Kidical Mass Reading
The Kidical Mass marshals organised a family ride at the Wokingham Bikeathon, which was immensely successful!
We counted around 138 bikes at the beginning, and 100 towards the end. Smaller bikers could stop after 1 mile or 2 miles, but most people chose to stay for the whole 4 miles.
The unpredictable weather probably didn’t help, but there were still 20 of us cycling in Reading this afternoon. The only water we had was the fountain at Huntley Wharf – although no kid was brave enough to cycle through it. And for the first time, thanks to the shortened barrier on Chestnut Walk, we didn’t have to bring the ramps! See a few pictures of the event below.
Our last ride before the summer recess is at the Wokingham Bikeathon – see details on Facebook. See you there!
Nearly 70 people joined Kidical Mass Reading’s Spring ride on a beautiful day at the University of Reading’s Community Festival. We love the university campus which has many bike paths that are completely separate from traffic – we recommend it to any family with young children looking for a place for a weekend ride.
On the surrounding roads we were particularly pleased with the drop curb coming out of the university onto the Shinfield Road bike lane. We asked the council to add this after some of our smallest riders found the turn difficult last year. In other changes that have come from Kidical Mass’s campaigning in Reading the boom barrier blocking cars at the bottom of Chestnut Walk by the Abbey Ruins has been shortened to allow a bike to pass by, creating a lovely traffic free route into town along the river. Everyone who joins our rides helps amplify our voice when asking for these changes – we are especially grateful to the marshals who help keep our smallest riders safe on the roads.
We were really glad that four councillors came along for May’s ride to see firsthand what children need to be safe on a bike. Thank you to Will Cross (Labour), Louise Keane and Kat McCann (Greens) and Al Neal (Lib Dems, Mayor of Earley Town and longtime friend of Kidical Mass). We were also delighted to be joined by many of our skating friends associated with the Bike Hub – Kidical Mass is for everyone using wheel-based alternatives to cars! If you’re interested in taking up skating please contact Late Skates.
We will be running family friendly rides on 7th June and from Reading Cycle Festival on 13th September – we’d love to see you there!
Today was our shortest ride ever, from Palmer Park to the Reading Bike Hub in town centre, because the weather was supposed to be very 🌧️🌧️🌧️ It was not that bad actually, so we enjoyed it!
The weather was not supposed to be pleasant today at the Reading Cycle Festival: yellow warning of wind and heavy rain… Yet, the downpour held off just enough for our 60 riders to finish a very nice ride dry. Phew!
We had a great ride this Saturday, as part of the Earley Green Fair. It was a new route for us, so we were a bit nervous and we didn’t advertise it as much as usual. Also, many people are away at this time. Still, we had at least 20 riders joining us to cycle across Earley. We were mostly on paths shared with pedestrians, protected from traffic.
The main issue we had was crossing these barriers, which are designed mostly to prevent motor traffic on these paths, but are also quite effective at annoying big cargo bikes! We had to choose our route accordingly, and it was still painful – see below.
Borough councillors were notified, and told us the issue was being looked at.
The other issue we had was a puncture 🙁 I think it was the first one we ever had on these rides. Unfortunately it was on the big cargo bike, which had to be pushed to the finish line.
However, the rest of the crew managed to the end without trouble, following the trail of bubbles left by the bubble-blowing machine, which we now carry everywhere. Look at these happy people on the pictures below!
Kidical Mass is now on leave for the summer, but we will see you at our next ride, on Sunday 14 September at 1:00pm, leaving from the Reading Cycle Festival on Christchurch Meadow.
Have a great cycling summer!
We had nearly 50 cyclists today, on our ride in collaboration with the Wokingham Bikeathon. With 8 km / 5 miles, it was one of our longest routes, but there was a shortcut towards the end, for riders with tired legs. Most chose the longer way, though!
We had a very sunny ride today, which was part of the Community Festival at the Reading University campus. There were about 40 of us at the beginning, but we recruited a few more on the way and ended up being 50. We also had a surprise guest you may well recognise on the pictures!
