Women on Wheels on Tour 🚴♀️🚴♀️
Since Women on Wheels began, we’ve been so inspired by many projects that exist around the country, so we decided it was time to visit some of these wonderful people and projects that we’ve only been able to watch from afar.
Day 1:
Bee Pedal Ready and Station South
Women on Wheels (Katherine, Holly, Shgufta and Salma) set off from Glasgow to Manchester eager to get to their first stop and meet the Bicycle Mayor of Manchester aka Belinda Everett from Bee Pedal Ready (CIC). We pounced on Belinda at Manchester Piccadilly station and then found our first transport hurdle….getting on the Beryl Bike app and finding bikes in various locations. We enjoyed chatting to the inspirational Belinda whilst juggling downloading and navigating the app, getting our bikes and finally getting them unlocked to set off on our journey. Not an easy feat as the app and bike locks were a bit of a faff… but we were excited.
The first stop was the start of Manchester’s celebratory and inclusive ‘Ride for Women’ (for International Women’s Day) beside the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst. We happily took pictures until Salma pointed out that although Emmeline gets all the credit for the Suffragette movement, the real story should be around the ‘silent suffragettes’, the women of colour who were told to stay at the back and to be part of the movement but not into a public facing image. Definite food for thought on our ride.
We then raced on our trusty Beryl steeds to the beautiful Victoria Baths which will mark the end of the Ride for Women’ culminating in a large, fun and celebratory community event. The venue really is stunning and will allow women from all walks of life to have a space to eat, share their stories and be together. Belinda was keen to tell us about the Spanner station showcasing female bike mechanics around the community event. As we know at Women on Wheels, women fixing bikes is empowering - so we were happy to hear all about this!
With a wee bit of rain making us feel at home, our final stop in Manchester was a local cafe where we finally got to sit with Belinda and meet Anna from Station South (CIC). Station South runs the community cycle arm of a cycle destination cafe, luring people into cycling by connecting them through food and a place to gather. Anna is working on an upcoming festival on 11th May connecting green spaces with very little personnel and financial resources. It was good to talk and share about what hurdles and challenges we all have as small cycling organisations and ways in which we can support each other going forward. Women supporting women is powerful!
Belinda really was a kindred spirit and showed such energy and warmth at meeting four complete strangers off the train and taking them round Manchester. Anna was equally inspirational - we are looking forward to chatting to her some more in the future about her work.
What we were amazed at was the dynamics of this duo and how they pulled together an amazing IWD movement against all obstacles, promoting gender equality in bike maintenance and led rides.
The duo also organise a Light Up Ride, this year on 16th November - empowering women to go on a mass ride to carry on cycling into winter and in the dark conditions. We are hoping to come to Manchester to join them!
Despite the energy in the room and the amount of things we had to chat about, we had to set off to get to the next leg off our journey. Not before we got some pictures against the backdrop of a lovely bright artwork of a bee. The Bee Campaign Manchester (connecting the rail bus and bike network) looks bright and vibrant and creative but actually symbolizes worker bees scurrying away making honey for queen bee… it represents the city’s hardworking reputation.
We got out to find one of our Beryl bikes being ridden away and all of us having been fined for leaving the bikes at a cafe. A number of Beryl troubles ensued and in the end we put them all back and ended up getting an Uber, just catching our train and then spending our journeys all messaging Beryl for refunds. Not the smooth bike hire we had hoped for!
Day 2
Carryme
Katherine and Shgufta met up with Alix Stredwick from Carryme - an organisation supporting families who can cycle already, but giving them options to travel with small children. They provide a mobile library (funded by local London boroughs) offering kit, bikes, confidence training and support from other women. Despite being 400 miles away from us the barriers and challenges are very similar. Small organisations often have a lone voice, lack of funding and especially longer term support and have to prove their worth to white male counterparts. Sounds familiar…
Joyriders & Westminster Wheels
Holly and Salma set off to meet Mariam from JoyRiders. They met Mariam Draaijer at Westminster Wheels - a brilliant community bike repair and refurb shop that loan bikes to the women who attend the Joyriders rides. Mariam was running late and Holly and Salma were welcomed by the friendly and passionate owner who explained the need for bike repairs and refurbs in London and how this can be done whilst training people in bike mechanics. We were not surprised but disappointed to hear that only 3 women had come through their training scheme. From our experience, we suggested womens only training sessions and having visible women mechanics would help promote these visible role models and attract more women to this male dominated career.
When Mariam arrived, she told us part of her electric cargo bike had been stolen the day before so she had travelled on the tube which in her experience was a much less enjoyable experience than travelling around London by bike! Mariam was a warm, calm and passionate woman who had been involved with Joyriders since they had started in 2016. Joyriders now operates in many London boroughs as well as in other cities across the country. Joyriders provide learn to ride opportunities as well as led rides for women, families and some teens. Mariam told us she is running the project with only one other person part time. They rely on amazing sessional staff and volunteers to deliver the many rides and lessons that they do and we were impressed with how one woman could co-ordinate such a huge and amazing project.
Loud Mobility
The two day extravaganza ended with Georgia Yexley from Loud Mobility and what an end it was. Loud Mobility is only one year old but their impact has been phenomenal. We arrived at their vibrant office in Camden. Lots of colours, music and friendly people. The team were just reeling from a photo shoot the previous day for their ‘She’s Electric’ campaign, but this did not stop Georgia from chatting away whilst simultaneously cleaning and tidying in the background. We really were made to feel at home in their hub. The brilliant Georgia really is a force to be reckoned with. She has recently taken on/merged with Caz Coneller on the behaviour change campaign focussing on capability, opportunity and modelling. They have done smaller activations around London and are now ready to upscale reaching a million women across the country. What we were really excited to learn was the desire to deliver activation in Glasgow with their main message being “Raise volume of joyful sustainable journeys”. Now this was music to our ears!
We wish we could have stayed all day, but had to race back to get our train to Glasgow. We came away from meeting Georgia with a spring in our step and eager to chat together on the train home about all that we have learned. We certainly are going to add a bit more pizazz to the Women on Wheels hub when we get home. Loud Mobility’s hub had such a welcoming atmosphere.
When we got on our train to Glasgow, the whole tour really hit home. Some incredibly amazing strong women are doing these things but are sometimes working in complete silos, fighting an uphill battle. We need to support each other, build each other up - the importance of these face-to-face connections felt huge and we can’t wait to continue these connections as we all grow. Cross-citiy support between these women on a similar mission has power. And we’re so happy to be part of it.
