Free Wheeling

Free wheeling

Age is no barrier for elderly people enjoying bike tours around Fremantle in WA with world-wide organisation Cycling Without Age. By Gabi Mills.

As a group of residents at Tuohy Aged Care Home in Midland, WA discovered, joining a tour with Cycling Without Age was as good as a mini holiday.

Taking pairs of residents around Walter Point in April, Cycling Without Age’s trikes were the perfect mode of transport to enjoy the fine weather, see the sights and enjoy the tour guide’s informative explanation of places they were seeing during the ride.

The concept of Cycling Without Age is a simple one: to take elderly people out for bike rides in specially-built trishaw bikes piloted by volunteers. The bike rides are free of charge and only require a reservation beforehand, making it the perfect option for ad hoc adventures.

Described as a ‘movement’, Cycling Without Age began in 2012 by Ole Kassow, a Danish man with a vision to provide elders with the opportunity to get back on bicycles – an idea which immediately ran into issues for those with limited mobility.

The answer was a trishaw – a comfortable, pedal-powered mode of transport for older people, keen to enjoy city tours. Ole started off by offering free rides to a local nursing home and its residents.

The idea quickly grew, and spread globally. Since 2015, you will now find Cycling Without Age trishaws in over 50 countries around the world.

In Perth, there are several suburbs which have Cycling Without Age pilots including Fremantle, Melville and Canning, and they are expanding into northern areas.

Tim McGrath oversees the Perth operations.

“We don’t see our service as a tour,” he says. “It is not so much the destination as the journey. Our routes are pre-planned and risk-assessed and of course are dependent on the weather (although in Sweden they ride in the snow!).”

Part of the appeal to those who join a Cycling Without Age ride lies in a combination of slowness, and storytelling.

“It can be a privilege to carry passengers to areas where they have lived,” says Tim. “Sometimes they are even recognised by neighbours, and often the outdoor experience invokes memories of childhood or youthful experiences.

The pilots learn social history and many have experienced a remarkable transformation in their passengers with dementia.

“Their family and carers hear passengers talking lucidly - once even in another language - and of course we get a fair amount of singing,” said Tim.

Passengers, family and carers can book a ride at regular morning sessions and typically, rides are 30 to 40 minutes long but can be customised to suit passengers’ requirements.

“The movement requires volunteer pilots to continue to grow, and typically are people who want to support their community in a way that is one-on-one and joyful for all involved,” says Tim.

“We often say our volunteers get as much benefit as their passengers.”

More than 35,000 trained pilots around the world take residents like those at Tuohy out – and enjoy once again feeling the wind in their hair.

Visit cyclingwithoutage.org