Keep on riding with Sustrans Sponsor a mile

I don't hide the fact I'm a Sustrans volunteer from anyone, I'm quite proud of this fact, especially when I can see the benefits we've helped bring to the local community, especially the school projects I've participated on, projects that help families get out and have fun, be it in the sun, rain, wind or even the rain, it's all about families doing things together, without little screens or computers getting in the way.

When Sustrans realised I blogged they asked me if I would sponsor a mile of NCN route and what my favourite National Cycle Network route would be. I was happy to oblige them, especially as the local NCN routes around here are kept to high standards and easy to ride, walk or take the horses for a ride and accessible to all in the local community.
For me It has to be the smaller, somewhat hidden (but in plain view) gem taking you from Sewell to Dunstable Downs via an Iron Age hillfort and burial ground. That route is 574

Locals will understand!

The reason I like my mile of route 574 is down to it's beauty and immense history. While the route gives easy access to Dunstable Downs, Whipsnade Zoo (via shallowsprings,) the Five Knolls Barrow Cemetery, Maidenbower Iron Age HillFort and onto Route 6 in Sewell, While I'm still learning the history of the area it doesn't take a lot to see the beauty and through the years I've seen it from living in a neighbouring village, Kensworth. A strange village with next to no travel options bar cars or a bike, and with the limited options the downs becomes an essential gateway well before Sustrans upgraded the route.
The upgrade made commuting to work, school, the pub, or shopping even easier to villagers and similarly for townsfolk, who can visit the local areas easier and more accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
On top of this there's the ride I used to ride a lot when younger and called it the "Ring of fire" Where you start from Gateway Centre, and go down the hill to the lower portion of the downs, to the base of the downs and back up to the gateway centre, I'll eventually embed an endomondo route for this ride as soon as I can, but I can say, at 12 years old in the rain it was hard, but seems more like fun these days, I know when we used to ride it with the kids they liked it too.

If you've got a favourite mile you ride, please visit the Sponsor a mile page and get sponsoring, as sponsoring a mile means we can help keep the mile to good standards, tidy and increase the routes in the future. On top of this Sustrans schemes such as Travel Choices and Travel Luton bring support to your children in helping them ride, checking the safety of their bikes, and building their confidence up to enable them to be safe, on top of this we host support for adults in walking, cycling and all things transport. They help support you, so let's support them!

Disclosure, I was given a mile by Sustrans to help spread the word.

Times and bikes change, but the fun increases!

It seems like a month ago I posted about the three bikes we use for fun, well it probably was. But it seems some of the bikes have been swapped to fit the girls needs, especially with Vee's bike being too heavy and tall for her and Lissy's being too small and lightweight (I kid you not!)

Change was needed fast and came thanks to volunteering, swapping and safety checks the girls have new old bikes, the sort of bikes that have been around the block a bit but still raring to go, similar to Grampsbike the Raliegh.

It may be 2 degrees but they like their bikes!

On the left we have Lissy's Bronx Dinosaur bike. It's a 14 inch wheeled affair kitted out with a 2014 Selle Royale Lollipop seat and lightweight Kalloy components to help reduce weight but retain strength. There's the odd scratch here and there but when in the mood she can blat twice as fast with little effort, even hills are a breeze for her right now.
This bike is called:


On the Right we have Vee's Universal Typhoon in faded orange a 16 Inch wheeled bike with an older 2010 Selle Royale Lollipop seat and funky tyres. This one has been a tad more well loved in comparison to Lissy's but it's doing well for it's estimate age. It's bought Vee's confidence out so much in just over a week so it's a win in my eyes.
This bike is called:

While both will have some minor work done work done to them they're both ready to rock and already providing hours of fun for both girls, even on cold days like Saturday! Bring on the #SchoolPedal!

The three amigos #HalfTermFun

UPDATE, Two of the amigo's were changed! Updated link here in a moment!

Well summer has been and long gone and the weather is being somewhat kind to us so far with fair temperatures, perfect cycling and scooting weather. and with that it's time for a proper introduction of the Three amigo's

Let's start with my youngest's bike.

It's an  Avigo Precious, to be fair a very lightweight starter bike for a child.
All I've done to this bike is upgrade the saddle to a Selle Royale Lollipop child saddle, LED lights for the night rides (I kid you not Lissy wants to night rides) and the darker nights drawing in we'll need them for the fairer school pedals

Next we have a Professional Blush, a repaired and recycled bike, It's the bike we'll be training Vee on and once riding independently we'll continue to turn this rusty unloved set of wheels into a fun little tool for a monster.

To complete this bike requires new brake pads, LED lights and chain cleanup or replacement and a Lollipop seat to make it comfortable for Vee


Lastly we have Gramps, an old Raleigh Outland steel bike, aged approximately 22 years old. Weighs a flipping tonne but has had an easy life, well until I got my hands on him that is.
Upgraded bars, brakes, shifters, crankset and wheel.




While these may be three bikes there may be a shimmer of hope for Naughtybike yet. We'll see soon but over the half term while we've got the weather I'll be on the bikes as much as possible with the girls. Even if we end up scooting just as many places It'll be fun and I'll hope to document some of it.


Edit: I've had the odd PM telling me the two children's bikes look like dreaded Bike Shape Objects, while this may be the case they both have a serious advantage to BSO's and that's their weight. For instance the other child bike we had weight far too much for a child to learn to ride on.
Sadly this is a common thing with cheaper bikes and there is nothing we can do unless manufacturers are willing to up prices a bit and make them with higher quality parts. That said, adult bikes have the same problem too thanks to cheaper processing plants and lower quality assistance, meaning more dangerous lumps of metal destined for landfill or the scrapvan.

While I would never tell someone what to buy  but with christmas around the corner and many companies will start selling utter junk cheap *happens every year* bikes I would urge you to take the following on board:

Don't buy customer returns or end of run products offered by companies like Stirling House (it was the damaged returned, patched and resell junk resale dept of Universal Cycles, trust me I have the scars to prove it!) Luckily Stirling and Universal and some of the once amazing bike brands were sold to Sports Direct, but looking at some of the bikes they sell it's clear they are not high quality. While there may be a few they are few and far between!

If you can go and look at the bike you're interested in purchasing. Touch and feel, the only way to tell if a bike will be too heavy, the seat offering no cushioning for growing bones and bottoms and whether things move as they should.

Ignore things like Suspension, or motorbike styles, all it does is weigh the bike down, unless it's a high specification £300+ child's mountain bike bought for a specific reason they won't need it,
similarly with twist grip gears, unless made by SRAM or Shimano they will be less than up for the abuse a child will give them and fall apart over time. (any components by Sunrace, Falcon or unbranded walk away from)

Sizing is important. Many bikes will be adaptable to a child for a few years and some for a lot longer due to the frame design, in this case it may be practical to by at one size which may fit all for a while. (I know some Ridgebacks and Islabikes have children's frames with this in mind)

If the child knows they are getting a bike, take them to be measured by an expert in a local bike shop, the more knowledgeable Halfords staff or go local with CycleLife independent retailers are a good place to start on this to get the best bike for your children.

One more thing. Don't think of it as "just a bike" for many kids they only ride a little bit but with the right bike they'll want to ride more and more, which helps keep them fit and healthy and cycling has been proven to make people happier than walking or driving (not a cycling vs driving rant) so it benefits you in many ways. If you want ways to get on your bike speak to me or anyone at Sustrans and we'll help you find places for you or your children to ride to the best of your current abilities. If you live in Central Beds and we get enough demand I'll see about organising a cycling day in Dunstable to show you what's available for all.


Paul

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.

Join me at SkyRide MK.

Evening all.

Two weeks ago I was contacted by the team from Sky and British Cycling to join in with the Sky Ride in Milton Keynes on Sunday the 26th August.

I've accepted the chance to join in for a few reasons.
Firstly because I like cycling and exploring new areas to ride,
I need a good excuse to train a bit more and increase my currently rubbish health (curse you spinal issues)
And finally. Naughtybike wants to play, safe in the knowledge I'm not going to thrash the bike about too much in respect for other riders.

From now until then I'll be looking for friends, fruitloons, families, vloggers and even hardened cyclists to register for the MK sky ride and join with me and many others for a jolly good set of two wheeled fun. Everyone from beginner to raving loons with naughtybikes are welcome.
I'm aiming to be there at about half nine to meet up with the sky team, and I'm thinking of offering to ride with those who are less confident or maybe need some encouragement. If you wish to join in on that ride please, get in touch.

Before I forget this is a family friendly ride, meaning children and there bikes are welcome, even if attached to a trailgaiter or a child is in a trailer (if i didn't have so many main roads to ride to get to the train station I would bring my trailer and youngest. We'll see)

Also if you join up, register for the Mk ride and come on the ride you have the chance to win many cool things, including bikes, Sky tv packages and Skybox and chances to meet Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton at the National Cycling Center in Manchester.

Come on, take part in a community ride with me and the team at British Cycling and Sky at SkyRide Milton Keynes.

Paul.

P.s. over the next two weeks i'll be adding endomondo training rides onto the blog for you all to see. Some will be slow, due to the trailer or back pain. However some will be stupidly fast.