Case study - Sustrans Bike It diagnostics

Situation

Sustran’s BikeIt officers work in schools promoting the benefits of cycling and encouraging children to cycle. One of the activities is a bike diagnostic and basic repair session. Not all the Bike It officers have the confidence to diagnose or repair bikes as this is only part of their job. The BikeIt coordinator wanted a course to help the officers to gain confidence and knowledge about different types of bikes.

Our solution

Having talked to the coordinator about what we felt could be useful in this sort of course we agreed some basic points. We formulated a two day course including all the things that the officers themselves had expressed an interest in.

The course was designed to enable the Bike It officers to work methodically through a bike; to diagnose faults and correctly record this information, to be able to recognise different models of components and to understand how these work, to know the correct names of components and frame parts to stop confusion when filling out a diagnostic sheet.

The first task was a group activity of sticking names of parts of the bike in the correct position. Trainees then looked at different components assessing whether or not they needed replacement.

Amongst other thing the trainees learned how to:

• Adjust different types of bottom brackets and headsets

• Adjust heights on seat posts and stems

• Assess different brake systems and decide if they can be fixed

Benefits

• A marked improvement in confidence when undertaking repairs

• New practical skills learnt and put to the test

• Individuals worked as a team, whereas they are usually operating on their own

Related projects

• Cycling champion cycle maintenance courses

• Group open courses in Manchester and throughout the North West

• CW4 Wheelers bespoke course