the low down

Support us while you shop: vote for Life Cycle in your local Tesco store

Life Cycle is one of three shortlisted charities in Tesco’s ‘Bags of Help’ scheme for Bristol. This January and February you can cast your vote for us in your local Tesco store using a token you get at the checkout. With your help we could win between £1,000 and £4,000 (if we come first), which is raised from sales of Tesco’s plastic bags. The money will fund our Youth Project which provides cycling adventures and skill-building activities to help disadvantaged kids broaden their horizons, boost fitness and achieve their full potential. See below for a list of stores you can vote in.

New year, new you? Four steps to a fantastic 2018

2018 is here! Some of you may have felt rather flat greeting the new year after a month of eating, drinking and being merry. If you’re anything like us your mind turned to the obligatory new years’ resolutions – ones you can actually keep this time! It’s OK, we feel your pain – and here at Life Cycle we think we have a simple solution. Whether it’s getting fitter, learning a new skill, saving money, or even making long-needed repairs to the stuff in the garage - we have the secret to ticking all those boxes at once…

Bling Your Hi-Viz

Our Bike Minded and Over 55s projects are running a ‘bling your hi-viz’ workshop in February 2018 and looking for donations of any unwanted hi-viz jackets (particularly colours that aren’t yellow like orange, pink, green etc.) and reflective material that we can cut up to transform our hi-viz’s into the ultimate fashion accessory! Donations can be dropped off at the Create Centre in the new year.

How ‘Bike Minded’ got creative this November

Bike Minded T-shirt competition

This month, friends of Life Cycle got creative for our t-shirt design competition. Contestants were asked to come up with a cycling themed design, with the winning entry to be printed on a batch of Bike Minded t-shirts, tea towels and tote bags.

We had tons of wonderful entries. Huge thanks to everyone who took part: the judges had such a hard time selecting a winner they ended up picking two!

Stacey, a Bike Minded participant was over the moon that her quirky design of a brain riding a bike won:

Driverless Car Trials

Dear fellow cyclist

We are taking the liberty of contacting you as we want to reach out to the local cycling community and thought that you may be able to help. Here at UWE we are preparing for a third driverless car trial as part of the VENTURER project and we wondered if you or any of your cycling contacts might be interested in taking part. The third trial will explore how driverless vehicles might interact with cyclists and walkers.

Bike Back Sales NEW opening days for 2018

Bike Back open their doors for weekly bike sales at the Life Cycle Hub at Horfield Prison.

Bike Sales now on Fridays

From January 2018, we will be changing our weekly Bristol bike sales to FRIDAY from 10am – 4pm.

Did you know we also sell a range of accessories, tried and tested by our team? So if you are looking for a present for the cyclist in your life, we have got some ideas for you.

Thank you!

A huge thanks to the following who donated prizes for the Bike Minded and Over 55's raffle for the Winter Social.

Queens Award for Voluntary Service presented to Life Cycle by the Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol

Life Cycle was delighted to win the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service this year. This is the highest award given to groups across the UK to recognise outstanding work done by volunteers in their communities.

On Tuesday, 24th October, Life Cycle’s volunteers assembled at the CREATE Centre to be presented with their award by the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, Peaches Golding.

Over 55s Autumn roundup, 2017

What a wonderful season of cycling it’s been for our Silver Cyclists project - our programme of gentle, group rides that go out into nature to help people aged 55+ stay fit, healthy and socially vibrant. Here are some of the things they got up to over the last few months:

Bike Minded summer roundup, 2017

‘Bike Minded’ is the name of our programme of friendly, group bike rides that support people to improve their mental and physical wellbeing through cycling.

This summer, we really made the most of the longer, warmer days - offering a varied programme of activities additional to our regular group rides. Here's a selection of what the group got up to: