Basic Bike Maintenance Course

Wokingham Borough Council together with Sustrans, are running a number of courses throughout the year which offer training in basic bike maintenance.

We went along to check out what they have on offer…

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The training lasted a couple of hours, and was lead entirely by the audience, allowing us to pick and choose which areas we wanted to cover. This allowed the group to decide at just what level the the day would progress at, and the day that we joined them, the session had taken on a complete novice direction.

All of those who attended the event were regular cyclists, although knew very little about the maintenance side of the bikes themselves, usually letting this responsibility fall to another family member.

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The mechanic leading the course was incredibly knowledgeable, and himself a keen cyclist. He took the group over what basic checks to perform before taking your bike out on a ride, such as ; Tyre & Wheel Checks, Frame and alignment checks, chain lubrication and condition/performance of brakes.

Later in the afternoon, how to repair a puncture to a front or rear wheel was demonstrated, with the day wrapping up by each person having their bike checked and tinkered with.

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After the training was through, I managed to speak to Vicky,  who attended the course with me to get an idea of what she got out of this course. Vicky uses cycling as her main form of transport, so manages to wrack up a fair few miles. She doesn’t just stick to the urban roads, she also cycles on rural roads between towns, So it’s safe to say that Vicky is a pretty keen cyclist.  ‘It was really good, I wanted to not have to be reliant on my husband, ’cause he does everything on my bike. I wanted to sort out my brakes, because they go on my bike quite often. He really went into depth into the breaks, so now I feel more confident’.

If you’d like to know any more about what Wokingham have to offer, you can visit the Safer Roads Website

 

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