Case study: Brighton and Hove Girls Mountain Bike Network

A network to encourage young girls in Brighton and Hove to try mountain biking was set up thanks to £2,000 from the Children and Young People’s Investment Fund.

Brighton and Hove Girls Mountain Bike Network was created through a partnership between Active4Mood, Sustrans’ BikeIt Project, and the University of Sussex.

To ensure its success, the funding from Active Sussex paid for Cycling UK to train five females as mountain bike ride leaders.

Some of the adult ride leaders are also now using their new ride leader qualification to lead rides for a local women’s, Non-Binary and Trans off-road cycling group.

During the project, three evening rides, and two popular Sunday rides involved 30 young people.

The network saw many girls attending more than one session – a positive indication that they enjoyed it – including an example shared by a leader of one of the girls who returned after her first session.

“Although the second time she came we didn’t have other riders sign up, both her and her friend really enjoyed the evening,” a member from the network said.

“Her friend had never been on a singletrack before and was slightly anxious at the beginning, however throughout the ride they both became more confident and had lots of laughs.

“They have both been out on their bikes since and have asked when the next sessions are – so I think that shows how much they liked it!”

This project was designed as a girls-only space following research by Sustrans Bike It project in Brighton with BHCC Public Health and Active 4Mood (A4M).

As A4M and Bike It programmes are specifically aimed at providing mental health and mentoring support for vulnerable groups across the city, the Brighton and Hove Girls Mountain Bike Network was initiated to enable young women who have accessed this support an ongoing social prescription (social riding) opportunity.

However, it was clear from listening to the young people they did not just want a group for service users, but for it to be open to any young person who identifies as female across the city, as this did not currently exist and was a core factor in their sense of belonging and identity.

Before this network was created, teenage girls aged 12-17 fell between a provision gap as they were too old for sessions run by Sustrans at primary school and often too young for community-based groups such as Breeze rides or informal groups, such as Neighbourhood Gravel Women’s Trans Non-Binary group.

Although there has been work to plug this gap, with short-term CYP Investment funded projects, such as a Varndean Girls’ Bike Club , this project is a free, more permanent community-based project.

Workforce

The five female volunteers from the community who could lead the sessions completed the Mountain Bike Trail Leader training by Cycling UK in March.

The course enabled the adults to lead groups of adults, young people, and children on rides; manage groups with a range of riding experience; prepare for rides, anticipate, and minimise the likelihood of accidents; develop and apply risk assessments, operating procedures, and dynamic risk management; provide fun, engaging, and developmental sessions for participants; understand access rights across the UK; and complete and review rides, using self-reflection.

This, along with the 16-hour Outdoor First Aid course, qualified them to lead the Sunday and Wednesday sessions.

Training five leaders allowed the network to spread the workload and commitment, leading to longer-term sustainability and reducing the risk of burn-out and life changes impacting the continued provision.

Active4Mood CIC (A4M) provided support on the logistics of the rides, route planning, and knowledge of the trail network and surrounding local area, so the network could select inclusive cycle routes for all young women who wished to partake, irrespective of ability.

A4M also helped build relationships with LifeCycle (BikeIt Ben), resulting in access to all of the relevant equipment: bikes, helmets and maintenance tools for free.

The session

Each session saw the girls led through an M-check to check the bike was ready for riding and teach them about the parts of a bike.

This was then followed by warm-up games to get the girls moving while assessing their confidence, skills building and practice of core mountain biking techniques in a controlled environment.

Next, was a guided ride around the local mountain bike tracks in Stanmer Park, teaching the young riders navigation skills, trail skills and a chance to socialise.

There was also a chance to survey the more technical sections on foot to discuss how the warmup skills apply in the real world, and have a go for those who feel confident.

There was then a cool down, followed by tech sessions looking at how to complete trail-side repairs and how to fix bikes to keep them riding and feeling confident.

The rides were through Stanmer Park, which sits on the edge of the South Downs National Park, and has plenty of good quality mountain bike trails for different levels and abilities.

“This is a fantastic location,” said the organisers, “and by taking the girls to different areas of the park, offering guidance on how the space and trails can be used, and making the girls more knowledgeable about the local area, as well as skilled on the bike, they can be more confidence in exploring the trails independently and give them confidence in using the public spaces available to them.

“This location is also a great one in terms of breaking down barriers to entry. Because it is easily accessible by public transport, we have seen some riders arrive by bus and a few older riders arrive by bus and train independently to their parents.

“Because it is also close enough to most of the riders’ homes in the Brighton area, we have heard from riders that they have been able to go out with their family between our sessions and give sections another go.”