A TEEN bike group is about encouraging youngsters to pick up handlebars rather than knives, organisers said.

The push bike teens unfairly labelled as thugs said a mass ride through Swindon’s centre was about bringing youths together.

Scores of mountain bike-riding boys met outside Swindon Town’s County Ground for the second group ride in the town.

Organiser Nathan Rush, 15, said of the ride: “It’s to bring people together and to encourage kids to pick up bikes instead of knives, and stop them from becoming involved in violence.

“It gives them something to do. If they come from a rough background it gives them something to do. This is like family.”

The group, which calls itself Swindon Bikes on social media, has more than 1,000 followers on website Instagram.

It was inspired by the so-called bike life movement. Starting in the United States with unlicensed motorcyclists tearing up city dirt tracks, it has since spread around the world and to bicycles and quad bikes.

“If you’ve got a bike, you’re part of the riding family,” said Nathan. Asked why he set up the social media group, he said: “I was bored one night. I thought it was a good idea.”

Youngster Carl, just 13-years-old, said he got into the bike scene to escape “gang violence”: “It got me away, escaping all that. It’s helped me a lot. It’s given me something to do.”

Oliver, 11, who lives in the town centre, said the bikes were a form of protection and offered a quick mode of escape: “You’re less likely to get beaten up.”

Others, wearing tracksuits and close cropped hair, described the group as a second family. One boy said: “We can protect each other. We’re all safe.”

The mass ride saw between 40 and 60 teens pedal across the Magic Roundabout, through the town centre and along Commercial Road. They regularly pulled “wheelies”, lifting their bikes’ front wheels off the ground.

The sight proved a surprise to some.

But the teens were keen to stress that their rides should not be seen as a threat: “People don’t need to worry. We’re not trying to cause issues. People get it twisted. They think we’re out to cause problems.”

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: "We received reports of anti-social behaviour linked to a group of male youths riding push bikes around the town.

"Officers attended the Regent Circus, Commercial Road and Faringdon Road areas and carried out extensive searches but the group had moved on. It's not clear if a criminal offence has been committed. If evidence is brought to our attention then we will continue to investigate."