Oh June..

June was a busy month for the local bike buses. Yep – buses. The new A647 Bike Bus started up during bike week. It runs from Leeds to Bradford (and back) each Wednesday. More details can be found at: http://www.airevalleybikebus.org.uk/index.php?q=a647

National Bike Week

Bike week was the focus of a lot of activity. A bunch of volunteers came along to promote the bike bus idea and the specific routes at Cyclefest 09 – a celebration of cycling in Bradford. It was great to see so many people out on their bikes. There were races, demonstrations, bike clinics, mountain bikes and BMXs, adapted bikes for people with disabilities, and a whole bunch more – all under a blazing June sun.

During the week, the Aire Valley Bike Bus ran every day, clocking up 80 rider journeys and covering over 400 miles. Wednesday, was the bike breakfast (organised by Bradford MDC) when we had a massive 26 people on the ride in, and  around 40 people making it along for breakfast.

Photos, stats, and a vauge idea of what we did can all be found via the website.

Step up to the challenge

It turns out some of the riders with the bike bus have been using their regular ride as training miles for some serious challenges. Maurice took part in  the London to Brighton ride where he would have felt at home riding with 26,999 other people. (see his smiley photos: http://www.airevalleybikebus.org.uk/?q=image/tid/147 ) One rider tackled the White Rose Challenge, over 100 miles around Yorkshire. Margaret is preparing to ride from Manchester to Blackpool in a mass participation event in July. ( You can sponsor her by visiting: http://www.justgiving.com/margaretnaylor1 )

But...you don't have to be superfit to ride with us. Our pace is manageable for most abilities (if anything it's a bit slow for the fit 'uns, but that's good  - it means you can talk!) - and there are many of us that simply ride the 2-3 miles to work once a week.

We're all going on a Summer Holiday

During the school holidays, we know that people will still be riding with  the Aire Valley Bike Bus, and somewhere in there we'll be hitting the first anniversary of the first ride. The holidays can be a good time to 'give it a go' because the traffic is usually greatly reduced, so if that's a concern for you, take advantage in the next few weeks.

No rain

When we decided to collect weather stats on the website, it was a deliberate attempt to say 'Look, it really doesn't rain as much as you think – especially not when you're cycling'. And the stats do bear that out. In June we only got a bit wet once, and that was on the way home (I had dried out by the time I got there). Have a guess how many dry days we've had out of the 49 ridden so far....?