Newsletter - Cycling News | August
Sent: Tue, Jul 29th 2008, 07:15
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Welcome to the August edition of the electronic newsletter from Life Cycle UK, the cycle promotion charity. In this issue:
Photo comp
August cycle maintenance course
Brompton world championships
Friends reunited
Holiday cycle training
Calling all youth workers!
Meet the team
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Photo comp
Life Cycle is pleased to be one of several organisations supporting a photographic competition to celebrate the wonderful Bristol and Bath railway path.
Anyone – amateur or professional – can enter, and your pictures can be of pretty much anything, so long as it’s related to the railway path, its heritage, its wildlife or the uses people make of the route.
The competition has just launched its own website www.greentracks.org.uk which explains how to enter and submit your photos. The closing date is May 2009 – so you’ve got three-and-a-half seasons’ worth of snapping time!
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August cycle maintenance course
Be quick and you’ll catch a BMW! That’s a Bicycle Maintenance Workshop, our special bike fixing course for beginners. The next BMW runs on Saturday August 9th and, right now, there are three spaces left. Hurry, hurry!
Over a single day the course will explain how a bicycle works, how to diagnose faults and make a basic adjustments and repairs. You'll gain confidence, knowledge and new skills, and in the long run you stand to save quite a lot of money by doing your own maintenance.
The BMW takes place at the Life Cycle Centre in Knowle. PICTURE
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Brompton world championships
In September Elliott Fisher, one of Life Cycle’s star cycle instructors, is to take part in one of cycle sport’s most bizarre races: the Brompton World Championship. The Brompton, for those who don’t know, is a type of folding bicycle.
Up to 1,000 competitors are expected to line up for a nine-mile sprint around the historic grounds of Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
While the race is an officially ratified event with proper timings, there are some rules that are unique in the sport of cycling. For example, riders are required to wear a jacket, shirt and tie, as though commuting. Cycling shorts, Lycra and leggings are strictly forbidden. There will be prizes for the fastest male, female and youngest rider – and also for the best-dressed!
The Brompton World Championships take place on September 28th and entry costs £17.50 For the first time 2,000-acre estate's oak-lined drives will be opened to the public to cycle around.
Click here for the full story. (Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph).
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Friends reunited
“I’ve lost an old friend… To me it was priceless,” said a heartbroken David Cameron last week after his bike was stolen. “I only nipped into Tesco’s for a few bits of salad.”
A few months earlier, fellow cyclist Boris Johnson was parted from his beloved steed which he described as: “Swifter than eagles… stronger than lions… a two-wheeled Desert Orchid, capable of surging from Highbury to the House of Commons in less than 20 minutes.”
Across the UK in a typical year at least 700,000 other people will suffer the same distress and inconvenience. Bike theft is a national epidemic.
Mr Cameron was extremely lucky in that a few days later he was reunited with his bike, thanks to the efforts of the Sunday Mirror whose underworld spies spotted it abandoned in a nearby side street.
The Tory leader told the newspaper: "I'm very surprised to have it back, it's incredible. I never thought I'd see it again. I've done over a thousand miles on it and three sponsored bike rides of 250 miles each, so it's like an old friend. It's fantastic."
Mr Cameron went on to say: “If only Tesco had taken advantage of Life Cycle’s famous Take a Stand scheme. The store could have had two Sheffield-type stands completely free of charge and cyclists would have somewhere secure to lock their bikes.” Actually, that’s us putting words in his mouth – but it’s true about Take a Stand: free cycle racks for all! To find out more click here.
And here’s a useful link to the Sold Secure scheme for bike locks. All locks are subjected to a rigorous test including attempts to drill, cut, pick and force them. The best are then awarded a gold, silver or bronze rating according to how well they withstand the ordeal. Life Cycle’s advice is to go for gold. And always, always, always lock your bike (it seems that Mr Cameron didn’t).
Click here for more about the great bicycle robbery and click here to read about the emotional reuniting of man and machine.
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Holiday cycle training
During the school holidays Life Cycle is running special Bikeability courses for 8 to 11 year olds. They’ll learn how to cycle safely and skilfully – and they’ll have a great time. Courses run for two hours each day over three days.
Training begins off-road, away from traffic, but then moves onto local roads. Children learn how to control their bikes, how to anticipate other road users' behaviour, and how to carry out manoeuvres with skill and confidence. We work with small groups of children so everyone gets lots of attention.
At the end of the course the children are awarded certificates and we provide feedback to parents on their child's progress.
We currently have spaces on two courses: one in Bristol, one in Bath. Both run on 26th, 27th and 28th August, 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon each day. Places on the Bristol course cost £10. Places on the Bristol course cost £20. Please phone us (0117 929 0440) to make a booking.
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Calling all youth workers!
Any key workers reading this? If so, you might want to know about Life Cycle's youth project. It's called Bike Generation and it's based in Knowle. As part of the project we're about to start running special bike maintance courses for young people.
If you work for an organisation that cares for young people aged 13 to 19 and you know of someone who would enjoy and benefit from attending such a course, please contact us to find out more about when the courses are running.
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Meet the team
Life Cycle UK’s mission is to help more people take up cycling and we do this through a range of practical services such as cycle training, teaching bike maintenance, providing maps and information, and installing cycle parking. We also run various special projects such as tandem rides for blind and visually impaired people, and bike activities for disadvantaged youngsters.
Here we introduce you to one of our lovely team members…
Name: Charlie Bolton
Role: Admin assistant
Tell us a little about yourself and what you do: I’ve worked at Life Cycle for just over year in an admin support role. This means sorting out the bookings for a range of different things, one-to-one adult cycle training, holiday courses, Doctor Bike surgeries, instructor training courses, etc. It can be pretty hectic at times, you feel you never quite catch up.
When not at Life Cycle, for my sins (and they must be many), I am a councillor on Bristol City Council and therefore to blame for the state of Bristol’s education service, social services, transport system, potholes, every planning decision for the last 30 years and residents’ parking. Actually, you do do the occasional good thing (or think you do).
Best thing about working for Life Cycle: The thought that what you do has a positive impact in the world. Also, listening to my colleague Poppy have her daily 10 a.m. rant.
Do you do much cycling? Not a lot. Cycling around town, mainly
What bike(s) do you own? A Dahon folding bike (saves space in a Bristol terrace).
Favourite cycle journey: Cycling through the Orkneys from island to island. Scapa Flow is up there and a load of barriers were set up during the war (the Churchill barriers), to stop German U-boats. The area around them is now silting up and you can cycle across several islands
Locally, probably going up the Aston to Pill path under the suspension bridge of an evening, or riding down the cycle path on Coronation Road, avoiding the trees.
Charlie's top cycling tips: If you go to Aran off the coast of Ireland for a day and hire a bike to get round the island and it chucks it down with rain, don’t get a puncture.
Indeed, accept the fact that at the age of 20 it’s easy to fix a puncture while cycling down the South circular road in London. But when you pass 40, you magically lose the ability to fix a puncture anywhere at all.
Wear the grease stain on your right trouser leg with pride.
Stop at red lights. I do and I always look sternly at the backs of the people who sail past: I find it always makes a diff…er, OK...
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Everyclick
Donate to Life Cycle UK (and it wont cost you a penny!)
Here's an easy way to support cycling – at no cost to yourself. Simply use the Everyclick search engine. Every time you search, a tiny donation is made to Life Cycle UK.
To start using Everyclick, click here Then away you go! Surf the Net, check your horoscope, update your Facebook profile, do a spot of shopping… and you’ll see the donations clock up remarkably quickly.
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Tue, Jul 29th 2008, 07:15