An innovative cycling club is looking for a new space to help youngsters to learn electric bike skills.
Like all good ventures the West London Cycling Club started out with two men tinkering away on bikes three years ago but the project soon grew into more of a social enterprise, now called Eclectic Cycles.
Bill Marmarou and business partner Michael Herman started up the club in Notting Hill simply because they were interested in changing bikes into electric bikes but they soon realised lots of people had the same inquisitiveness so thought they would open it up to everybody.
They even have quite a few famous people supporting the club, including two film stars, but their identities are being kept under wraps as they are solely interested in their endeavour.
The pair can often be seen cycling their ‘quadoe’ four wheel bike around Notting Hill as they continually upgrade it and develop it but in order to crack on with helping others to get the skills they have they are in desperate need of a new space.
Currently they store the quadoe in a dank, miniscule garage tucked under the Westway but they need a workshop so people in the community can get teaching on how to transform their bikes into e-cycles, repair them and most importantly give 16 to 24-year-olds official training and create a potential for self-employment and jobs in environmentally friendly industries.
Mr Marmarou, who is originally from America but has lived in the area for 15 years, said: “It just started out as something we were interested in but we quickly realised there was a lot of interest from all age groups, but especially youngsters who don’t seem to have had the same basic training as older people.
“We really want to help people get their AutoCad which means they have maintenance and design skills to help them get a job elsewhere so we’ve actually registered as a non-profit organisation.
“Lots of local businesses and the community are really interested but it’s tough to show what we’re all about when we don’t have an appropriate space. We don’t want to make money out of this, we just want to share our passion and hopefully get more people interested in electric bikes. Boris Johnson is always talking about them now so there’s obviously a lot of interest.”
As part of the club they are taking part in a London to Land’s End road rally in their quadoe, which will be a hybrid by then and they are also looking for some keen volunteers to build two upgraded racing versions for the five-day race.
For more information about West London Cycling Club and to join go to westlondoncc.org
