This being the start of Bike Week, Which is supposed to encourage cycling, I thought I'd look up Google to see what is on my area, guess what? ......nothing. I live in the Swansea area,Swansea Valley. Not only is there not much going on to encourage cycling, there is Nothing! How does that encourage cycling?
Thisis appeals me. Free breakfast for riding my bike, YES!! There are a few bits on there that i might go past and see, still keeping my coolness of course.
We're doing some bits and pieces in Manchester - I'm going along as a helper on a guided route into town (idea being I'll stick with people if they get p* etc) Some of the other people in the bike group are doing a "Dr Bike" thing where they give people's steeds a quick once over. Should be good, I think.
I'm also a guide for the Oxford Road (Manchester) organisations (Universities, NHS etc) - have left my route open as I'll fit in where needed depending upon numbers. And Man Uni are also doing a Dr Bike at the start of the week ! Once 'guided' the cyclists in, I'll be hopping off back to my office 5 miles out of town......
Well it's tomorrow.... We've had a good response - got one of our rides starting from the same location as Manchester Council- so that should be interesting - Fallowfield Loop and into town (Manchester) via the back routes - then linking up with another one of our rides at Fallowfield - should be a bit hectic. Weather's so so...Metcheck's forecast has been getting a bit better - heavy rain is now showers/light rain...we'll see, fingers crossed.
Just looked at the weather tomorrow - showing heavy rain for by me for 07:00, and I'm leading a bike ride in at 08:00 - agh!
It was miserable here in Mancland - didn't see any Cycle Chat jersey, John - was it covered by waterproofs? I was the one holding the umbrella over the photographer for a while, then we did the group photo and I went on my way as I was getting a tad cold by then (shorts on). Good turn out here!
Decent here. Bombed into town and got there in about 5mins Would of beet my brother i i left at the same time as him and he would of been on the bus. Had a free bacon cob with red and brown sauce in and a coffee. Got 2 free bottles from Freewheel and got rid of my smelly old Evans ones which they were pleased about. They werent too happy when i asked why they had that horrible looking Specialized Langster thing in the London colour scheme right at the front. Looked rubbish and the guy tried to make it look better by just putting bar tape on the drops and using the 1 fingure brakes, which i think made it look worse. Oh i met a nice young lady aswell
We were in the group coming in from Cheadle PO - one of us (the new fella) got a p*, and none of us had a 15mm spanner (so we had to find and fix in situ). Fixed it with a glueless patch which then came undone and so fixed it with a proper patch...yada yada yada...we all walked from Fallowfield We arrived about 9:35ish, easily taking the Bike Week Lanterne Rouge, but I think we all enjoyed it nonetheless. I was talking to Andrew (Hough, the HEP travel co-ordinator) and he reckoned the turnout was lower than the number that had registered, but not by too much. Had a mini donut or two, chatted to Jamie from the bike boutique (who was doing the bike checkups under the marquee) and then went into work. I was a bit gutted not to get the 'Chat colours in the photo, but there's always next year
Incidentally, my concession to the weather was wearing my Prendas gilet over the cyclechat jersey - still visible
