Corporate team building/ corporate wellness

Working in a team is very important to companies and communicating to each other is paramount to a good working relationship. Sometimes teams need to take time out and reflect on how they work together, and this is where we can help.

We offer to help shake things up by running a team building challenge. This will entail your teams being mixed into different groups and building a bike for charity, from its raw components, using the assembled machine to race against each other through an obstacle course.

We provide all the components to build a bike, one bike per team. To do this they must work as a team to ensure it is all put together properly. Our qualified mechanics will be available to provide tuition, guidance and the all-important final safety check before the bikes are ridden by your staff. The bikes will then be sold in our shop in Maidenhead with the funds going back into the charity.

Dr Bike

To encourage your staff to cycle to work, and to keep them as safe as possible and their bikes in tiptop condition, our qualified mechanics will visit your premises with fully-portable outside workshop comprising gazebo, tools, work-stand, to deliver a full bike safety check, often referred to as a ‘bike MOT’, including:

• Tyres
• Brakes
• Gears
• Wheel truing and hubs
• Headset/handlebars
• Pedals and bottom bracket

All we need is some space to erect the portable workshop!

Light servicing is carried out and where necessary consumables such as gear and brake cables and brake blocks can be replaced.  Consumable costs can be absorbed by your company or charged to individual at the time.

The following day you’ll receive reports which detail the work done on each bike and any ‘advisory’ work that is beyond the scope of Dr Bike.

To give our qualified mechanics the best chance to check as many bikes as possible, we ask that the owners bring clean bikes for the checks. Major servicing such as strip down and rebuild of components such as multi-geared hubs, freewheels and bottom brackets can’t be accommodated in Dr Bike sessions.

Learn to ride

Cycling is a great way to get fit, keep fit and to shed those extra pounds! Do you have anyone who cannot ride a bike but would like to do so?  Our instructors can help employees learn to ride and gain confidence to get on a bike get fit and have fun.

Maidenhead Cycle Hub can bring in a bike or two to do this if employees do not have bikes. We can also advise on the best type and size of bike to suit them, their style and type of cycling they might want to do. Naturally we’d be happy to sell them a bike, if they would like to purchase one! All proceeds are reinvested back into the charity to help us fulfil our charitable aims and objectives.

Once they have learnt to ride, we can then include them, along with other employees, on led bike rides and teach them how to be a confident and safe road user, as well as showing them the beautiful surroundings in which we live.

Led rides – Confident Cycling

For those who can ride we offer the opportunity to go out on a led bike ride.  We can lead a ride to suit the capabilities and ambition of all those wishing to join us and get fit, get fresh air and enjoy cycling. 

Some companies provide an additional benefit to their staff of an extended two-hour lunch break once a week, for “me time”. We can tailor a led ride to fit into this break, after which your team will be set to tackle the hardest afternoon’s work!

Maintenance Courses

Do you offer your employees a ride to work scheme? Would they like to take this up but are put off by not knowing how to maintain their bike? The No1 reason for not cycling is not knowing what to do in the event of a puncture!

Bikes these days can be complicated, sophisticated machines featuring 21 gears or more, hydraulic suspension and hydraulic braking systems, just like motorbikes! We can provide a range of cycle maintenance courses, suitable for novices to being ready for a professional qualification.

We think this is a great staff benefit, allowing them to make the most of their bikes and be a confident and safe rider, no matter what happens to their bike.

Recycling bicycles

Did you know that the bicycle was invented as an answer to a global environmental problem? The 1815 eruption of the Indonesian volcano Mount Tambora was classified as a VEI-7 event, one of the most powerful in recorded history. The following year was known as “The Year without Summer”, during which time abnormally low temperatures destroyed crops in Northern Europe, Northeastern United States and eastern Canada.

Europe, which was still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, suffered severe food shortages with grain warehouses being looted and rioting taking place. Famine led to typhus outbreaks and hundreds of thousands of deaths are attributed to this cataclysmic explosion.

What, you may well be asking, has this Big Bang got to do with the bicycle? Horses were the predominant form of land transport at the time, but they were expensive to buy and equally expensive to keep running. It wasn’t only humans that starved due to crop failure, horses too suffered and there is evidence that suggests this triggered research into alternative forms of transport by Baron Karl von Drais and it is he that created the very first two-wheeled personal transport machine that evolved into today’s bicycle.

Today we seem to have another global environmental problem and now we also know bikes are one of the most efficient and pollution-free transportation devices ever made. The environmental impact of even new bikes is hundreds of times less than for a car.

We all know someone who has a forgotten, unused bike in the back of their garage or garden shed. Whether kid’s bikes that are now too small, a sports or mountain bike bought bit no longer used, or Gran’s trusty old stead, we can recycle these machines and make them ready for a new lease of life at a reasonable price for a new owner.

Don’t dump them, recycle them!

We can collect your staff’s unwanted bikes from your premises; all you need to do is to let them know when we’ll be there.

Install Bike Tool Station – bike work point and keep it maintained for employees to use

We would like to offer to come along to your company and to set up a Bike tool station.

This would involve having the correct tools for your employees to do basic repairs to their bikes. We can leave a supply of inner tubes, puncture repair kits and more.

Sponsorship – work in schools etc and what can we give them – engagement within local community

Maidenhead Cycle Hub work with many different parts of the community.  We work alongside School and dysfunctional students, Special Needs students, Duke of Edinburgh Schemes, Yeldell Manor and more.  In order for us to be able to support all these we need funding as it takes time and people to support them. 

Could you have us as your charity, or could you sponsor us in any way at all.  Small amount help bring in a student for two hours a week to gain experience which can be a life skill for them.

We also supply a bike to a child so they can take part in bikeability courses.  Maybe you could buy a bike for someone who is unable to afford one themselves.

All sponsorship money goes into providing qualified mechanics to work alongside the students – helping them to learn about repairing bikes and how to work in the shop.  Giving students social skills as well as learning how to work on bikes is essential to them.

Cycle friendly employer health benefits

Health:

Cycling is excellent exercise. It helps people meet recommended physical activity guidelines, improves mental health and well-being, and reduces the risk of premature death and ill-health. It also fits into daily routines better than many other forms of exercise, because it doubles up as transport to work, school or the shops etc. – and it’s much cheaper than going to the gym!

Here’s some facts from our briefing on cycling and health:

A study of 264,337 people found that cycling to work is linked with a 45% lower risk of developing cancer, and a 46% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared to commuting by car or public transport;

On average, regular cycle commuters take more than one day per year less off sick than colleagues who do not cycle to work;

The health benefits of cycling outweigh the injury risks by between 13:1 and 415:1, according to various studies. The figure that is most often quoted is 20:1 (life years gained due to the benefits of cycling v the life-years lost through injuries);

People who cycle regularly in mid-adulthood typically enjoy a level of fitness equivalent to someone 10 years younger and their life expectancy is two years above the average;

Boys aged 10-16 who cycle regularly to school are 30% more likely to meet recommended fitness levels, while girls who cycle are 7 times more likely to do so;

How many calories you use up whilst cycling depends on your weight, height, age and how fast you ride etc., but (very) generally speaking, cycling burns around five calories a minute.

Lack of exercise can make people ill, and obesity is a serious and costly public health concern:

In England, physical inactivity causes around 37,000 preventable premature deaths p.a. amongst people aged 40-79;

In 2015, there were 525 thousand admissions in NHS hospitals where obesity was recorded as a factor;

In England (2015), over one in five children in Reception, and over one in three children in Year 6 were measured as obese or overweight;

Without action, 60% of men, 50% of women and 25% of children could be obese by 2050 in the UK, at a cost of £10 billion p.a. to the NHS.

See our full briefing for more on health, along with the sources of the facts above.

Improved general health: cycling to work can cut a rider’s risk of developing heart disease or cancer in half according to a 20?? Glasgow University study.

Mental health: A study by the YMCA showed that people who had a physically active lifestyle had a wellbeing score 32 per cent higher than inactive individuals.

Cycling is a low impact form of exercise, so suitable for older and overweight people

Those who cycle to work suffer less absenteeism than non-cycling employees (https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/recreation/article/ww-Wise-Words—Cyclingand-Health-0#O8fS13irc8OxdszX.99) 

Only 3% of journeys to work are made by bike, despite 36% living within 3 miles

Cycling in a group allows you to meet new people, reducing isolation and improving community cohesion

Only 13% of Maidenhead residents cycle at least once per week

According to the National Travel Survey, about 7% of the population aged 5+ cycled three or more times a week in 2017. If applied to the whole of Great Britain, this equates to around 4.2 million people of 5+. (NTS 0313).

Do you run Family or corporate days? 

If you do we can add to two-wheeled fun by running various age-suitable competitions throughout the day such as obstacle races, best helmet and bicycle design, fastest time to change an innertube, and the “keep the lights on longest” dynamo competition!

We can bring our outdoors portable workshop and run DrBike sessions, and even include maintenance master classes too.

Driver awareness training

While there have been many improvements to the “driving test” over the years, little attention is paid to the needs of the cyclists, and what is taught is soon forgotten through lack of direct experience.  Whilst new drivers will learn from the government changes in driver training, effective from 1^st May 2019, those drivers who have already passed a test will be expected to educate themselves.  Many corporate delivery contracts now require drivers to attend urban driving skills courses and to experience what it’s like to be a cyclist in the 21^st Century.

We can run cycling skills orientation courses for your corporate drivers, whether they dive delivery trucks or a top of the range BMW. This will help make your drivers more skilled and better road users, help win corporate delivery contracts and may contribute to reduced fleet insurance costs.   

Additional advice and services that we can offer:

Advice on cycle storage, safety of bikes and changing facilities at your premises, to encourage employees to cycle to work, perhaps contributing towards your corporate community strategies.

Bicycle film evenings – Many companies suddenly find they have enough people cycling to work to almost form a “cycling club”. We can help bring this club together by running film evenings, where the films all have a cycling-related theme. Ranging from “art house” style movies, to epics featuring the cycling greats such as Eddie Merckx battling through the monumental Tours de France and Italy, these evenings are a fun way to learn and be inspired by the wide world of cycling.

Working with the disabled – The Paralympics has shown that almost everyone can achieve great things on bicycles and through our contacts we can include “Inclusivity” in all of the activities we provide. Specially adapted machines mean that these days almost everyone can enjoy the benefits of cycling and we’d love to show your staff who may have family members with special needs how they can get involved in this wonderful activity.

Cycle to work scheme management – Want to offer your employees this great tax-advantageous benefit but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps you simply don’t have the time. We can take this headache away by advising on the most suitable scheme for you, set it up and manage it on your behalf.

Clothing/Lights/Locks etc – Cycling needn’t be all about lycra! While this amazing material is often a good choice for cycling, we understand not everyone want to dress up like a club or racing cyclist. We can provide advice on suitable clothing, lights, locks etc.  We also have a range in the shop for people to choose from.