Category: Ride

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!

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!

It was a very sunny ride today in Reading, with more than 40 riders of all ages, who could enjoy our latest addition to the fun: bubble machines! 🫧🫧🫧
We also had a lot of fun after the ride, as well as a few (?) cookies 🍪🍪🍪

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!

We had a very wet, but very well attended ride today, with more than 50 people of all ages joining us for a bike ride from the Palmer Park. Look at these smiles!

We had a very cold but very successful ride today around the University of Reading campus today, with 50-ish brave people joining us. Gloves and woolly hats were de rigueur!

We had several falls when joining the bike lane on Shinfield road. The kerb is slightly raised there, enough to destabilise those with small wheels and little experience. We’ll have to be careful about this part next time.

Otherwise, it was a quiet and pleasant ride, as the campus is mostly empty of four-wheelers. There’s not many photos from the ride itself this time — have you every tried taking pictures with gloves? 🙂

The ride was be followed by our Annual General Meeting, at 4pm at the Park House on the campus, where we discussed what we did in 2024, and what we’re planning to do in 2025. Stay tuned for more!

We had an amazing Christmas-themed ride in Wokingham yesterday. Bells, tinsels and antlers on helmets.
Oh, and guess who turned up on his bike? 🎅