Posted by Damian Bonsall in Exeter.
The following blog was written by Jamie Bassett, a student at Exeter College. It describes his views of cycling generally and in particular covers all the exciting activity happening at exeter College Bike Club – nice one Jamie. Keep us posted with news of your club; it sounds fantastic.
Since the success of the Great Britain cycling team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and recent success in the Tour de France, cycling has never been so big and the future looks bright with many new faces emerging on to the scene. The Exeter College Bike Club is just one of the clubs encouraging young students to get on their bike and try something new.
The club, run by lecturer Pete Kempton, is thriving at the moment with new members and a huge range of different activities they are having the time of their life. The aim of the Bike Club is to encourage and support student’s experience of cycling and its many forms, something that the club is keen to keep to.
Since its formation they’ve tried their hand at Olympic sports in the velodrome, mountain biking, road cycling and have even learnt how to maintain and repair their bikes. Despite this they are still looking to try new activities and in June 2010 several members took part in a 100 mile charity ride to help raise money for Force Cancer, an event that is set to be held again in 2011. The future looks exciting for the Exeter College Bike Club who already oversubscribed with a waiting list for their next trip to the velodrome.
Over the last two years members of the club have taken trips to Haldon Forrest in Devon learning how to mountain bike with instructors from Cycle Exeter, while the chance to take part at an Olympic sport on the velodrome in Newport has proved to be very popular and something a bit different from the usual. Whatever type of cycling, the Bike Club are willing to give it a try.
For Pete Kempton, organiser and member there is much more to come for the Bike Club, “Looking ahead to the future, I can see us combining with the University Bike Club for some events which would be to our mutual benefit. I think that we might even do some 
more sportive type events and try to fit in some competitive riding also.”
It’s all part of a movement that has seen the growth of cycling over the last few years becoming more and more popular something that the government are want to support and be part of. The club has in the past received support from Cycle Exeter and the Exeter Schools Mountain Bike project part of the National Lottery funding as well as the CTC bike club. This support enables students to take part and try something different that they maybe wouldn’t be able to try or organise themselves.
There is much more to come for cycling in the UK and the Exeter College Bike Club are making great steps to ensure they are a part of it, finding new and interesting ways to get the most out of cycling.
Jamie Bassett
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
The Speedwell Centre is Blackpool’s Home and Hospital facility. It prvides education for young people who are not able to access mainstream schooling because of a medical need.
In many cases this medical need is linked to various types of anxiety, including agrophobia (a fear of open spaces). The staff at the Speedwell Centre are fully aware of the benefits that physical exercise can have in relieving the symptoms of anxiety but, due to the nature of the illness it is not possible to take young people out to enjoy the delights of a bike ride, for example.
They are very restricted for space at the Speedwell and when I met up with Lesley Slack, the Centre Manager, last year, the only provision for physical activity was a Wii Fit game. We decided that the best way of addressing the matter was to purchase some spinning bikes 
so that the young people could build up their confidence and fitness and hopefully develop to enjoy all the benefits of outdoor cycling that we know so well; such as independent transport, confidence and fitness.
Working with the School Sports Partnership, a Bike Club was established and three shiny new spinning bikes arrived this week. 
A league table has already been set up to challenge young people to spend more time on the bikes and a really great feature, I think, is that the room where the bikes are housed is an integral part of the Centre enabling young people to just pop in between lessons and do ten minutes of really good exercise. Lesley told me of an occasion recently where the bikes had been used to help a pupil burn off his frustration before returning to lessons: what a fantastic idea!!
With the remainder of the Bike Club funding, the Centre are sending a staff member on a course to learn how to be a spinning instructor and with the ongoing support of the School Sports Partnership the project looks like being a long term success.
I called in to the Centre earlier this week to chat to the young people. They were really loving the new bikes and were challenging each other in terms of speed, distance covered and calories burned off. Staff and pupils are now really keen to take part in a cycling marathon event for Macmillan cancer care and will be sponsored for every mile they complete on the spinning bikes.
I am now working with the Centre Manager to try and secure funds to purchase some standard bikes so that we can take some young people out and about in a really controlled way, once they have graduated from the spinning bikes.
This is a fantastic initiative to bring cycling to young people who otherwise wouldn’t have enjoyed the numerous benefits on offer and I look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength.
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Cumbria.
At the end of last year I talked to the two Extended Services Co-ordinators in South Cumbria about how we could make thier activity more sustainable. They put on a great programme during 2010 but it relied heavily on bought in expertise.
We decided to host a Trail Leader course and invite local schools to send volunteers who could gain a qualification and then take young people out on biking adventures.
The course was provided by CTC MTB, who are experts at leader training and it was kindly hosted by St Oswalds School in Burneside near Kendal. We had 18 adult delegates for the weekend.
We met on Friday evening and after a welcome and introductions, we completed some classroom work, covering essential knowledge, including risk assessments, equipment selection and ride planning.
The following morning, we completed a skills assessment in the playground and then, after a thorough bike check and a final briefing we set of on a 10 mile ride to practise the skills of leading young people on bike rides in this fabulous area.
The route took us on a variety of terrain including road and open hill side and provided lots of opportunities to try out essential skills such as trail side maintenance, navigation and group management.
At the end of the first day, we returned to base and the course delegates reflected on what they had learned during the day. They then went through some further skills sessions, such as indexing gears and splitting chains before starting to plan the following days ride which they would lead in sections.
The preparation included route planning, checking the weather forecast and covering emergency procedures. The first days route would be follwed in reverse with each delegate being assessed for the Award on the section they lead. The individuals were responsible for navigation, group management and any incidents which might occur.
It was great to see the learning from day one being practised in the various leadership situations and just to make the whole thing more interesting, various scenarios were introduced such as a hypothermia case, a broken chain and a missing rider.
When we returned to base on Sunday evening, it was the end of an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable ride. All the delegates passed and were awarded Trail Leader status. They all agreed that they had a fantastic weekend and learnt a great deal about leading rides. Iam looking forward to working with them now to plan some great biking activity for the young people of South Cumbria over the summer months.
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
One of the best ways of making Bike Club activity sustainable is to train as many adults as possible.
Therefore, I was deligted to host a Ride Assistant Leader course in Blackpool. We used the beautiful Stanley Park as a venue to carry out the training and to practise techniques without having to worry about traffic. The bikes were kindly loaned by our partners at Cycle Blackpool. 
On a cold foggy day in Blackpool Greg Woodford treated us to a really stimulating mix of theory and practice, exploring the issues involved in taking young people out on bikes, so that they have a great time but are safe in the activity.
Greg works for CTC, one of Bike Club’s founding partner organisations. They are the National Cycling Organisation and have been looking after the interests of cyclists for over a hundred years.
At the end of the course, delegates were encouraged to lead as many rides as possible and to keep a log of their activity so that they can gain the Ride Leader qualification in a few months time. In March, I am going to be hosting a National Standard Instructor course so that leaders can offer Bikeability qualifications to their young people and some youth leaders from the course last week will go on to complete Trail Leader qualifications with CTC
On the day itself, the fog cleared away, the sun came out and the following pictures show the course as delegates experimented with different leadership techniques, enjoying what must be one of the nicest parks anywhere in the country. The challenge now is to put on some great rides for young people. With spring just round the corner; watch this space!!!
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
Boathouse Youth - Mountain Biking at Gisburn
One of the very first Bike Clubs to get going was Boathouse Youth in Blackpool. Their young people have enjoyed a wonderful programme of cycling activity throughout 2010 including bike rides in the local area, Bikeability training, mountain biking, BMXing and bike maintenance.
Their leaders were really keen to obtain accreditation for the achievement of their young people in this activity and naturally turned to Youth Achievement Awards, which are administered by one of Bike Club’s partner organisations, UK Youth. The great advantage of these awards is that they are really flexible and are peer assessed; this means that the young people determine their own challenge and their peers assess their progress. They then submit a portfolio of evidence for external moderation by ASDAN who are responsible for the ongoing quality associated with the Awards.
YAA Training - Blackpool
The first stage was to train the leaders in administering the Awards and UK Youth kindly hosted a bespoke course in Blackpool to explain how the process works and the involvement required from the leaders. We had a great day and left really enthused about the process.
We then planned a number of sessions for the young people and helped them to set their challenges and targets and to produce a portfolio of evdience which could be taken to external moderation. The challenges ranged from taking part in off road cycling activities to an involvement in a fully residential canal boat trip in October half term. The hard work and committment that the young people displayed was truly amazing and it was a proud moment for all concerned when UK Youth and ASDAN confirmed that the standard had been achieved and six bronze Youth Achievement Awards were granted. These were the first to awarded within the Bike Club project and are bound to be the first of many.
Working on the portfolios
The icing on the cake came at the Awards evening which was hosted at the Premier League ground of Blackpool FC. The guest of honour was a member of England’s victorious 1966 World Cup Team, Jimmy Armfield and he was delighted to recognise the outstanding achievement of the young people of Boathouse Youth and the part that Bike Club has played in making it possible for them to have such a range of cycling experiences and access to a nationally recognised qualification.
The group have just secured a grant from Sport England to purchase a fleet of bikes and they are already planning next year’s activity and the part that Youth Achievement Awards can play in recognising the wonderful role that young people play; from simply taking part right through to organising and leading the activities.
Young people collecting their awards from Mr Armfield
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
The first Bike Club to be established, in Blackpool, with Department for Transport funding has just been granted an additional £10,000, by Sport England, to sustain and develop its cycling activity programme.
Boathouse Youth in Blackpool became an established Bike Club back in April and since then have treated their young people to an innovative and exciting programme of cyclig including Bikeability training, BMX coaching, maintenance, mountain biking and local rides from the youth centre. The young people are now working on Youth Achievement awards to recognise their involvement in all this superb activity.
Much of this cycling was made possible by working with Cycle Blackpool who provided equipment and trainers whilst Bike Club provided funding and a link between the youth club and delivery organisations. Sport England were particularly impressed by the breadth of activity and the partnership working involved.
The funding will be used to purchase a fleet of bikes, equipment and training for the youth leaders. The youth club have decided that cycling will be their specialist sport for 2011 and it will be really exciting to see how it develops and just what is possible now that they can have their own specialist equipment and suitably trained staff.
Edit
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool, Events.
Youth Achievement Awards are a valuable part of the Bike Club package, providing participating young people with the opportunity to have their activities and achivements recognised.
They enable young people to:
Enhance their self awareness and self esteem.
Get on with and work well with others.
Explore and manage their feelings
Develop values
Plan ahead
The Award is administered by UK Youth, one of Bike Club’s founding organisations. In order to offer this nationally recognised Award in youth clubs and after school settings, the adults involved have to become suitably trained. I was really pleased to be able to host a bespoke Youth Achievement Award training day in Blackpool. 
The Regional Training Manager from UK Youth took us through the progressive award system, which is based on peer moderation, to make sure we were all able to facilitate young peoples’ efforts to set up and asssess their own activities .
We had a really stimulating day and the Bike Clubs that came along are now ready to work with their young people to accredit the activity they are doing on bikes. The first awards will be presented to young people in December at a special awards night. Watch this space for more detail. 
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
Last night I went along to a rehearsal of the Blaze Group’s entry for Blackpool’s Ride the Lights event.
They have designed innovative computer generated light displays for the wheels of some of Blackpool’s new hire bikes. They also have a boom box bike playing themed music, which leads the procession. We coreographed some moves using the hire bikes and they looked amazing lit up against the dusk skies.
The actual event takes place next Tuesday, 31st August when over 10,000 riders will gather for a preview of the illuminations on closed roads.
All the Bike Club officers will be there and we will be joined by young people from Bike Clubs including the Windmill Group, the Boathouse Project and 45th Blackpool Scouts.
It promises to be a fantastic evening so if you fancy joining in the fun come down to St Chad’s (opposite McDonalds) by South Pier at 7 pm and ride along with us. You’ll be very welcome.
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
Tags: #nmc
One of the three organisations making up the Bike Club consortium is UK Youth, the UK’s largest non-uniformed young people’s organisation, which develops and promotes high quality youth work and educational opportunities. This is their centenary year and to promote the message Positive about Youth, their President, Nigel Mansell, the former Formula One World Motor racing Champion, has agreed to embark on an epic 1200 mile cycle ride in just 13 days.
Nigel wants to see practical applications of UK Youth’s work and when he visits Blackpool, Bike Club in partnership with Cycle Blackpool are hosting a free cycling event at Stanley Park. This will be on 26th July between 2 pm and 5 pm in the Sports Arena. There will be a chance to try out lots of cycling skills using portable ramps on our fleet of BMXs, you can take part in the orienteering event with fantastic prizes, get your bike fixed for free, have the chance to decorate your bike to your own design in our Bling Your Bike event and you might even win a new bike. 
The event is on the first day of the summer holidays, so why not come down and see what’s on offer. A really exciting afternoon is promised. For young people (under 18) attending on thier own, a completed parental permission slip will be needed. The slips will be entered into a draw and the winning entry pulled out by Nigel Mansell will win a brand new bike kindly donated by Ai Claims Solutions.
Have a look at the flyer below for full details of the event and to print off a copy of the permission slip. We look forward to seeing you there for a great afternoon of biking fun.
BlackpoolCommunityCyclingEvent-A5 handbill[1]
Posted by Damian Bonsall in Blackpool.
Young Offenders Team Get Bike Recycling in Blackpool
Grange Park Youth centre in Blackpool has a bike repair workshop, complete with spray booth, that has so far not been able to get going in terms of engaging young people. I have set up a partnership between Bike Club, Cycle Blackpool and the Youth Offending team to try and address this, ensuring that the facility is used, with all the attendant benefits for the young people involved.
Tonight saw the launch of the Young Offending Team Bike Club. The young people involved are all on reparation orders from the courts, whilst the bike mechanics are on the Future Jobs Fund scheme operated by Blackpool Council. The session was overseen by Stuart, a Cytech qualified mechanic, from the Cycle Hire scheme in Blackpool. It was great to bring the two groups together and recycle some of the bikes which have been donated to the Council over the last few months.
The pictures of the workshop may well remind you of the showers from when you were at school. That’s exactly what they were until the Young Peoples’ Services team decided it would make an excellent mike maintenance facility.
Each young person was allocated a donated bike, a set of spanners/allen keys, a puncture repair kit and tyre levers and, of course, a can of GT85. They have been told that they can keep the bikes at the end of their four week course and it was great to see them set to work to put the bikes back in a roadworthy condition.
Talking to the young people afterwards, they were buzzing and can’t wait for next week’s session.
