About Free Ride Charitable Trust
Free Ride is a charitable trust set up to increase bike riding for transportation, recreation and fitness. The trust aims to provide services and support for riders in Lower Hutt in the aims of increasing access to cycling.
Charities number CC61653
The trustees are:
Lily Chalmers
Martin Warr
Cr Simon Edwards
Matthew Young
Free Ride operates a membership which anyone can sign up to, to get access to free and discounted services to reduce barriers to cycling. We are funded by Hutt City Council, Waka Kotahi, and the donations and koha of our members and supporters.
Our free services include:
Free bikes
Free kids bike fixing
Free fix ups at community events
Free bike skills courses
Free mechanic mentoring in our workshop.
Free Group Rides on E-Bike Fleet
Access to a free E-bike library.
Free Ride currently operates the Free Ride Workshop at 35 Hillary Court open Saturdays 10am-1pm.
Bike services for koha
We have limited capacity to fix and service bikes on Saturdays, so if you agree to leave your bike, it might take a couple of weeks to get it back, depending on availability of parts and labour.
Payment
We ask for a donation on a sliding scale for bike services, we will give you the parts cost and labour cost and you can pay what you can. This can vary from a standard bike service and check to more complex fixes and parts replacement. We are very flexible and can always come to an arrangement if you can't pay then and there.
If you have any questions, please ask. Mostly we are figuring this out to make things work best for our community.
Why do our members join Free Ride
Our Community
“Transport equity is a key focus for Healthy Families Hutt Valley. Increasing access and the use of low carbon, low cost transport options, like bikes, is great for our whānau and our environment."
Media links
"Hard infrastructure needs to be backed up with initiatives that encourage and enable cycling, particularly in areas where people otherwise wouldn’t have the means to get themselves mobile."
“The benefits of Free Ride are more open access to cycling and being part of a community of cyclists.”
Our Team.
Our team is a dedicated bunch of people who work together to deliver Free Ride services. We contract some of these roles, but most Free Ride team members are volunteers. We are always looking for more good people to help us in the workshop or behind the scenes, get in touch with Lily if you are interested in becoming a volunteer.
Lily
Project lead
Hannah
E-Bike library coordinator
Ross
Head mechanic
Martin
Community mechanic
Isabelle
Ride leader and head coach