Get On Board - the newsletter of the Aire Valley Bike Bus

This time of year in particular, cycling is about much more than getting to and from work, so I thought for this newsletter I'd take a look at some of the other things happening around the district to do with cycling.

Summer Holidays

The good people at becycling are offering trips out for young people and families at very reasonable rates over the holiday period. Contact them on : info@becycling.co.uk

Sky Rides

Sky Ride Bradford is getting closer, where we hope to see around 5,000 taking advantage of the closed, traffic free streets of the city on Sunday 29th August 2010.

Before (and after) that you could take part in one of the many organised rides created to support the event. They range from 'easy' to 'strong' so there should be something for everyone. Each ride is led by a qualified ride leader, (and I think there are freebies available!). You need to register for these rides as numbers are limited.

The Big K CyKlesportive - incorporating Race The Train

Held on 18th July 2010, this ride, organised by Sue Ryder Care – Manorlands Hospice in partnership with Sport Keighley saw over 100 cyclists tackling what must be one of the most challenging cyclosportive courses in the UK. With 21 'Pennine' climbs (ranging from short and steep to long and steep!), it's destined to become a classic in this tired legged riders opinion. It also passes through some of the UK's most beautiful scenery, a world heritage site, Tour of Britain/Milk race roads, Ilkley moor (with or without cycle t'at), and I could go on.

It also managed to raise over £3,000 for the hospice as well.

The write up of the event is here: http://www.sportkeighley.com/?p=355#more-355

John Rides to Malta

Have to mention long time supporter of the bike bus, who is currently riding to Malta. He started in Howarth 20 odd days ago, and you can see how odd those days have been on his blog: http://sportdennis.co.uk/

It's a huge undertaking of over 2,000 miles, and his arrival in Malta in will coincide with his 50th birthday. He's doing it for fun, but also if people want to sponsor him then I believe he is raising money both for Manorlands and Bradford Disability Sport and Leisure.

Are we two yet?

Well apparently yes we are! The first outing of the bike bus was on 6th August 2008. Happy Birthday to all of the 60+ riders that have ridden with the bike bus over that time. 

Bike Week 2010

Last month contained National Bike Week which is always good fun and the tradition of the Bike Breakfast continued, thanks to the good people of Bradford Council. It seems that someone has managed to organise a bike breakfast going back over years. I remember joining rides to the University in the past, so it's handy that the Bike Bus is now simply always there as an option on a Wednesday.

It also helps skew our June figures each year - take a look at that spike: Aire Valley Bike Bus Stats

BTW: I didn't register the ride with the National Bike Week organisers because of the 'Team Green(wash) Britain' sponsorship. This article is a good introduction to the controversy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/jul/02/edf-green-britain-energy

Cycle Fest Bradford

..was great. Nuff said. To find out more there's a blog post, the Cycle Fest Bradford website, and some pictures on Flickr...

Le Tour

July is of course the month of the Tour de France which some of us go a bit bonkers about. As a prelude, a few of the Hammsters, and it turns out a few other bike busers went to watch the National Road Race championships on our own doorstep near Colne, to watch world and Olympic champions duke it out over a route we can all try if we like! (The link is to the men's race, but the women's race was excellent, with current Olympic champion, Nicole Cook and a great performance from local lass Lizzie Armistead). The winner of the men's race, Geriant Thomas is currently the best young rider in the Tour, lying in second place!

Sky Ride Bradford

Fancy a day out on the bike, on traffic free roads, with 7,999 other cyclists? Then Sky Ride Bradford may be the thing for you.. Of course you have get past the fact that Murdoch is involved (someone else (e.g.) that feels uncertain: http://www.lfgss.com/post804706-1.html ), and I'm sure there will be paper, email and SMS spam to deal with, BUT - roads closed riding in Bradford - pretty amazing really!

We may look to organise some Bike Buses to and from the event. It takes place on Sunday 29th August 2010.

Anything Else

I don't think so for now. See you on the road.

I can never work out what to call the Newsletter - it's really the June edition, 'cos that's when it's written, but it's supposed to reflect on May, but most of this is going to be about things to do in June - oh well..

Cycle Fest 2010

Cycle Fest is back! - A Great Free Family Fun Day Out, for cyclists and non-cyclists.

Saturday 26th June 2010,  11am – 3pm
Lister Park, Bradford

From professional displays and learn to ride sessions, to bike polo and a cycle smoothie maker, it’s a day packed with events for all ages and abilities in the park and Cartwright Hall. More info at: http://www.cyclefestbradford.org.uk/

The Big K CyKlesportive - incorporating Race The Train

18 July 2010
Sue Ryder Care – Manorlands Hospice in partnership with Sport Keighley are proud to launch a brand new and exciting cycling event to add to our well established and popular Bronte Big K Mountain Bike Challenge. 

This event is a Cycle Sportive which caters for all, from elite Cycle Sportive Riders taking on the 88 mile, 10,962 feet climb (leg 6) through to the 4.8 mile 'Race the Train' (leg 1) for beginners and families . The other legs suit all standards in between.

See: http://www.suerydercare.org/events.php/634/the_cyklesportive_race_the_train

How's the Bike Bus Doing?

Well, we're down on numbers compared with last year, but we still have a solid core of riders that mean there's always a bike bus. Numbers have been regularly around 7-8 for the morning rides, and 3-4 in the evenings. Encouragingly there are still new faces turning up, and we do still meet and ride with some of the 50+ riders that have joined is at one time or another. More statistics..

Our riders are also involved in things like the new cycle forum initiative, Cycle Fest, and road safety matters.

If you've not tried it yet, or are looking for a good time to ride with us agian, then why not join us in....

National Bike Week

June 19th - 27th 2010
This year the on the Aire Valley Bike Bus it's business as usual. Our only plans so far are to do our regular Wednesday Commuter rides (Wednesday 23rd June). Check the timetable for times and joining points. There may be a commuter breakfast organised for us, so watch this space.

Last year we had 26 riders, so it will be interesting to see how we go this year.

 

Numbers up

Bike bus stats shot through the roof during March. Ok, so that's a bit of an overstatement, and March did have 5 Wednesdays in it, but it was good to see "almost 10's" on the morning rides and a good solid evening ride prescence as well. A couple of new riders in the month is encouraging, but we're not seeing as many women as we have in the past.

But that's not the only reason things are on the up...

New Cycling Forum for Bradford

A forum has set itself up to bring together cyclicat and cycling organisations across the Bradford district. It's first meeting was on the 23rd February, and the next is  11th May, 1.00pm - 3.00pm, MAPA (next door to Bradford Foyer), 1 Coates Street, West Bowling, Bradford, BD5 7DL. For more information, contact Chris from Crank it Up at info@crank-it-up.org.uk.

Download:

• Minutes of the February 2010 meeting of the Bradford Cycling Forum (.doc 1.89MB)
• Minutes of the February 2010 meeting of the Bradford Cycling Forum (.odt 1.88MB)

Keighley Cut Through

Good news on the potential new cycle route that would by pass 3 major roundabouts in theKeighley area.

One of the bike busers (ages ago) alerted us to the little known short cut between Utley and Riddlesden. This route cuts out the 3 major roundabouts from the old road between Croshills and Keighley and the old Keighley to Bingley route via Riddlesden, which many of us will use, not only on the bike bus, but at weekends as well.

Currently, the route is just an unofficial path, with access granted by the council, but no public right of way. It's muddy, and there's evidence that mountain bikes use it, but it wouldn't be much use for my skinny tyres.

Early one morning last year, Andy and I took some photos, you can see them here:  http://www.airevalleybikebus.org.uk/image/tid/148

To see where this is on a Google Map, see: http://ur1.ca/f0uo (the area is to the west of Royd Ings Ave, beneath the bypass)

After some great support from some of you(!) the Rights of Way officers at the council have committed to doing some feasability work on the route in the next financial year. I'll be meeting one of the officers on site on the 23rd April - so watch this space.

Brr - another cold month. As far as I know, no-one rode at all in the last 2 weeks of February - well it was icy, and snowy. In recent weeks it's been much nicer - cold, but dry - lovely!

Traffic Talk

Traffic has been in the local news quite a lot recently.

Saltaire Roundabout

New proposals for the roundabout are out, but there's not long to talk about it. See this article: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/5046300.Public_get_look_at_roundabout_plans/

and join our discussion:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/airevalleybikebus/t/91fd9d16029d88

Other traffic stuff

There is also consultation about the junction at St. Enochs - off our patch, but I know bike busers also use that junction a lot. Finally Cottingley Bar and the cycle lane have also been in the news. The best place to catch up on what we know about this can be found on the google group: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/airevalleybikebus

Bradford Cycling Forum

Following a few adhoc meetings over recent years, it seems a new cycling forum is being born. It met in February and the next meeting is set for: 11th May 1.00pm - 3.00pm, at MAPA next door to Bradford Foyer. 1 Coates Street, West Bowling Bradford BD5 7DL

Contact Chris (info@crank-it-up.org.uk) at CrankItUp for more info.

That's all for this month - hope to see you on the bike soon.

Weather

Well the weather through the end of December and January was pretty tough for cyclists. Some found their journey to work by bike much easier than sitting in the traffic jams - well the mountain bikers that took the tow path did!

Many of us found other ways of getting to work, and that's reflected in our stats over the period.

When the weather changed though, it was great to see so many people out. Were it not for a headwind slowing the main pack we would have seen 9 on the first ride of the year. As it was 2 people rode in, ahead of the pack, together thinking they had missed us.

Lets hope it stays mild!

Big Rides this year

Never too early for cyclists to start thinking about the 'big ride of the year'. We started a thread in our discussion forum: http://ur1.ca/lk0c

Anyone care for 112miles over all 6 Lakeland passes - the Fred Whitton? Or how about one of the rides bikebradford.org.uk has picked up on their Challenge Page: http://www.bikebradford.org.uk/?mastertag=bcycling&tag=challenge?

Cycle Lanes, Traffic, and Repairs

You may have noticed a big increase in the amount of cycle lanes on the route between Keighley and Bradford. On the whole this is a welcome introduction, and highlights our route as a great option for commuting.

The closure of Ireland Bridge for 6 months of repairs, has forced more traffic onto the main road, but it has also slowed it down. Really, it doesn't seem to have affected the bike bus very much, and the cycle lanes up to Cottingly Bar, while not always observed by motorists, are quite useful. (It's a difficult junction, and really a good traffic management solution would be difficult to find...)

Interesting article in the Telegraph and Argus about traffic levels recently:
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4887211.Commuters_hit_by_traffic_nightmare/

We also have discussion at our forum about the Saltaire Roundabout improvements: http://ur1.ca/lk1g

We got wet...

Well a few of us did anyway. In what has to be the wettest day since records began, we finally got a good soaking – well those that cycled from Keighley did anyway. From Saltaire on, the following wind made it seem as though hardly a drop of rain was falling.

Just another day that proves the weather is rarely so bad you couldn't possibly cycle – and another day that showed, actually, even bad weather isn't usually that bad!

Numbers

We're just below double figures most weeks in the morning, which is pretty good. The evening return ride is firmly fixed as a regular trip, although it's usually just a handful of people. Either way, we still have a significant presence on the roads throughout the length of the commute.

Coming up

Join us for mince pies and cycling chat at the Christmas Gathering hosted by Ginny Leonard, the new Cycle Champions co-ordinator, Wednesday 9th December, Salts Sports Association, Saltaire 7pm.

There should be a few cycling projects there, so a good chance to see just what exactly is going on around Bradford for cyclists. There is an sort of online version at: www.bikebradford.org.uk.

Cycling Santas

How about it – December 23rd, tinsel, Santa outfits, and commuters on bikes? Join us in festive lycra for the last bike buses before Christmas. Same time(s) same place(s)

Christmas Break

People are going to work on December 30th as far as I know this year, so the Aire Valley Bike Bus will be running as usual on that day.

The Numbers

The weather was kind to us yet again during October. The traffic was calm during the school half-term holidays, and we saw 4 new riders in the month. Overall, figures are pretty stable with usually around 10 riders on a Wednesday morning, and 4 or so on an evening.

What's really great to see is that one of our regular riders over the last few months has started to 'buddy' a friend to work. While they may not be on the bike bus, there is one more rider on the road, and I often see them looking nice and visible riding along together.

A new short cut?

One of the bike busers (ages ago) alerted us to the little known short cut between Utley and Riddlesden. This route cuts out the 3 major roundabouts from the old road between Croshills and Keighley and the old Keighley to Bingley route via Riddlesden, which many of us will use, not only on the bike bus, but at weekends as well.

Currently, the route is just an unofficial path, with access granted by the council, but no public right of way. It's muddy, and there's evidence that mountain bikes use it, but it wouldn't be much use for my skinny tyres. We've asked Robert Brough to take a look at it. He's the man behind the Airedale Greenway, that was launched in September. (press coverage of the launch here:http://ur1.ca/f0u3)

Early one morning Andy and I took some photos, you can see them here:  http://www.airevalleybikebus.org.uk/image/tid/148

To see where this is on a Google Map, see: http://ur1.ca/f0uo (the area is to the west of Royd Ings Ave, beneath the bypass)

New Sites well recieved

Last month we told you about www.bikebradford.org.uk, a site to bring together everything to do with cycling around Bradford together on the web. Well, it now indexes 67 websites and has an additional page covering PDF leaflets. 

http://hammsters.wordpress.com/ - the home of the Hammsters on the web, has now been updated with all the ride reports that covered the training and for, and the ride to Germany last year.

I give up - we're on Twitter

After trying to avoid Twitter I've finally succumbed and you can now follow the every bike based thought of David Domestique until it drives you mad. The airevalleybikebus web site displays a feed of this drivel, or you can find me at http://twitter.com/DavidDomestique (Twitter), and http://identi.ca/daviddomestique (Identi.ca)

How are we doing?

I was starting to feel slightly disappointed with September, as I was hoping to see numbers shoot through the roof again as people returned to work after the summer, but that hasn't happened.

However, the trend from August is up, and a quick comparison with last year shows that we are slighty up on those figures. We're better off than we were a year ago. We also have a pool of around 50 riders now that have joined us at one time or another, and the 'return' bus regularly has at least 3-4 people riding home.

So all in all, I think we're doing all right! You can always follow how we're doing on our stats page.

Bike Bradford

T'other day I set up www.bikebradford.org.uk - a site to pull everything about cycling in Bradford together in one place. It's simple a collection of links, but each one is 'tagged' so that you can find links based on your interests.

I think there is a big challenge for many of the sites to improve the information they put on the web, so I'm looking at a project to do just that using free and open source software, and cyling techies. If you want to to help out, or know of a resource that we're missing I'd love to hear from you.

Cycle Counting

The Council does regular traffic monitoring of the district's roads and from that they produce figures about cycling in Bradford. We recieved details of what they do, how they do it, and when they do it, as well as the latest figures, thanks to Neil Moore in the Transport and Planning department.

The good news is that the trend is upwards. Full details were posted on our blog under How many cyclists are there?.

I'm interested in any ways we could help get as full a picture as possible of the amount of cycling that takes place locally, so if anyone has any comments or observations I'd be interested to hear.

Lights

..not to mention warmer clothing, gloves etc. Yep, autumn is here, so time to dig out the lights, check the batteries, realise they're not working, buy some more, then buy a spare set, realise that you've got a set of rechargables, dig out the recharger...

Apparently, there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing, and both spring an autumn are times when it can be hard to get it right. Might be just worth slinging the winter gloves in the bag, and maybe an extra layer.

New Sites

A couple of new sites for you to check out that we're looking after - all things cycling in Bradford: www.bikebradford.org.uk, and the new Hammsters Blog: http://hammsters.wordpress.com

A (bike) stitch in time...

During August, 4 of us gathered in a back yard to do a little bike maintenance, just sharing the skills and knowledge we'd gleaned over the miles, the punctures, the tweaks, the disasters and the trouble free riding of the past.

This was the second time we've done this and it's pretty useful and nice to meet 'off the bikes'. If anyone is interested in this kind of thing, get in touch or post your ideas to http://groups.google.co.uk/group/airevalleybikebus

Now where did they get that idea?

Cycle Fridays are a great innovation from Transport for London. It's bit like what we're doing, but also a bit different. Trained cycle leaders guide groups of riders into London on set routes. We've got a few more linkspasted up at:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/airevalleybikebus/browse_thread/thread/649a35c73bb427de

Darwin in Bradford

Those of us that finish the morning ride in Centenary Square, were treated to the sight of a massive Darwin, sculpted from sand. It was really interesting to see it, ahem, evolve over a couple of weeks. Steve managed to get a snap-shot of it, and post it to the Google Group.

You'd have thought...

...August would be a good time to get on your bike, but the Bike Bus saw a drop in all the key statistics. It's a shame really as the roads were nice and quiet, but when you think about it, people were on holiday, and actually - what better time to drive! It's the one time of the year when car journeys take the 'normal' amount of time. Of course you'd have missed the great weather, the conversation, the exercise, etc, but it's understandable.

Apparently if we all made our commute by alternative means just ONE day a week, we would have holiday traffic levels all the time.

As everyone starts back at work, we expect to see the numbers on the Bike Bus climb again. 

Leeds - Bradford

Don't forget, there's always the  A647 Bike Bus for those of you coming to Bradford from Leeds. More info:
http://www.airevalleybikebus.org.uk/a647