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.

Infographic: Cyclist safety in Bike Week

Hi Guy's 

As it's Bike Week 2014, I'll be posting a few posts through the week to celebrate all things two wheeled, and today's post is aimed at road safety, with thanks to fellow cyclists and London solicitors, Osbornes we've teamed up together to share some statistics about cyclist safety in a neat infographic. If you are a road user some of these may be of surprise to you. And I promise you now it's not just motorists to blame here too, both motorists and cyclists can be both as bad and need to take more responsibility for their actions. With huge props to the motorists who look out for other road users even if they can be morons at times. 

 Personally some of these figures are no surprise to me they highlight one important thing. Both motorists and cyclists need to be educated on how to handle the roads themselves and how to interact around traffic, educating in this way could reduce accidents and reduce tensions on the roads between all users and above all else if you muck up, or worse cause an accident, apologise, try and work out who's to blame and pass details over, if the victim of a hit and run please speak to the police. 

I'm currently building the foundations on a new local cycle group in my local area with Sustrans for those who want to ride but are not as confident but the main hurdle I've got to beat is the sheer amount of people who are worried to cycle alone on the roads due to the risks, and CTC statistics back this up. In instances like this I hope we can broaden the LCC's Space For Cycling campaign to a nationwide initiative, bringing key changed whilst making infrastructure easier to use for all. C'mon LCC spread out the space for cycling love around the UK, there's plenty of cyclists and motorists alike willing to work together with you. After all, this is not just for us, it's for the future road users too, including your children and my children too. 

If you'd like more information on the infographic above, take a click here to Osbornes website, a group who are keen cyclists and want to help push changes through for all to share the roads together.  

Tomorrow we'll be talking about doing the school run with a bike an trailer,

How would you like to see infrastructure changed for the better, be it better roads, separation for cyclists or even more disability friendly pathways, anything? Let us know and we'll be happy to add these. 

Paul 

Disclosure: This post has been published in collaboration with Osbornes Solicitors LLP, 

Me and Vee's Epic Day out Pt2

Lo' Peeps!

I've split our Epic day out into two parts as I'll be adding more content to the Online safety post soon. 

After we visited the Internet Safety workshops at the The lovely ladies at Frank PR also were able to secure us access to the London Bike show after we completed our sessions at Stratford. With that we said our thanks and pressed on via the Dockland Light Railway, an surreal treat for Vee as they are pretty much automated.  (Dear TFL make specific DLR price tickets for people going to the  ExCel Center, it sucks when I'm charged £8 for wanting to go to 8 stops return, especially as not everyone has an oyster card)  When we got the venue we made it just in time to watch an amazing stunt show from the Animal WD-40 riders, even if Vee complained she could not see too well. On finally walking around the venue we met with many exhibitors, including the #Space4Cycling crew, in light of a road rage incident due to space it felt relevant to us to join in with this important campaign to help keep motorists and cyclists safe, we all deserve respect on the road, despite the numpties who make us all look bad.
Shortly after we bumped into the lovely people from Topeak who may have found the solution for my next phone mount in September, then Islabikes who Vee demanded one of their junior bikes as soon as she can ride properly. I feel she'll be the mad cyclist like me in the future.


Additionally we met up with the team from the Vitus stand, the company responsible for my Naughtybike Vee 1(Yeah I know I talk about it a lot.) They had the Vee 27, Dee 29 and some more amazing bikes on display for people to drool over. I won't lie I want more from the Vitus line soon, It was good to put names to the faces to the people who helped me choose one of the most solid bikes I've ever owned. From Vitus we visited a huge array of stands including lights, helmets, clothes, accessories and security items, including the new invisible DataTag, where the security technology they use on bikes is so advanced it won't damage your frame and all parts can be tagged too, ideal for a high value bike.

Sadly we didn't get a large amount of time at the show especially as everything was a tad rushed on the day but we'll be adding some more pictures onto Facebook and Molome shortly. But in short the day was amazing, from a good morning learning about internet safety and helping educating parents and children to be careful online to Big brown bears, cybermen, top spec bikes and innovative new technology to make cycling safer for everyone who wants to use two wheels. The day was epic!
If you get the chance to visit the London Bike Show 2015 please visit. It'll be worth it, for the novices, mental riders, stunters and general cyclists. You won't be disappointed.

Paul