Ladies! Free Bike Mileometer – Five Miles to Fabulous!

Five Miles to Fabulous!
A free cycling event for women – part of a national network of events
Saturday 7th June
10.00 am
Alice Holt Forest

• A gentle traffic-free file mile ride through Alice Holt Forest
• Led by forest expert Helen Wallace
• Free to take part!
• Free bike speedometer/mileometer for everyone that comes along
• Ride ends at forest café for refreshments

If you’d like to take part, all you’ll need is a bike that works. If you don’t have one, you might want to get in touch with Forestry Adventure about hiring one.

Let us know you’re coming by calling 07717 721511

Alice Holt Forest is on the A325 between Alton and Farnham. Here are directions on getting to Alice Holt by train/bike/foot.

See you on the 7th!

It will be fabulous.

Getting to Alice Holt by Train and Bike

Right now, most of our activities at East Hampshire Cycling for All (like our disability cycling and our Five Miles to Fabulous ride) are taking place at Alice Holt Forest. Most people tend to arrive by car (on the A325 between Bordon and Farnham) but it’s easy enough to get to Alice Holt by train and bike, or on foot.

Here are my suggested routes on Google Maps and couple of descriptions:

– Take the train to Bentley station. This is on the Waterloo-Alton line that comes though Woking and Aldershot.

– Then choose between a gentle 2 mile off-road route or an easy 2.5 mile road route:

Off-road

– Cross to the station’s secondary platform, opposite the station building.
– Go through the white gate on your left, at the very end of the platform. There is a sign to Alice Holt.
– Follow this tarmac path uphill for about 500 metres. Don’t let the hill put you off. It’s only short! Give way to any pedestrians on this path.
– At the top of the hill, go straight ahead. Continue along this tarmac path until you see a group of buildings on your left.
– Take the off-road track to your right.
– This path soon comes to a junction with several other off-road tracks. Take the narrow one on your left.
– This path takes you to the A325. Carefully cross straight over the road. Take care – this road can be busy.
– On the other side of the road, follow the track until it meets a larger track – a forest road.
– Turn right on this forest road and follow to the forest centre.

On the Road

– Leave Bentley station by the front entrance. Turn left onto Station Road.
– When this road reaches the larger Blacknest Road, turn left again, beneath a bridge.
– Follow Blacknest Road road for a while until you reach a cross-roads by the Jolly Farmer pub.
– Turn left onto Binstead Road, and continue up a short hill untill you reach a major junction.
– Go left then immediately right into Dockenfield Street (effectively straight on). This junction can be busy, so get off and cross by foot if you feel safer doing so.
– Alice Holt Forest is a short way along Dockenfield Street, signed to the left.

Catching up with the other CTC Champions Officers

I’ve just got back to work after after three days catching up with all the other Cycle Champions Officers we have dotted around the country. As well as me in East Hampshire, we have 12 other excitable cyclists spreading the word all over England. As part of the Cycle Champions project, we are recruiting volunteers and promoting cycling among groups who maybe don’t cycle much.

We got together to compare ideas, check each other’s progress, enjoy each other’s company, and ride bikes here at Alice Holt. And what a great few days it was. They’re such a good bunch – it’s a real pleasure working with them.

Their projects vary, but there is some great stuff going on. Some of my colleagues have been cycling with ethnic groups, elderly groups, busy mums, teenage girls – all kinds of people who maybe don’t take to two wheels very often.

If you’d like to check out what’s going on in other areas of the country, then the CTC website enables you to check the activities of a Cycle Champions Officer near you.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to the next time I see the others – at the York Cycle Show.

Disability Multi Sports Club – Cycling again on the 2nd July

I’ve just been speaking to the guys who run East Hampshire’s Disability Multi-Sports Club. Following the success of our last cycling session there, they’ve invited us back with our range of amazing cycles on 2nd July 2008.

The weekly club is open to anyone who would like to try a range of sports – great for people with physical, sensory or learning impairments. Different sports are looked at each week, with alternatives to suit various members: rugby, cricket, boccia and tennis are all sports with accessible variations. On 2nd July, it is once again the turn of cycling.

The club takes place on Wednesday evenings during school term times and is based at Treloar’s school near Alton. all ages are welcome – children and adults. If you’d like to know more, get in touch with Kirsty Cope on 01730 234396 or kirsty.cope@easthants.gov.uk.

Cycling for All at the Disability Multi-Sports Club

A couple of evenings ago, I went along to Treloar’s School, where the Disability Multi-Sports Club takes place each term-time Wednesday.

The club is suited for all ages and abilities, and it tries a different sport each week, with an expert brought along to run a session. Already having tried cricket, boccia and (I think) tennis, I was invited along to help members of the club to have a go at cycling.

Treloar’s is a great school with excellent facilities, so we were able to make use of their basketball court and running track. We tried out our tricycles, our handpowered trikes, our wheelchair/bike combo and, pride of the fleet, our ‘Twister’ side-by-side tandem.

It looked like everyone had a great time. They’ve invited us back, so I suppose it must have gone down well!

If you’d like more information about the Disability Multi-Sports Club, get in touch with Kirsty Cope on 01730 234339 or kirsty.cope@easthants.gov.uk

Volunteers Needed!

We’ve got off to a great start at East Hampshire Cycling for All. From the launch of disability cycling at Alice Holt Forest, we’re already off to other East Hampshire locations spreading the word about cycling and its many benefits. Tonight, for example, I’m off to the Disability Multi-Sports Club to spread to run a session there.

And as we start doing more and more stuff, we’ll need more people to help us. We’re part of the lottery-funded national Cycle Champions project, which aims to encourage volunteers within the community to be part of cycling’s exciting growth.

So, would you like to be involved with this? Would you like to contribute in some way, helping others in East Hampshire to make the most of cycling? You don’t even have to be particularly knowledgable about cycling – we’ll be providing training.

If you’d like to discuss the ways you can volunteer as a Cycle Champion, call me on 07717 721511 or email me at clive.andrews@ctc.org.uk.

Show Us Your Photos!

It’s three days since we launched East Hampshire Cycling for All, and we’ve already ridden with around 50 people – half of whom with impairments that may have presented a barrier to conventional cycling.

I’m still sorting through my photos of our launch day – there are so many photos of us all having fun on wheels.

Have you been cycling with us? Do you have any photos you’d like to share?

There is an East Hampshire Cycling for All group on Flickr – the popular photosharing website. If you add your photos to our Flickr group, we can all check out what it’s like riding at Alice Holt Forest.

In fact, if you add any photos to our Flickr group, you may find small versions are automatically selected to appear on the pages of this, the East Hampshire Cycling for All blog, and also our pages on the main CTC website – (look at the small selection of photos on the right of this page).

To join in, just sign up with Flickr. If you have an account with Yahoo! this takes just seconds. If you don’t have a Yahoo! account, it’s still an easy process. Then join up to the East Hampshire Cycling for All group and start adding photos! Ask me if you’d like any help.

If all this sounds a bit complicated, but you’d still like to show us a photo you’ve taken, then there is an easier way! Just email your photo to me at clive.andrews@ctc.org.uk and I will gratefully put it here on our blog for all to see.

East Hampshire Cycling for All: Up and Rolling!

On a lovely, sunny bank holiday Monday, we held our East Hampshire Cycling for All launch day at Alice Holt Forest.

With the sun shining, around 3,000 people visited Alice Holt to enjoy their extra day off on Monday. In the centre of the park we were offering the chance to enjoy a range of cycles – all designed to make cycling a great option for anyone whose level of ability may make it difficult to use a regular bike.

We had experts on hand in the shape of Ian Tierney and Hermine Briffa, who run the Wheels for All! scheme as part of their Cycling Projects charity. They came along to lend not only their expertise, but some great equipment, including hand-powered trikes made by Da Vinci.

Also helping us out were Neil Davenport and Rob Henshaw from Quest 88, who were here with some of the excellent Draisin cycles they supply.

People of all ages and abilities came along to try our bikes. Some arrived with friends, colleagues or carers from various disability organisations, while others came to Alice Holt independently with partners or parents, keen to see if we had a bike that would suit them.

For several hours, we had cyclists riding up and down the area in the centre of the park, with riders trying a variety of diffrent machines – some hand-powered, some leg-powered, some ridden solo and some with a friend.

The best thing was the fact that virtually everyone said they would be back to ride with us again.

I took a few photos, and I’m looking through them now, placing them on Flickr for all to see.

If you’d like to come cycling with us, get in touch with me at clive.andrews@ctc.org.uk or on 07717 721511

And we’re off!

Wow. What a day!

Yesterday was the launch of East Hampshire Cycling for All, and what a great success it was.

I’m still looking through photos of all the guys who came to ride in the sunshine, so I’ll write more later when the dust has settled.

See you later,

Clive

Great Contributions from Center Parcs, East Hampshire District Council and Hampshire County Council

With only two days to go, our storage container at Alice Holt Forest is really starting to fill up with equipment we’ll need at East Hampshire Cycling for All.

Bikes

On Wednesday, Helen and I drove all the way up to the Lake District to meet Chris from Center Parcs. As manager of Whinfell Forest‘s enormous bike fleet, Chris was happy to give us three Hoening Duets – wheelchair/bike combos. These are great for people unable to cycle but who want to experience the enjoyment of a good ride. The cycles will be used in East Hampshire as well as in Reading. Thank you Chris at Center Parcs! More kit arriving soon…

More bikes…

Our goal at East Hampshire Cycling for All is to make cycling accessible to everyone, even if an impairment makes this a challenge. While some disabled people may appreciate the more unusual cycles we’re getting hold of, there are others for whom a regular bike, with the right adjustments and advice, is just right for the job.

With this in mind, our partners at East Hampshire District Council have supplied a number of conventional bikes, in a range of sizes, with front suspensiona nd lots of gears. Just right for Alice Holt Forest. Thank you Mike and Liz and EHDC!

Helmets

It’s not compulsory to wear a helmet when cycling, but I think it’s a great idea, especially when off-road. So to help everyone stay safe, our friends at Hampshire County Council have helped us out by supplying a pile of helmets from their Road Safety Shop. Thank you Mike and Sam of HCC!