A lot of women stop cycling when the days get shorter, because they don’t feel safe. To raise awareness for infrastructure that are well lit, we had a very joyful “Light up the Night” ride on Friday evening. Nearly 40 of us, all decorated with colourful lights, rode in town, from the Lido to the Fisherman’s Cottage.
At one point, an ambulance came past the group, after it got stuck behind cars. We were able to quickly and safely go into single file, ensuring it could reach whoever needed help as quickly as possible. And that’s yet another way cycling saves life!
We were 25 brave riders gathering today at Cantley Park in Wokingham. It was a different route than our usual one. And we got just a little bit wet 🌧️
The next one is in Reading on Sun 26th November from the Lido, and the following one in Wokingham will be on Sat 16th December. And they may have a theme 🎅
Kidical Mass was back in Wokingham today, for what must be the sunniest and warmest mid-October ride on record. We welcomed lots of new riders for the first time and had a gorgeous ride around our town, enjoying the sun and the company.
Special mention to our Kidical Mass veteran, soon to have his fourth birthday, who celebrated by riding the whole route on his own for the first time.
Scrumptious home baked cakes at the end worthy of a Hollywood Handshake, though ice lollies might have also gone down well.
We are back again in just 3 weeks, this time meeting at Cantley Park for a different route. We can’t promise the same weather, but will look forward to seeing you all and more.
Today was a very joyful (and dry!) ride from Palmer Park to Forbury Gardens in Reading. It was also a Kidical Mass Action Day globally, with 500 similar rides organised all over the world. Did you miss it? Don’t worry there’s always the next one!
We’ve always been lucky with the weather. But today we were very lucky! There was a thunderstorm alert for the whole day, and indeed, we had a nice show of lightning and thunder in the morning, with pouring rain. And we had showers after the ride. But during the ride itself, the sun was shining nicely. Would the planet try to encourage us, there? 🌍
We were about 40 cyclists today, with quite a few new faces. Especially a 4 year old, with pink crocs, pink helmet and a lot of determination! She had just learnt to cycle, and was training for an upcoming commute to school in September. With her tiny wheels, tiny legs and being still a bit wobbly, she had to work harder than everyone else, but she pedalled on, and was very happy to cross the finish line! 🏆
We also had (I think) our very first flat tyre incident… But a providential pump appeared, some air was pumped, and we were able to continue our ride. Everyone safely reached the cakes — thank you Natalie for these! 🧁
After the ride, we had a few requests for a longer route. We will have a think about it. This would require more marshals. But we are happy that people want more, and we will record that as a success! 🎉
The Kidical Mass rides are taking a break for the holidays. We will see you for our next ones: Sun 10/09 in Reading, and Sat 07/10 in Wokingham. However… we have a lot of ideas for new articles, so come back here soon for more. And have a good cycling summer! 🚲
We were 45 cyclists of all ages this morning in Wokingham, under a beautiful sunshine, as part of the Wokingham Bikethon. Everyone enjoyed the ride, as the video and photos can attest.
A hot and sunny weather for our ride today, but the breeze kept the 30 of us in shape, and we all arrived safely at the Reading Climate Festival in Forbury Gardens.
A few months ago, the lovely Tina from Dee Caf Community Cafe reached out to Kat Heath, our intrepid leader. To start with I got most of these conversations second hand, and there was clearly a level of escalation to them.
Tina was considering getting a cargo bike for the business.
She had one, but had some questions about it.
Tina LOVED her bike and wanted to run a Kidical Mass Ride from Dee Caf. Could we help?
Well, the answer to that was a resounding yes, though there was a bit of groundwork to be done on finding a suitable route! It was a challenge to avoid busy roads and steep hills whilst still being on routes suitable for a big group of cyclists with some rather large bikes.
It was a delight to turn up to the ride and find a really good turnout from the Dee Caf community – there were 35 riders there, almost all new to the rides. The “Kidical Mass regulars” were not many more than the team who helped organise the ride. Tina led the ride on her big business bike, and clearly personally knew most of the families there.
Tina had also invited Mayor Rachel Eden and the Mayor’s Escort (Councillor Richard Davies), and they not only came but also rode with us. I did have a moment of confusion just after the ride had started when someone radioed through that there was a delay because the Mayor had lost her chain.
“How did she manage that?” I asked, thinking it had looked pretty secure round her neck – and was told that it was not the ceremonial chain but her bike chain. She got it back on herself (a feat I’m impressed by, my strategy for bike mechanical failures is to make my other half fix them).
Cllr Davies regularly uses his bike to get around town. I was able to have a pretty detailed conversation after the ride about the issues I see around cycling access from Caversham to the new secondary school being built by Rivermeads. I think he really understood my concerns – it does make a difference when our elected representatives are themselves users of cycling infrastructure.
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After the ride Dee Caf kindly offered free cake and juice to everyone, and the kids set to work with chalk brightening up the pavement with artwork and several hopscotches. It was really special to feel that the ride was built around an already existing community, and to have the hub for that community as the start and end of the ride.
The children seemed to enjoy the ride – several of the families asked when the next one would be. Dee Caf is on the other side of Reading to most of our usual volunteers. We will need some locals to help marshal if we are going to run rides there regularly. Do let Dee Caf know if you’re keen to help – no prior experience required.
Finally, it took me most of the way through this article to realise that Dee Caf is in fact a play on the term decaf. I hope you were a bit quicker on the uptake than me!
A very nice ride today, with 55 people enjoying a bit of sunshine on this rainy, coronation weekend. Here are some picture with a lot of bikes, and just as many smiles!
