A bit of background:
The "free" bikeability courses are funded by central goverment to the tune of £40 per child trained. To get this funding the instructors have to teach to the National Standard which bears the Bikeability branding, and they have to be registered with and trained by an Instructor Training Organisation (ITO). The teaching is constantly audited and spot checks are carried out by representatives from Steer Davies Gleave on behalf of the DfT. If, during an inspection, it is felt that the Instructors are not working in line with the National Standard the possibility is there for SDG to recommend that funding to the Bikeability Provider (the organisation the instructor is working for) can be suspended. This covers not only the actual training of the young people, but the risk assessment of the instructor regarding bike suitability, training areas etc.
These "clowns" as you put it, are primarily responsible for the safety of the young people in their care (on road ratios of 1:6). As you put it "the tyres were starting to reach the end of their service life" so you knew they were a potential safety issue, but still allowed your daughter to go on a training course that would invovle cycling in traffic. So if that makes them "clowns" for looking out for your daughter's safety, that must make you a "muppet" for not doing the same.
Part of the course is aimed at getting the young people to recognise faults or potential issues with their own bikes, so to spot a tyre needs replacing, but to do nothing about it would be a tad hypocritical of the instructor wouldn't it.
@reglard Suffolk Council may be the Bikeability Provider, but they are NOT allowed to tell the instructors how to run courses or what content to teach. Only the Bikeability Provider's ITO is allowed to do that, and according to the July 2014 lists, Suffolk Council is not an ITO. If the Council is found to be in breach of that, it will lose all Bikeability funding.
And yes, before you ask, I am one of those "clowns". I am also an instructor trainer for an ITO, so I also train those "clowns".
Bikeability Woes
- Thread starter reglard
- Start date
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Dave Davenport
Guru
- Location
- Hampshire
We must have been lucky with out Bikeability Instructors from Pedal Power... it was a mare getting instructors to have a bit of sense and talk to "head bikeability" to allow all ages at the school do Bikeability 1 and if they were ready 2....
Pedal Power Training sorted all the grants to cover the cost and over several weekends using a classroom at the school and the playground for 1 (road for 2) they came in and took 146 children through it, they checked the bikes, found no faults, were a bit leery for some of the ages on the Level 1 AND 2 course and kept repeating they would make a decision on if they would do 2 after 1 and had their socks blown off by our kids. We are rural-ish area and lots of children starting "cycling to school" in some form or another at pre-school.
This company was the only company that understood "it is all very well you going on about average ages they do which bikeability course, but they are already cycling to school (okay with Mum/Dad at 4) but they are doing it so lets give them some training....
They even got every single one of the little ones that had stabilisers off them and pedalling independantly.. they didn't pass level 1 but they got a little bit of safety sense and also up on two wheels!
In short they were bloody marvellous... but as I say perhaps we were just lucky.
Oh and the only complaints we had from parents was that their children were correcting their riding styles with "don't ride in the door zone" "start off with your pedal in the power position" etc
I work for Pedal Power, glad to hear of your positive experience.
As to the OP; Yes the standard of training providers is variable, but as a passionate cyclist and cycling advocate I honestly believe Bikeability to be very positive and beneficial. We always get kids turning up on un-roadworthy bikes that have been dragged out of the back of the shed on the first morning of the course or else are far too large/small, one of the reasons we always have more loan bikes available than we've been asked for. I've had to tell quite a few they can't use the bike they've brought but have always sorted something so they can do the course.
I don't think I'm too much of a clown when it comes to bike maintenance, but I'd probably also be wary of taking a bike with worn tyres out, mainly because they'd be much more likely to puncture which would mean me having to fix it or the whole group walking back to school, which either way would lose a considerable amount of the available training time.
So there is the real reason ,
as I suspected however that's £50 I can afford for families on tight budgets that's a lot of money. I apologies however for use of the world clown.
Andy_R
Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
- Location
- County Durham
TBH @reglard , that tyre is ready to pop. I was mentoring a session with an instructor who I trained (when mentoring we do NOT interfere, but observe unless it is unsafe to continue) who had spotted a similar thing. I stopped the teaching and went on to prove a point with the kids AND the instructor. It was a hot summer day, we laid all the bikes down on the verge, and after about 10 minutes the tyre exloded.
Time will tell as the tyres will be returning to the bike to see how long they do last as the ones that replaced them have frame clearance issues. We won't be using Bikeability again for my other children. I would suggest that future that a specification of what is acceptable be made very clear to parents.
Dave Davenport
Guru
- Location
- Hampshire
Your kids, your choice obviously; but it's a shame you feel like that as they always love doing it in my experience.
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
The trouble is, that it's very subjective. How can you describe in words what level of worn tyres (for instance) might, or might not be acceptable? You'd also have to cover every other component in detail as well. And that's assuming a) that the school forward onto all parents any request, b) the parents bother to read it, and c) actually act on it.
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Profpointy
Legendary Member
stop your kids
Fair point as you say its free and we don't have to use it again.
is that a big circumferential split or merely the moulding line? What are we looking at exactly?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
it is subjective to a large extent, which is why the decision should be left to one person -the person who pays the insurance premiums.
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
Our council gives Lesson Vouchers, you can pay £5 to the council and then get your voucher that entitles you to 2 1/2 hours training with an instructor of your choice on the "approved" list, if you want another 2 1/2 hours after that it is £10. I think £15 for 5 hours of lessons is pretty good.
Cubist
Still wavin'
- Location
- Ovver 'thill
On the right of the photo you can see an area where the tread area of the tyre is starting to delaminate. It looks like it's suffered some damage. That isn't a moulding line by the way, it's the join between the sidewall and the tread area which is bonded onto it. The bulge underneath the damage would worry me too.
When the school sent out letters about bike ability, along with permission slips, we were advised to have their bike checked at a lbs prior to the course as anyone with an unsuitable bike wouldn't be able to continue.
Its not as if they made it up on the day and I'd rather they erred on the side of caution.
I used to organise a sponsored bike ride for the local Scout Group, it was their biggest fundraiser with the income forming 25 - 30% of the income
What we used to do was have an early morning "scrutineering"session for all the kids bikes with a couple of local cyclists running basic maintenance to make sure the bikes were safe