What is The Velo Society?
Good question...I like to think of The Velo Society as an ever evolving movement of ideas and projects, centered around improving access to cycling for as many people as possible.
My name is Dan and I started TVS in 2019, shortly after becoming a bike mechanic. It began as a small social cycling club, formed out of rebellion against the elite cycling clubs that I had been rejected from when I first got into riding and wanted to share this experience with others.
After moving away from the bike shop I had started the club from, The Velo Society lay dormant for a while...until 2021 that is, when I was introduced to Poplar HARCA (a housing association in East London), and began leading weekly Dr Bike sessions at the Chrisp Street Community Cycle Hub.
These free bike repair sessions were extremely popular with the local community (fixing an average of 18 bikes in every 4 hour session) and I quickly built up trust and respect from the local community from the work I was doing.
My work with Poplar HARCA evolved and I led 2 very successful 'Renovate-a-Bike' sessions in partnership with 'Care4Calais', a local refugee charity, alongside continuing the delivery of the Dr Bike sessions - until the closure of Chrisp Street Community Cycle hub in 2023.
Across the 2 years that followed, I continued to deliver Dr Bike sessions around London and the South East on behalf of Bikeworks - a social enterprise based in East London. Eventually, this led to me taking up the full-time position of Lead Mechanic at the organisation; allowing me to uphold the values of The Velo Society through my work with Bikeworks and simueltaneously learn from being part of a much larger community driven operation.
Around this same period, I decided to venture into the world of Ultra Endurance cycling by entering the formiddable Silk Road Mountain Race.
I completed the race in 2025 and came back to the UK with an idea and ambition for a project that would give back to the Kyrgyz communities.
After a year of planning, working and fund-raising (through providing donation based community bike repairs) I returned to Kyrgyzstan in 2026 to carry out Project Happy Bike. I rode over 1000km across Kyrgyzstan, towing a trailer that acted as a mobile bike shop, and fixing ~30 bikes for the people living in the remote mountain villages of the country.
The project was a wonderful success and I returned from Kyrgyzstan with a vision for the future of The Velo Society and the motivation and confidence to give my all to get it there.
And that's where we are now! So strap in, because things are about to get busy!...
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