Bikeworks was founded over 17 years ago by the east London community to connect excluded people with the future opportunities the London 2012 Games would bring to the area.

Bikeworks relocated its training centre to the iconic VeloPark in 2018. From here Bikeworks has grown its impact as a social enterprise, providing free-to-access cycling opportunities to over 3,400 disabled people and carers across 7 hubs. Realising the vision of being an inclusive cycling organisation, by designing and opening London’s first Inclusive Cycling Hub and Showroom, overlooking the Velodrome.

The Inclusive Cycling Hub offers a variety of cycling activities, from Dr Bikes to our unique Green Skills training and Inclusive Cycling Programmes. The showroom enables us to provide a specialised bespoke service to those who are interested in buying adapted cycles.

Having Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on our doorstep is very handy, most of the park is accessible to everyone, which is great for our weekly All Ability sessions. On average over 100 people attend the session and the fleet of adapted cycles are seen all over the park, bringing smiles to faces of the riders and those passing through. This is an amazing highlight of the 2012 para legacy.

“Over the past year Bikeworks has provided over 30,000 cycling experiences, including 3,400 journeys’ using a ride-side-by-side cycle taxi to engage isolated Londoners”.

At the heart of Bikeworks is our drive to make the world of cycling as inclusive as possible. It was really encouraging  when our Inclusive Cycling Advisor created the chance to be a member of LLDC’s Sustainable Active Travel Group as we knew our knowledge and lived experience could help the Park become more accessible and inclusive to everyone.

Since joining the group, we have built a relationship with LLDC’s Walking and Cycling Department. We have given feedback on future building plans, attended site visits, delivered led rides using our adapted cycles, helped the parks design team by changing the perception of what inclusive cycling looks like and what infrastructure is needed.

We always enjoy getting people to try our adapted cycles, especially those who ride standard 2 wheelers as it takes them out of their comfort zone and often people realise that by making the environment inclusive and accessible for those facing daily challenges the wider community will also greatly benefit too.

“The led ride was really enjoyable, we got to see how the different cycles feel and that will help when we create new plans for the Park”.

It’s Bikeworks mission to use cycling as a tool for good, we hope our partnership with LLDC will continue to grow and together we can make the Park as inclusive as possible for all kinds of wheels.

- Jamie Lawson, Inclusive Cycling Advisor, Bikeworks