

After a huge year for the team who have doubled in number, we’re planning to double our capacity again in the next six months….oh, and our friend Tamsin is gifting us a short film!

We’re taking a break now till Jan 11th 2020 but wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

LinkedIn Article with more info on our Founders page here.

Sustainable Cycles

Wonderful to witness Jarno Crippa, one of our Lead Volunteer Mechanics, finish building his fast touring bike yesterday.

From selecting the components, to facing the frameset, building the wheels and making the final tweaks and adjustments, it’s been a joy to witness.

As we approach the next phase of our evolution, it’s amazing to see our volunteers become trainers, having honed and mastered numerous skills, and thanks to funding from TFL’s Walking and Cycling Grants London programme, received the support to gain qualifications that validate this.

To read more about this article, check out the LinkedIn post here.

UCL Collaborative Study 2019

Pro Bike Service CIC are incredibly fortunate to be a Community Partner of UCL, having just commenced a 12week Research/Evaluation project (BASc0030) around the impact of cycling as a non-clinical intervention in health

We are transforming stolen/recovered and abandoned bikes, plus a ton of new parts, into fully serviced bicycles thanks to our volunteer mechanics.

25 bikes will then be gifted to participants who do not currently cycle, their health monitored and a research paper written and published by UCL.

Although a small validation pilot, this study, if our theory of change is correct, may eventually result in cycling being prescribed as both a curative and preventative health intervention following a more in depth study in 2020/2021

Business as Unusual

In April 2019, our founder was interviewed by a tech company to co-found a new business – which had the potential to become a serious competitor.

It’s probably not customary when declining an offer, to spend the next six months sharing the I.P of your unique IT systems (especially those not yet physically realised), gifting design and training and working closely with the co-founder to help support their business…with the openness and non-commitment to receive programming and coding support in the future.

But then again, our business model is based on stewardship, not ownership and the co-founder, Jeyda Heselton, a trustworthy and diligent powerhouse, committed to growing urban cycling and driven to succeed at all costs. So happy to celebrate the Handlebars launch together after all the hard work her and her team put in! More about this here

Winning the Social Inclusion Pitch at the close of London Tech Week

We felt incredibly honoured to win the Social Inclusion Pitch at the close of London Tech Week in June 2019.

Our social enterprise only exists due to the massive support of our clients, beneficiaries, volunteers, partners, funders, friends and family – the whole community!

If you’re interested, you can read more about the pitch here on our founders LinkedIn page, and watch the full event here

Loughborough University London Collaborative Project 2018/19

We thoroughly enjoyed being one of Loughborough University London’s 2018/19 Collaborative Project Partner Organisations.

35 Students were assigned the challenging task of ‘Designing an Open Source IT Framework’ for our entire operations. The seven groups that formed delivered some truly incredible and insightful work, especially ‘Team A’ whose work was even mentioned by Professor Robert Allison, Vice-Chancellor and President, during the event in Plexal, March 2019

East London Innovators

Our Founder was recognised in 2018 as an East London Innovator – one of the 50 individuals who are driving innovation in East London. At the celebration event in February 2019, it was amazing to stand alongside individuals making such a positive impact within their organisation, community or business. People who are directly contributing to new ways or models of doing things, shaking the status quo and putting collaboration at the heart of their work. Panel Judges included; Katherine Oliver – Bloomberg, Theo Blackwell – Chief Digital Officer, London, Russ Shaw – Founder, Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates, Jules Coleman – Co-founder, Resi and Julian Blake – Editor, DigitalAgenda

MOVE2019

Our Founder was honoured to be invited as guest speaker for #MOVE2019 at the London ExCel, sharing what the team at Pro Bike Service C.I.C are delivering and why our social enterprise was created

Two of our key volunteers, Graham Taylor-Burge and Kasia, ran a stall in the Startup Village and we garnered at lot of interest at this event. Sharing the same stage as Gary Fisher, creator of the Mountain Bike, was rather exciting too! Big thanks to wemakepictures for the photography!

2018 Festive Fundraiser

On 11th Dec 2018 we threw a wonderful party at Stour Space in Hackney Wick

In addition to raising funds, this was a great opportunity to thank our volunteers, our supporters, our corporate (and not-so-corporate) partners, TFL’s Cycling Grants London programme, and of course, all the community members who’ve believed in us, championed us and continue to support our work. With a stellar line-up of DJ’s, support from Camden Town Brewery and over £700 worth of raffle prizes, this was a party to remember!

Cycling Grants London

Case study write-up from Cycling Grants London – June 2018

A great write-up highlighting some of the work we do and why we do it

Many thanks to TFL’s Cycling Grants London programme, administered by Groundwork London who are supporting Pro Bike Service C.I.C. through their three-year grant award scheme. Of huge benefit (in addition to the finance) has been the training courses we’ve received – highly recommended!

Please check out some of the other amazing projects here

Bike Week 2018

A range of free offerings gifted for national Bike Week 2018, ranging from Bike Health Checks at the International Quarter London, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to highly rated in-house Puncture Repair and Wheel Trueing workshops

(free events encouraging safe cycles in June 2018)

BBC Radio4 - Prayer for the Day

BBC Radio 4 – Prayer for the Day – 6th Feb 2018

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Alison Murdoch, a Tibetan Buddhist writer and former director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London

(the Gift Economy of Pro Bike Service and background story)

Bike renovation scheme offers support to refugees

TransportXtra – 17th Jan 2018

A bicycle training and servicing enterprise has launched an initiative to give refugees refurbished bikes and bike maintenance training

(supporting newly arrived Syrian Refugee families living locally)

Volunteers build a bike in a day at Mobile Garden City!

Engie – 26th Jul 2017

A ‘Build a Bike Workshop’ was organised with a local community bike social enterprise that has set up a brand new workshop at the same site as Mobile Garden City. The workshop involved a team of six people building a roadworthy vehicle, utilising a selection of parts including two donated bicycles from ENGIE

(corporate social responsibility event with Engie)