Liverpool: Low-cost bike hub opens in city centre

The hub is run by not-for-profit organisation Hype Urban Bikes

A new cycling hub that aims to make "riding affordable for everybody" has opened in Liverpool.

Hype Urban Bikes is offering refurbished bikes for sale, as well as free and low-cost activities, group rides and bike hire schemes.

The hub, on Sefton Street, also offers courses in bike repairs to help train young people for jobs in the industry.

Paige Chase, a youth worker at the hub, said cycling offered both "physical and mental health benefits".

Paige Chase said cycling has both physical and mental health benefits

She said cycling can help people "get a clear mind", and she encouraged people who had never cycled before to give it a go.

"It can help in so many different ways," she added.

Hype Urban Bikes, a not-for-profit organisation, first launched in Birkenhead in 2017 by social enterprise Hype Merseyside.

A range of bikes are available to rent or buy at low cost

The original project started within its youth clubs, helping young people to learn how to fix their bikes themselves.

Since 2017 HYPE Urban Bikes has established six cycling-related initiatives, supported more than 6,800 people with bikes, trained 63 young people as bike mechanics, and engaged more than 1,300 children aged between three and seven in balance bikes programmes in schools.

All the money generated by the bike hub will be invested back into the community, funding events, initiatives and the establishment of future hubs in other boroughs and in the city region.