Welcome to Cycling Without Age Scotland

    Supported by
Scottish Government Logo

 

To find out more about volunteering as a Pilot (rider) or another volunteer role, or to book a ride for yourself or loved ones (with mobility and/or loneliness issues) or even to set up your own branch of Cycling Without Age Scotland, please contact us on
01324 467 272 or at info@cyclingwithoutage.scot
or message us using the Contact Form on the Contact page of this website.

 

The video below captures the way that we enrich lives across Scotland.

It’s hard to believe that we’re now approaching our fifth anniversary. How time has flown!

Invited by the Scottish Government to create a 3-day event in its Parliament Building earlier this year to give MSPs the chance for a catch-up with all our news and plans, we produced a booklet called and telling “The Story So Far”. You can get it here.

In a more formal vein, if you want to access our latest financial report, you can do so here.

Look out for our next newsletter, being published in December and a new-look website launching in January 2024.

And in the Spring of 2024 our first “Trishaws In Iconic Places” Chapter (branch) will have its official opening, featuring our superb new “Hub” chalet. Please keep an eye out for that too!

Our Story

In the very short time since CATCA (Communities Along The Carron Association) led the introduction of Cycling Without Age into Scotland in 2017, the intensive year that followed when we were piloting the scheme with the hugely committed and enthusiastic Carrondale Care Home in Carronshore and our organisation’s official launch at the end of May 2018, we have become one of the leading country representatives in this global project, which is currently operating in more than 50 territories around the world.

Cycling Without Age is a movement started in 2012 in Denmark by Ole Kassow and Dorthe Pederson. Ole wanted to help the elderly get back onto their bicycles, but he had to find a solution to their limited mobility. The answer was a trishaw. He started offering free rides to the local nursing home residents … and the rest is history!

Cycling Without Age Scotland now generates “miles of smiles” in every part of Scotland and its reach and impact are growing every day. It enriches and enhances lives, unlocks doors, enables older people to once again be an active part of their communities, once again to “feel the wind in their hair”, to rekindle old friendships and to make new ones and to rejoice in heart-warming stories. This is unparalleled access, which we also provide to disabled people.

Wide-spread recognition of our work includes that by the World Economic Forum which highlighted our innovative solution to loneliness.

Scottish Government Logo

 

 

Generously supported by the Scottish Government, the only country in Cycling Without Age’s international portfolio to receive central government funding for a national roll-out, and with further support from more than 50 other organisations and individuals, Cycling Without Age Scotland has gone from strength to strength. With more than 50 “Chapters” (branches) at different stages of development and operation, it is now present in almost every part of Scotland. More than 27 local authorities are participating in the project, which has already provided almost 29,000 rides to approximately 43,500 passengers through the generous support of more than 2,400 volunteers – passengers and pilots alike enjoying around 33,000 miles of every type of landscape, including some of the most beautiful that Scotland has to offer.

 

 

Our ambition is clear: to be a major presence in EVERY part of Scotland.

There are many factors that make Cycling Without Age Scotland a leading country representative of the global movement, not least being the unrivalled technical and mechanical service that we provide to all our Chapters, as well as fundraising, marketing, publicity and governance advice and support, insurance and banking facilities.

The three videos on this page capture the story. The first video captures how we have celebrated the launch of our ‘Helix’ Chapter and the second one is the story of the National Summit held by Cycling Without Age Scotland in August 2019, including a “long ride” featuring the largest gathering of trishaws ever seen in the UK. The third one is BBC 3’s “Amazing Humans” which demonstrated the impact Cycling Without Age Scotland was already having in its comparatively early days.

Please look through our site to see what we do, with whom and for whom, who is supporting us and, most importantly of all, how YOU could get involved – and make a real difference in a completely different and unique way.

  • Coffee friends
  • Chapters with trishaws
  • New chapters fundraising for trishaws
  • Trishaw mechanics

If you want to find out more about the global Cycling Without Age operation, please click here. If you visit this section, clicking on the “COUNTRY” button in the top right of any of its pages, and then on the Scotland flag, will bring you back to information about Cycling Without Age Scotland.