Really pleased to share this lovely film made by Active Calderdale with the brilliant volunteers at Todmorden Makery’s Bike Repair Drop-In 🤩
Every Monday, 6–8pm at Todmorden Learning Centre, people bring bikes to be repaired, learn a little, share advice and get back on the road. It is practical support, but it is also a welcoming place to meet people and help one another.
The Makery is working to remain a volunteer-led, accessible part of Todmorden community life. If you enjoy this film and value what we do, could you consider becoming a regular Makery supporter?
Your support helps keep the workshop available for repair, making, learning and sharing skills.
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Transcript #
I think cycling is just the purest transport. It changed the world. It’s simple. It’s pure. You learn it and you never ever forget. It’s a beautiful feeling riding a bike.
The bike drop-in is for anyone. Anyone who has a broken bike is welcome to bring their bikes along. We get children coming in, adults, all ages. Say you have a bike and you’re not proficient with fixing a puncture, you can come here and we’ll show you how to do that. We try to show when we fix something. Someone might come in with a simple problem, we can walk them through it and then they’ll go home with a bit of knowledge and they’re moving again.
A typical repair session looks like a very busy, thriving, at times chaotic session of bicycle mechanics fixing all sorts of bikes.
We try to think first come, first served, but it’s first come, talk for a bit, have a brew, a couple of biscuits, then get around to the bike.
To keep some bikes running rather than people buying new bikes. Making one bike out of two broken ones maybe. It’s a very sustainable process and I think that’s a great thing to aim for.
The range of people that come in, it just covers everything. And it’s not fancy bikes, it’s not always really high-end stuff, it’s just getting that little bike that’s had a puncture in the shed. You know, it could be years sometimes, and you can kind of tell. But 20 minutes later they’re like big smiles, like, you can go, you can go on your travels.
It just is so nice to see adults and kids being able to enjoy learning and also getting out on their bike. I’ll be doing my shopping and people will just walk up to me and say, “Can I bring my bike in on Monday to see you?” I’m like, “Yeah, sure, bring it in. I’ll see you on Monday.” Six till eight every Monday, barring bank holidays, at the Makery.