Schools in (err, what?) #SchoolPedal

UPDATE - Vee's finally riding confidently, doing her first #SchoolPedal on the 8th Feb - Vid will be embedded below!

I know, we're meant to say school's out these days but for a group of bloggers school is definitely in.

Especially when it comes to sustainable transport. A group of bloggers and parents were talking via twitter and it caught my eye due to the subject of cycling and the school run and the fact next to nobody run's it unless you're late in the afternoon and the school will be miffed again! (we've all had those weeks? *bugger* Just me then?)

The school run is comprised of getting the kids to school in a decent time, (dejavu?) and doing it in a manner that stimulates your children for the fun or busy day of learning and fun ahead and to be fair it can be pretty boring strapping the kids inside the car or sat in the child trailer in my case, especially when it's too small now. That makes me really sad but it's progress i suppose!

See, I've gone off on a tangent again - Muppet. I joined the twitter chat for a while which seemed to last for days, while on and off it's gone from a let's get the kids to school without an engine to the #SchoolWalk #SchoolPedal and #SchoolScoot a way to promote cycling and scooting to school with the children, be it you scoot, cycle or walk. no matter who's riding it's still a fantastic way to get out and about and take in the crisp and fresh autumnal air, even if the air quality locally is worse than some parts of London thanks to the A5 but anyway ;)

GrampsBike - En Route to the Keech Star walk 2014 completed
that night, the last part arrived that afternoon!
And no - 7 lights is not overkill! ¬_¬

What makes this awesome for me is how I've just become a Sustrans volunteer with the CBC Travel Choices service, with the aim to start a school based cycle scheme for parents and including children once my training is completed to a higher level and as such I want to use the #SchoolWalk #SchoolPedal and #SchoolScoot ideas to create parent controlled group rides from set destinations to school,

for instance for children at School A have a set group who come from one side of town and another who come from the other side of town so 10 parents get together and arrange for children to scoot and pedal with the chain starting with the parents farthest away and the chain increases from there with parents joining at set points closest to the most convenient route. Similarly set on the way back.

While this will need future planning and risk assessments and health and safety input to ensure child and parent protection I see it could work fantastically well as a project to get more people using their bikes and scooters. Especially with Bikeability and Scootability courses designed for both children and adults and the possibility of other community based goodness too if all goes well!

One thing I will add is to ensure you've bright and have lights, even a front silicone one on a scooter at the least for the darker days and nights coming around the corner, my friend Liska at New Mum Online has some reviews on the clothes Aldi sent her as well as info on lights and special cyclist friendly deals at Aldi from the 25th, (I'll be popping in to see what I can buy tomorrow. my old speedo was from Aldi and I took it over the mileage clock twice. working out at around 20,000 Miles on one bike and I stupidly left on my old GT bike when it became a money pit.)

On thing I worked out last night was the savings riding, scooting and walking to school can quickly rack up, while I can only comment on public transport over driving it's still a large amount.

For instance, a Luton and Dunstable Arriva day ticket costs £4.30, A weekly ticket is £17.00 Whereas a HipHop Day ticket (use on all Arriva and Centrebus services and some Grant Palmer services) is £4.60 for a day ticket and £18.50 for a weekly ticket.
For clarities sake I've not included monthly and yearly tickets yet as I want to confirm the prices and any proposed increases before working them out. They will come soon.
Now if you use the bus 6 days a week, all year it will cost a maximum of £1341.60 or £1435.20 for a hiphop day ticket.

Similarly weekly ticket costs come out to £884 and £964 throughout the year.

Potential savings of £800+ are not to be sniffed at in my opinion, and that includes maintenance of bikes or scooters.

If you want to join in with the project let us know in the comments, with blog posts I'll happily share with everyone and add to the post also. Also If you can't scoot or pedal to school we can help find bike confidence courses for all levels to complete learners to advanced riders who need to wind their necks in a bit (oh wait, that's me again)

Daddy moments : Pride - Riding

'Ning all.

Music I wrote this post to came from the C64 Demo Of The Year 2013

Over the last few weeks I've been beavering away at three little bike projects.



Gramps bike a 22 year old Raleigh Outland which I'm rebuilding for ride leader purposes with Sustrans. While the bike is solid some of the components are to be replaced and upgraded over the next few weeks for safeties sake which I'm planning on doing some youtube videos on, well here's hoping anyway.

Bumblebee, Vee's first bike and now Lissy's bike, while it's heavy and poorly painted it does the job well.
we'll be coming back to this one soon.

Purple Nurple, This is a second junker bike I've been tidying up. Given to me the day it was destined to be scrapped, while it needs some TLC and suffered from being built badly by it's previous owners then being subsequently left at my daughters school unloved. Since then it's been sanded down, primer painted where needed and made to look presentable where required. I plan for this to be Vee's bike in the near future - stabilisers are on the way tomorrow!

The reason I'm doing this is due to the fact I want the girls riding to school, leading a happier healthier life and gaining life skills they'll never get from being slapped in front of a TV or computer system. I get not all parents are interested in riding but we're all different, so there!

Both girls need a a fair bit more coaching to get them riding without stabilisers, especially where they can make a bike feel heavier and remove the natural balance you get when riding unaided but recently Lissy had really got into riding and is incredibly close to riding unaided. Throw her on a balance bike and she can do it, but the momentum of the controls, pedalling and balancing is just a little too much for her right now.

But she's been asking to ride more on Bumblebee to the point last weekend she asked could he come to the shops with me, It was a dreary day, wet with a dashing of rain for good measure and did I mention it was raining? Yes it was bad, but she still wanted to come out so I ask her, assuming she wanted the trailer.

"You'll have to ride as it's too wet for the trailer, Midge?" 

*Putting her raincoat on*"YEAH Dad! Let's go for a ride!"

And off we went to the shops, a good mile each way in a father daughter bunch grabbing potatoes and milk, in the wet, damp rain, and a good mile back too. She wasn't the fastest (but her bike is pretty heavy - I may have another bike to resolve this with soon though) but she never complained once, and throughout I was reminded that it's the "Best day ever!" Hearing these three words and seeing her smile the whole journey both ways was an awesome feeling, a proper proud dad moment!

I just hope little things like this can help her come out of her shell, bring us closer and being more fun for all of us in the future. And while her sister prefers a scooter right now it won't be long before I hope she jumps onto something with somewhat better brakes.

Wordless Wednesday - Cheeky!