Last ride was definitely quality over quantity, as we had our smallest ever ride in terms of attendees. With forecast torrential rain (which thankfully held off) and the cancellation of the Wokingham ride (which seemed to confuse social media) it’s understandable that this could happen. However, we were grateful to the ten hardy souls who turned up to the ride, ready to once again have fun on a bike whilst asking for cycling infrastructure that is safe for Reading’s children.
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Given the promised rain we’d planned the route to run from Palmer Park along the Kennet to the Reading Bike Hub. With our youngest attendee on a tandem we were able to move pretty quickly. Our policy on speed is that we move at the pace of the slowest rider. Organisers and marshals carry radios and one of my jobs as back marker is to let the ride leader (my husband Simon) know if the pace isn’t right. We usually move at around 8kph but with the youngest solo rider being our own Mr 6, we were easily cruising at double that.
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One of the amazing things about Kidical Mass has been seeing our boys’ stamina and confidence on their bikes really grow. Being back at Palmer Park, where we ran the first Kidical Mass ride from, reminded me of how excited our boys were the first time they rode on the road as part of a ride. Yesterday, not only did they do the ride, they also arrived on their own bikes to the start and rode away on them at the end.
Month on month, what the boys can do on their bikes (rather than a tandem or cargo bike) expands. Mr 9 has ridden his own bike to Henley and back a few times now. Recently we’ve acquired a follow-me-tandem which allows us to easily hitch and unhitch Mr 6’s bike to my husband’s bike (i.e. temporarily turning it into a tandem). This has meant that in the (time pressured) mornings on the (uphill) ride to school he can be towed on his own bike. This gives him the option to ride at least part of the way home independently in the evenings. As ever, the reason he can’t ride all of it on his own is because of the safety of the infrastructure – we still need Kidical Mass!
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With Sunday’s ride being Halloween themed we had bought along some trick-or-treat sweets to share with the riders, who also enjoyed passing them out to the mechanics working at the hub.
The bike hub is on Duke Street, in what was the old Mothercare unit. It’s a very large shop and there’s a cycling track taped out on the floor at the back of the shop. It’s free to use whenever the hub is open and is the perfect (large, dry, heated, indoor) space for an aspiring balance biker to practice their skills. However, it seems to attract larger children too – or certainly it pulled mine in, they spent longer riding the course than they had on the actual Kidical Mass ride! No complaints here as it let the grown ups sit on the (comfy) sofas and drink coffee from one of the nearby shops whilst we planned the next ride.
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Our Christmas ride will be on 7 Dec at 1pm from Thames Lido. It’s always a very jolly occasion and I’m told that riding with Reading’s Kidical Mass children is a highlight of Santa’s year – he hopes to see you there!