Sutton Bank MTB trails

I got out with the family at the weekend to the trails at the top of Sutton Bank. Park up by the visitors centre at the top of the hill and there is a new shop Sutton Bank Bikes. Take some change for the parking meters it's four quid and you can't use a card, I ended up parking down on the road but there are only a few spots.

You can hire bikes, we had our own but if you need them there is a good choice of sizes and kids bikes and tagalongs too. We rode the green trail and a bit of the blue. A trial map is a quid and it's a good one. There is a longer red trail that might be a little more involved, word is it is still pretty steady. We rode maybe 6 miles or so though the woods on some nice prepared trials and then over the road with a slight pull uphill that had my youngest whinging on bridleways. This before before the payback of a beautiful view over the escarpment and apparently the whole world as your ride back along the path on the very edge of the ridge. Then zoom down hill though some swooping corners back to the centre. A good cafe and a skills loop to warm up at the back of the shop with a bike wash, what is not to like. Not for your full susser downhill types, but a cracking family day out. Reccomended

Who wants to be famous?

Just got this sent my way

From: "liz stainthorpe" <liz.stainthorpe@hotmail.co.uk>
To:
Subject: Brief - cyclists Video Shoot - Alistair Griffin - Tuesday 15th April

Hoping you and your cycling pals may be able to help. We are shooting the music video to accompany "The Road" next week just outside Leeds and need some cyclists as extras. Hoping you might be able to add to my numbers. We need 20-25 people.]

Here are the details for the video shoot. I have attached a basic outline of the video and some references for the era/style of the shoot.It's very "classic". These pics are what Alistair will be wearing so are reference only.Please do come back to me with any questions.I should have the exact location and timings later this week.

Cheers. Any questions please give me a callSpeak soonKind RegardsLiz07967 327709
Project: Be part of "The Road" video shoot - the official song of the Grand Depart featuring Alistair GriffinDate: Tuesday 15th AprilTime: daytime - probably 3 hours max. Arrival time @1:30pmLocation: TBC probably Otley/Harrogate area. Scargill ReservoirWe are looking for approximately 20 to 25 cyclists. Minimum 20Mixture of men and womenAged 20-40

Styling: Specifically not dressed as professional cyclists… i.e. no lycra, everyday clothes. think more spring/summer than winter they need to look as though they are out on a casual Sunday ride through the countryside. Civilian clothes, not cycling clothes.Please see the attached images for the style of the characters in the videoWardrobe - Colours - must be Grey, Brown, Black, Off white. No strong colours. Natural colours. Nothing garish. Bring some options. smart/casual rather than formal but nothing too ill fitting. We can help with this with some references at a later date if anyone is unsure.Bikes - mixture of styles and types - if you have any less "techy" bikes please bring thoseRequirement: to cycle in a group along a country road past the singers, parting either side of the singers as you pass them

Make your own way there No fee An artist waiver form will need to be signed as well as a confidentiality agreement No photography/tweeting/social media posting allowed on the day (sorry)Amazing experience on the set of the video for the official theme of Yorkshire's Grand Depart
Contact details: liz.stainthorpe@hotmail.co.ukIf you have any questions please call Liz on 07967 327709If yes, please send your name and contact details - email address, daytime telephone number:Thanks!

Liz

It's not about the bike - Nidd Valley Road Runners

I haven't been riding my bike much recently. I was a bike commuter for 6 years but a change of job means lugging tools around rather than pedalling. What cycling I have been doing has been with my kids and as a family. The kids are mad for it, I suppose we will be doing loads more.

So to close my activity gap, I have been doing a bit of running. To lose a bit of weight and to improve my climbing grade. Climbing has always been my one true exercise love and I guess it always will be. It engages your brain as much as your body, think of it as outdoor chess, with pull-ups. It has gotten me to places few have been and I have a lifetime's worth of memories already. I write on a climbing blog here if you want more about that game. Running though makes you feel off the scale good, even when your pavement pounding near your backdoor. It turns out your bodies own endorphins produce a better high than any chemical you could ever put into your body, who knew?

I re-started running after a long break as Mrs Cycle Harrogate had caught the bug, joined a club and it's something we can do together when we get the chance.

She joined Nidd Valley Road Runners and Saturday night was their annual dinner at Harrogate Golf Club. I expected a load of young emaciated stick insects talking about times and PB's that would bring me out in a cold sweat. I was very wrong. At 45 I was one of the younger ones there and there were all shapes and sizes. Everyone did talk times actually, runners do but I was expecting to feel chronologically inadequate and I really didn't.

I got taking to a guy in his late 70's. he had done 26 marathons and didn't start running until he was 40. His marathon personal best was 3 hours 17 minutes which is proper good and he posted it when he was 56. He talked about a Berlin Marathon in the early 80's when the wall was still up and about  sneaking behind the East German side the day after as he had connections. He had a twinkle in his eyes and he still puts in the miles every week. I hope I'm half as vital when I'm his age, I might just look forward to my old age if he can be my inspiration.

His wife was near by, she has a terminal cancer diagnosis, but she was there amongst friends and seemed to be loved by one and all. I thought when she is gone the guy would have this club, a place to be amongst like minded people and although he looked a bit scared, his future looked a dam sight better than a comfy but bleak and lonely chair in a nursing home, which will be many of our fates.

I got nattering to a guy who had just done his first marathon. A year after he started doing the excellent Harrrogate Park Run. A 5K challenge on the Stray 9am every Saturday. There are over 300  of these across the UK. We did one down in Nottingham after a gig last month. Me with a medium sized hangover, still good fun. A new one has just started at Fountains Abbey which would be a cool place to spend a Saturday morning. We talked Park Run times (runners do), he was a tad slower than me, but I could no more run a marathon than I could free Syria, respect. If you have never park ran you should. Its free, register online and simply turn up. There are all shapes and sizes there too. I sound like I'm on commission, I'm not.

What shone thorough from the whole evening at the golf club was the, lets call it shared, individual endeavour. Everyone was competing but against themselves and they were doing it as a group, mutually supportive and having fun. The exercise will keep them alive a lot longer than clean living and self denial and its all free at point of use. We need more of these type of clubs in Harrogate. We are an ageing population and we need to get people moving if we are to impact on our stroke and heart disease rates. They have a junior section which has just started. When I have finished brainwashing my kids into the joys of mountain biking, camping, climbing and the outdoors. I might try and get them doing a bit of running with this lot, they could do worse.

Mint - Moutainbiking in Timble Woods

I took my kids to Swinsty/Fewston today to ride the new'ish Yorkshire Water Moutainbike trial.
One 8 year old and one 5 and a half. I wasn't sure if it would work out, but work out it did. You park in the car park by the dam, bizarrely there is a separate car park 50 metres away for horses and bikes, to protect who from who I'm not sure.

Come out of the car park take a right down the minor road to the junction at the other car park. Then head left and pick up the bridleway at the bottom of the short hill and follow it along through a gate. When you come to the woods and a junction, head left uphill toward the road. You will see the bike signs stencilled on the trees and a track heading off right, that's the one you want.

Or ride uphill  on the road from the car park and you will see a gate on your right after maybe 500m that's pretty much the same place. I wanted to get the kids away from the traffic so we went via the trails.

The first few hundred metres where really muddy in places, we had to push a fair bit. At one stage I was carrying two bikes, so the kids could wade though. It will be drier in a few weeks. As you get toward the top of the wood the path levels out and the fun starts. It's  the best part of a Km downhill not too steep with whoops and berms, drops offs and a few jumps which are all avoidable via "chicken runs". My youngest avoided most everything and still had a ball. The eldest whizzed off till he got to far ahead and waited, but he had a grin like an inflated frog when we caught him up. The last section was best of all.  Tree trunk balances some huge rocks to avoid or take on and a nice section of big ramps with lines of varying difficulty depending on your skill level. I bottomed out my front fork a few times, it's been a while.

We headed back to the car park, the kids were jabbering like the Jabba the Hutt and singing "everything is awesome". You know what? For an hour or so in a wood on the banks of the Washburn Valley, they were spot on.

There are loads more trails in the area we didn't ride them but you could probably put a longer fun loop together. A few years back I got onto Blubberhouses moor and came down the old road on Kex Gill that was a nice ride too if your young, fit and keen.

Here is a bit of a sketch map based  on Yorkshire Waters Image which is a bit of a shocker to read on their webpage as it rotated in a daft way, and the description is a bit crap too. Hope this helps as this deserves more riders, I rated it.

The Curious incident of the Frox in the spotlight

Recently and curiously in Harrogate, a local shop puts out a sign saying you can park in the cycle lane. Twitter and Facebook go ballistic with righteous fury, the press get involved as does the national cycle media. The shop issues an apology.

Except there were a few more things going on here if you looked. Snooty Frox the shop in question put the sign up and got quite a few bike rider's backs up last weekend. It was picked up on a Saturday morning by Dales Girl on Twitter and by the Monday lunchtime the apology had been issued. So why did the shop think this was ok? Here are my thoughts.

I suspect the shop's customers mainly use cars to get there and the new bit of advisory cycle lane was making parking more difficult. Although there is some adjacent off street parking and a plenty of side street options nearby. It probably never crossed their mind that some of their customers ride bikes too. I heard from a few incensed bike riding customers of theirs who were really annoyed by the decision to put the sign out.

The shop had apparently sought advice over the sign from North Yorkshire Police and Harrogate Borough Council and been told it wasn't illegal. They were right it isn't, but the highway code on advisory cycle lanes says you shouldn't park in them unless it's "unavoidable", whatever that means.

Whatever the story behind the sign, good on Snooty Frox for seeing sense and doing the right thing, they look bigger as a business as a result of their decision, I wish them well.

So Snooty Frox if they were guilty of anything are guilty of seeing cyclists as OTHER (not customers definately) and so making their lives difficult was worth doing if it kept business nice and healthy. From their press release it seems they were miffed at not being consulted over the cycle lane in the first place.

Twitter was fairly quick to condemn the shop over the decision and I was guilty of that too. I suspect they didn't realise how much more dangerous roads become when you have to pull out of the cycle lane, round parked cars and into often quicker moving car traffic. Some of the comments on Twitter though seem just as likely to paint cyclist as separate and other as the actions of the shop. There were people offering the home address of the owner and suggesting graffiti on the sign. I even heard rumour of people suggesting mobbing the shop. I mean they only put a sign out, it's not like they built an elephant trap to catch bikes in the carriageway is it?

The police and the council appear not to have covered themselves in glory either or at least to have changed their minds when confronted with a small media firestorm. Their advice may have been correct to the letter of the law, but it was hard advice to defend morally when vulnerable road users were on the wrong end of their advice. They didn't defend it for long in fairness. I wonder how the original conversations went?

I was surprised and delighted by how many people in Harrogate cared about this and how much social media and the interweb can help speed up the arc of these stories. A few years ago I doubt this one would have got much attention or been resolved in 48hrs. Perhaps I would have got somewhere with a polite behind the scenes softly softly approach rather than the name and shame in public approach?  You know what that's not been my experience at all. If you want biking infrastructure in this town it helps if you shout and get the media involved or nothing happens. That has definately been my experience, that's a pity but it's how things seem to be.

This is after all only a fairly small piece of cycleway, that was argued for locally by activists. The kind of fairly low quality provision you get when there is no strategic plan in place for sustainable transport due to poor local government traffic planning. Planning based on prioritising traffic flow and car use in an increasingly congested urban environment. Local government still seem unable to consider the needs of bike riders at the  design stage and god knows we are asking them to often enough. It's just not in their DNA yet.

So here we are again playing transport ping pong over these issues. People falling into the familiar old roles of driver, businessperson, bike rider and Offended of Harrogate. What we need to do if we are to move on, is to see everyone as people who do all of these things, some of the time. If we give them, us, you an urban environment that makes taking sustainable transport choices easier they will do it more often. Congestion will ease, people will be healthier and if Portland's experience is anything to go by spend at the shops will increase too.

So after this little diversion in the media spotlight. It shines to other parts of the nation's stage again. We as a town will be back in it's relentless glare in July. Expect one or two more of these type of stories before the circus leaves town. For a little while longer, people care about bike riding in Harrogate

Northern Rail fail

Mrs Cycle Harrogate is doing a day a week at the university in York. She likes a bit of learning and she was looking forward to starting.

She had a quick look at where the venue was in York. A bit too far to walk, but only 10 minutes on a bike and York is set up for bikes, she was excited. Then the wheels came off. She would need to get her bike to York on the train. Trouble is you can't just take a bike on the train. Northern Rail will take a massive two bikes but you can't book. So no guarantee you can get your bike on the iron horse. So your journey plans may or may not work. That's pants then, might as well say "We don't do bikes". Then she thought about hiring a Boris bike type thing at the other end, but the scheme in York isn't working yet. Then she looked at a bus at the other end and with the train ticket it was well over a tenner and was going to take another 25 mins on top of the train journey and life is too short, you know?

In the end she gave in and took her car with just one person, bad but perfectly understandable. That's how the roads end up full of nearly empty cars. Because we can't design an integrated public transport system that will let people make sustainable transport decisions. Even when they want to.

I raised this with Northern Rail on twitter and they said they were bound by their franchise and nothing could be done, it was the government's fault. I think they were wrong, I think what they meant was. We have a minimum service guarantee and as we are meeting it to do any more would impact on our profits. Suffice to say in the short term taking a bike to York on a train will be no easier.

 Now dear reader there is talk afoot about electrifying York to Leeds by Andrew Jones MP. That would be great, there would be an enhanced service, more trains. As part of that process if it happens, can we get some bikes on the trains and some WiFi? That would be nice. Rather than the current old skool rolling stock we have. Some of which  I worked on the design of, back in a time when I was still wet behind the ears last century. When people used drawing boards, cars had chokes and two Britain's winning the Tour De France was an impossible dream for fools.

And now in our dreamland we have won the hardest sporting event in the world, twice! Once with a rider who can't really climb all that well, that's amazing. I still get goose bumps thinking about Wiggo leading Cav out on the Champs Elysee. Yet we can't make daily exercise for everybody easy, in a country with a huge obesity and early death from inactive lifestyles problem. That's really pretty poor when you think about it.

Just some paint and a bit of political will - New york builds a better urban environment for little money

Check out this Ted Talk video its by Janette Sadik-Khan. She and her team in New York City have made a huge difference to the Big Apple's transport network with not much more than some paint, some outdoor chairs and a few bollards. They have made some areas of downtown traffic free and added miles of cycle lane. The clever bit is as their changes were all easily reversible, if they didn't work they could paint over the cycle lanes or pedestrianised areas and try something else or somewhere else. A dynamic solution to congestion and traffic management rather than a slow, highly designed solution with the attendant financial risks.

The argument I hear in Harrogate from NYCC Highways is we have no cash. With this way of working you don't need very much you just need the willingness to try. New York has ended up with greater footfall in times square and loads more people riding bikes, that's a genius solution. All in 8 years. Don't take my word for it watch the video.

Surely this is a way to make our towns and cities more bike and pedestrian friendly without scary levels of investment?

Boris in Lincoln - on hire bikes and tourism

I'm just heading home from a city break in Lincoln. I whisked @rachaelprince off for the weekend with no clue if it was a good idea or grounds for divorce.

The news was good, Lincoln has spent its civic money wisely and it's a great place to wander round. The steep hill up to the cathedral which is called Steep Hill, is full of chaotic medieval buildings which are now cafés and high end boutiques or are still pubs. The cathedral itself is worth a look. Even this confirmed atheisist spent a happy hour marvelling at a splendid piece of architecture and it's free on a Sunday god was on our side, oh me of little (well no) faith. 

The museum come art gallery called the Collection. is in a new piece of superb design that would have fitted in well in LA or Barcelona. All acute angles, oak and copper. With a stone cladding to make it fit in nicely with the old buildings. There was loads of stuff and lots of Saxon metalwork which you don't often see. They also had one room with some interesting contemporary artworks on the availability of data in the modern world. I liked the reconstruction of the five day journey of a stolen iPhone recreated from google maps stills running as a film. It covers some ground.

There were loads of great restaurants and cafés and bits of public art dotted about here and there. All in all it reminded me of York, Prague or even Edinburgh. 

I got to thinking what a good job Lincoln did of marketing itself to tourists as a destination. It had spent its money on infrastructure and then there was a really good map tying it all together, everything was on a human scale you could walk across the city in 15 minutes. As a result the streets were buzzing.

Harrogate and Knaresborough where tourism is also a big deal hasn't done as good a job of selling itself I think. If you sold these two towns as a package, Did one big map showing some routes for a day out. I think the weekend break and staycation  market which shows no sign of declining would come running. There is more to Harrogate than Betty's and a winter gardens that's now a pub. We don't seem to sell the package, we sell the parts.

This morning we had an hour before our train so we had a go on Lincoln's version of the Boris bike, which is new to the town. We saw some of the distinctive orange bikes at the station as we arrived and there were some down by the water front where we were staying. Getting two hired was a bit of a faff. Websites and two phone calls and then we were in. They are fairly robust machines with no chain but one rear chain stay holds a shaft drive. In all the faffing with the fairly clunky un-locking interface I didn't do any-more than give mine a once over before I got on it. I realised my mistake as the front tire was pretty soft and it was like pedalling through a soft mud eleven on Tarmac.

Anyway we headed off down the Sustran's route beside the Fossdyke and all was well. Two miles in my left pedal was doing something funky under my foot. I had a look and it had worked loose and the crank thread was on the way out. With no tools to sort it I tried to tighten it by hand,  but it was no good. It all but fell off so I took it off before it got any worse. so I peddled back one footed which was memorable and really hard work. There was also some roughness from the shaft drive which again seemed a bad sign on a nearly new bike. I was missing my own bike and it's lightweight zoomyness.

What of the scheme then? In principle it's great. Bikes you can use day or night for £4 a day. They are heavy though and I want to know who if anyone maintains them? I checked over the other bikes at the station as we left they all seemed in good nick maybe I was just unlucky? Thing is if these bikes are aimed at people who don't ride bikes that much they need to work and despite the efforts of the design to be maintenance free if I'd had a pump and a spanner with me things would have been better. I know there is a theft issue there but there must be a way?

So would I like to see something similar in Harrogate? Well if the teething problems can be ironed out yes. I think they are great for small journeys and you don't have to try and get your bike on the train. Given that our train from Retford to Lincoln was a bus I am glad we didn't try. Sustainable transport still has a way to go in England but at least we seem to be trying. Oh and if you have a partner that needs whisking away you could do worse than whisk towards Lincoln.

Electricity comes to Harrogate - Corcoach Bikes

So when someone got in-touch with me and said would I like to work with them to get more people cycling in Harrogate. As you can imagine I was interested.

Cor Coach bikes have been selling electric bikes down on Waterloo St near the fire station for a year now. On monday I went over for a chat, a coffee and a play on the merchandise.

Two local brothers  Andy and Richard Crawley, who are both keen cyclists and keen on cycling as transport, wanted to start a business selling bikes in Harrogate. Thing is Harrogate has lots of good bikes shops so they looked for a niche and Electric bikes is where they ended up.

I had a chat about with them about what Cycle Harrogate is about  and the local cycling scene and it seems like we have a common interest in getting people moving on two wheels. We may have come up with some ideas on how we could work together more on that later

So what were the bikes like? Well I had a go on two. One a sort of city-bike sit up and beg style number at just under the £1000 mark (so would work on the cycle to work scheme). Firstly they are not as heavy as you imagine despite the battery and the motor in the rear hub, barely different to a "normal" bike. Secondly they don't replace pedalling they assist you, so as you pedal the motor kicks in and without to much drama you are going faster and pedalling with less effort than normal. It was fun and it was easy. I was pleasantly surprised

The Ghost Bike

Range reckons to be  30 to 50 miles it depends how hard you pedal and how many hills there are. Recharge time is three to five hours and 1500 recharges from a battery. With an equivalent cost to a petrol car of roughly 1000 miles to the gallon. If you have a slightly longer commute or you are not the fittest cyclist in the world. One of these could be a way to get on your bike and save yourself lots of money over the running cost of a car, or more likely a second car.

Finally I had a go on £1800 pounds worth of Ghost bike a mountain bike with a motor and a drinks bottle shaped battery. It was lighter with a battery than my own bike is without and it was a real blast you could have some serious fun on one of these.

All in all an interesting trip and food for thought.

Will wearing a bike helmet save your life

These are my children's heads unsurprisingly I want to do everything I can to protect them.

I got to debating helmets yesterday with Richard from the excellent Ride Harrogate on the back of this Telegraph article. "It's a no-brainier and common sense," says Richard "helmets protect your head, it should be law to wear one."

At face value it seems obvious protect your head and live longer. Lord Bradley Wiggins of Modshire is calling for a helmet law too.

But do helmets actually work and would a law save lives? 

I'm an evidence boy,  I'm cynical and I don't often believe the hype, so lets look at some data . Dr Ben Goldacre if you don't know, is an epidemiologist and  a real life nerd god. He wrote the excellent Bad Science and Bad Pharma books. One basically amongst other things,  rubbishing Dr Gillian Mckeith or to give her, her full name Gillian McKeith and the other pointing out that the international drugs trade has  harmed quite a lot of people unnecessarily, often for money. He is the real thing, he is a welcome research fellow, he knows his stuff.

Ben does fact, he doesn't do common sense and he can pull facts, or at least strong statistical probability out of a research study and make me get it better than anyone I know. A while back I got him chatting on twitter as he rides a bike a bit. He said he thought the data on the benefits of helmet use was unclear but he didn't have the time to look into it as he had a book to finish. 

Later he found the time and he wrote this. It's a review of the evidence on helmet legislation and its effect on bike riders. There are quite a few studies out there of variable quality, read Bad Science if you want to know why some research is better than some of the rest. The best study in Canada showed that a helmet law had "no effect" on cyclist mortality. This seems to be contradicted by studies that show helmets reduce head injuries. Although these studies have some problems with how they were carried out.

The big concern with a helmet law is the so called second round effect. You put a law in place that says wear a helmet and as a result  less people cycle, because wearing a helmet is a faff and these now inactive people die of heart disease and stroke. Woops, unintended consequence.

See  my post on the risks of sitting on your bum versus being active and how your nice "safe" sofa may be killing you. In Holland injury and death rates for cyclists are relatively, very low. Hardly anyone wears a helmet  they do have excellent infrastructure though, so traffic and bikes are often separated.

So that's why I'm against a law because based on the evidence I don't think it will save lives and I don't want to infringe people's freedom unless I can see a significant provable benefit. Now the weird bit. I usually wear a hat, not always but often. It makes me feel safer. I make my kids wear hats. It might save our lives and I have bought them now, so better to stick them on our heads than leave them in the kitchen.

To be honest though writing a cycling blog, lobbying local government, getting more people cycling, prioritising  infrastructure. These things seem looking at all the evidence, way more likely to save my life than wearing a helmet. I appreciate some people have very strong opinions about this but here are two quotes from Mr Goldacre worth remembering.

"You have the right to your own opinions, but not your own facts."

"I think you will find it's a bit more complicated than that."

Harrogate Hospital promote Cycling - Rejoice

I spent my lunchtime in the restaurant at  Harrogate Hospital yesterday. The HR department at the hospital have put together a leaflet with a bit of input from Cycle Harrogate. It details the cycle facilities on offer for bike riders at the hospital and gives some advice on commuting to work in Harrogate. Katy Ward and Craig from HR were there to promote the cyclescheme. This if you don't know is the government backed initiative where you can get a bike, pay for it over a year and not pay any tax or national insurance on the purchase. Basically you get a bike for a third off, more if you pay top rate tax.

I was a little apprehensive that we would spend two hours talking to no one. I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a long stream of people interested in the scheme, a few people after advice on bike parking and a few folk wanting some cycle training. I think we managed to help everyone out.

A couple of issues that did come out of all of this was that there are is not enough cycle parking at the hospital. People were complaining about struggling to get anywhere to put their bikes. Katy took this issue back with her. Lets see if anything can be done.

overflowing cycle parking

Secondly there where quite a few people who didn't know that their daily commute was right by traffic free cycleways and they were put off commuting because they thought they would have to cycle down busy roads.

In the short term I am going to make sure Katy knows about my Cycle Harrogate app and map. Hopefully sometime this financial year we will have North Yorkshire County Councils much needed improved signage and online map.

So well done to the Hospital for taking up the gauntlet Cycle Harrogate threw down this time last year. They have more than risen to the challenge. Its great to see Harrogate's largest employer doing its bit for health promotion amongst its staff. It would be good to get some of the town's other large employers doing the same if they aren't already. It looks like these events may be happening a little more often going forward and we are looking at ways to build on this excellent start.

Councillors talk to Cyclists, Money to be spent - Rejoice

Via twitter I got in touch with councillor Jim Clark about the total lack of consultation by North Yorkshire County Council over the money to be spent on cycling infrastructure over the next two years in Harrogate (LSTF). He put me in touch with Rebecca Burnett who works for Andrew Jones MP, she  has been a BIG HELP moving things forward. We had been trying to get a response from Council Officers in transport for over six months and we got platitudes and commitments that were never kept.

Rebbeca has now put me and local cycle activists in touch with Councillor Richard Cooper who is chair of the LSTF steering committee and he has let us have a look at the proposals for the spending. The proposals look good we have one or two comments and we will be feeding this back in a day or two. I will not bore you with specifics right now, but I will bore you at some length over the next couple of years in future posts I'm sure.

The committee meets for the first time on Thursday and it is nice to feel that we have been included in the process and hopefully can contribute to infrastructure developement for all bike riders in Harrogate. More importantly I hope we can build on the relationships we have built with local government so that cycle infrastructure in Harrogate meets the needs of Harrogate cyclists going forward.

Skipton Road slow, slow. Slow slow slow

There was a news story recently that named Skipton Road in Harrogate was one of the most congested roads in the UK outside London. If you use the road you will know that it is pretty busy in rush hour to say the least. Chris Lee from RAM tracking who carried out the study got in touch recently. Here in a guest post he explains how they did the study and he also includes some resources you might find useful.

I recently worked with RAM Tracking to help put together a study that Cycle Harrogate tweeted about recently. The study looked at the most congested non-motorway roads in the UK during rush hour in February this year, and the findings are shown on the interactive map at the bottom:

Since being carried out, this study has attracted media attention from several news outlets, from local publications like the Yorkshire Post and Harrogate News, to nationwide publications like LBC, ITV, and the Daily Mail. I thought I’d write a little bit about how it was carried out, to contextualise the findings.
The large data set of all GPS records from vehicles using RAM’s trackers was compiled for February this year. That was around half a million data points.
A filter was applied so that only records collected between 8 and 9am were shown. This was the rush hour data.
Another filter was applied that added records collected between 11 and 12 noon to be shown as well. This was the comparison data.
The data was then sorted by road, and the roads were calculated which suffered the greatest reduction in speed during rush hour.
The 10 roads found in the final step were added to the map above, along with information about their average speeds. This obviously generated interest – some people attempted to discredit the findings, others found the locations of the roads very interesting (especially in places like Harrogate!). Personally, the study reaffirmed my decision to be a cycling commuter! It’s a nice feeling being able to dodge the traffic jams, although it does annoy me when I see other cyclists jump red lights as if the rules don’t apply to them.
I thought I’d finish with a few resources that can be helpful for planning a cycling commute:
MapMyRide: A website which allows you to record and track the rides you’ve done. You can either enter them manually, or use the MapMyRide app to record them for you via GPS. It’s nice to be able to look over the amount of distance you’ve covered!
 
The Cycle to Work Scheme: this is a scheme offered by many employers, which allows you to purchase a tax free bike and pay it back from your wages over an agreed period of time. It’s great for people who want to cycle but are put off by the initial investment
And possibly my favourite: this one has saved my skin numerous times!

Here is Ram Tracking's map

and here is the original on the RAM Tracking website

Family cycling in Grizedale forest

We camped over in Hawkshead in the Lakes at the weekend and we took the bikes. On Saturday we went to the cycle hire place at Grizedale forest and hired a tag-a-long to get our youngest mobile.

We picked a nice easy route of maybe 9 miles and set off. We rode the purple dots on the map on the left. The cycling was on forest tracks and the first climb up for maybe half an hour or so was steep in places. Steeper if you were towing a four year old who worked out pretty quickly that his dad couldn't see if he was peddling or not.

We were with another family and it was their first time on mountain bikes off road I suspect. There was some swearing, some muttering at "gears" and some glum, pale, grim faces. By the time we stopped for sweets there was that "leave me with the gun you go on" look from Mr Other Family.

The sweets worked and by lunch we were well up the side of the valley at Moor Top. Its was cold in the thin cloud but with some cheese butties inside we were all a bit more perky, so we zoomed round the fun blue loop in half an hour or so. It was all little hills and little descents if you kept the bike moving it was more roller-coaster than road.

The afternoon was spend whizzing down the other side of the valley getting rid of all the height we had put on in the morning. You got views down to the valley floor in between gaps in the trees and a deer lept across our path to add a touch of the exotic to the day.

The two older boys had a ball, there were many grins and behind me all I could hear from my youngest was "Faster, faster." I was trying to provide the best high quality adrenaline experience, without dropping the bike and turning him off cycling for life. It worked and my wrists will stop aching soon.

Mrs Cycle Harrogate was all grins too and having just got rid of her last mountain bike for her current city bike, she is now shopping for a replacement once more. Mrs Other Family was secretly having the time of her life but was finding the saddle on her bike a little unfriendly. We zoomed on finally descending steeply to Bogle Crag were we picked the road up and followed it back to the start.

We were back at the visitors centre in about 3 hours from setting off, after as good a days cycling as I have had since I got to blast some trails in California,  long before children were even a vague idea.

So if you are looking for some family friendly cycling and you find your self that side of the Pennines you could do much worse. We are going to have a look at Dalby Forest next and I'm hoping for as good a day.

All hail the Nidderdale Greenway - Traffic free cycling from Harrogate to Ripley

We managed to get out as a family today on the recently opened Nidderdale Greenway, Sustrans's excellent new cycle route from Harrogate to Ripley via the old Railway line.

It was fantastic we rode for about 40 mins steadily zooming along on what was today a very busy cycle way. Its is Sustran's usual quality provision and to be honest they didn't have too much to do for most of the way. As the railway route is pretty good quality. Its lovely as it goes over the Nidd Viaduct. As you get out toward Ripley it bobs and weaves a bit through the trees by the banks of the river and then takes you over the main road and across a field and right into Ripley itself.

I made it around about 4 and half miles from Starbeck. We started at the top of the Avenue and I reckon maybe a shade less if you got on at the bottom end of the Asda car park in Harrogate town.

There were lots of people on bikes and loads of people just out for a stroll or walking with their dogs. Everyone rubbing along together and all getting some exercise in a nice car free environment, genius.

I only got one negative comment from another bike rider who said "There are too many ignorant pedestrians around." I thought there was one to many ignorant cyclists.  I wish I'd had the thought quicker I would have told him.

We stopped for ice cream in Ripley (I still don't know what all the fuss is about Ripley ice cream is? Its nothing special). This was a questionably stupid decision as the east wind was now blowing and it, coupled with the ice cream cooled us all down just enough to make the journey back into the headwind a little bit of an endurance test. My four year old was pretty cold by the time we got back but the eldest had done his longest ever cycle ride starting and finishing at his house, brilliant.

All in all a grand day out. Myself and Mrs Cycle Harrogate were eye-ing up the Boars Head whilst we munched ice cream. The next time we get an evening out, it looks like beer and bikes and if you go to the Gardener's Arms on Bilton Lane a mini pub crawl seems possible.

Here are a couple more sketch maps of the route showing where to get on and off the trail

Reach for the Sky - British Cycling get involved in Harrogate

Sky Rides are coming to Harrogate these are recreational rides to get more people cycling. They are organised by British Cycling the people behind the success of our world beating olympic cyclists, Mark Cavendish and Sir Bradley Wiggins. There will be a lot more news about these over the next year but for now. If you want to get involved with the whole setup and run some rides you can?

I just got this from Jo Armstrong at Harrogate Borough Council...

Sky Ride Local is coming to North Yorkshire in 2013 and we’re looking for confident recreational cyclists to train as Ride Leaders and Route Planners. You don’t need to be a cycling expert, just be confident riding in groups and have heaps of enthusiasm.

Our Ride Leaders are friendly, confident, chatty individuals who love encouraging others and are happy to operate as one member of a team. If this sounds like you then keep reading.
The British Cycling assessed one-day course qualifies you to deliver led rides for groups of beginners and intermediate level adults and accompanied children.

In North Yorkshire we currently have Sky Ride leader training courses scheduled on:
14th April - York
18th May – Harrogate
22nd June - York

To get involved, get in touch with us at skyride@britishcycling.org.uk and tell us where you live, postcode, a little about yourself, why you would make a great Ride Leader and if you hold a valid first aid certificate.

For more information visit: http://www.goskyride.com/News/ShowArticle/Fancy-training-to-be-a-British-Cycling-Ride-Leader?retURL=/News

Jo Armstrong
Sport and Play Development Officer
Harrogate Borough Council
Department of Development Services
Culture, Tourism & Sports
E-mail: joanne.armstrong@harrogate.gov.uk

Harrogate Hospital begin to cuddle cyclists

A good meeting today with Liz Pugh from Harrogate Hospital Trust. We had a chat about what we could do to help each other get more staff from the hospital cycling. Oh I and I had a mild dig at their relatively unambitious travel plan for cyclists. Here's what we came up with.

• We will work together to make a leaflet to promote cycling to hospital staff. It will contain info about routes, clubs, the cycle to work scheme and other cycling related info.
• We will have some staff members who are points of contact if people who are thinking about cycling to work. This  so that they have someone they can have a chat with if they have an issues that might be putting them off.
• We will do a joint presentation/open day style event to try and promote the cycle to work scheme and increase take up.
• The Hospital will investigate if they can make some suggested improvements to on site cycle storage and lighting.
• The Hospital will give their support to our campaign to improve cycle infrastructure on the Knaresborough Rd. Makes sense they are at one end of it

I have been fairly critical over the last sixth months of the hospital's spectacular  reluctance do to anything tangible to promote cycling. Now they are working with both us and Jo Armstrong from Harrogate Borough Council its  time to lay off them a bit and see if together we can get some staff from Harrogate's biggest employer pedalling.

Guest post from Simon Williams - Cycling in Harrogate

Harrogate is a lovely place to work and live, it’s not too big, it’s not too small, and it’s virtually crime
free. The citizens of the town are pleasant and law abiding, but put them in a car, and the world
seems to change.

I’ve lived and worked in Harrogate over the last 22 years and for the last few years I’ve taken
advantage of a cycle to work scheme through the company I work for. A fantastic scheme, that I
encourage anyone who has the option, to use it.

Obviously the main aim of the scheme is to encourage people to leave the car at home and use the
bike to get to and from work, and for me a journey of 3.5miles is an easy choice, as long as I can get
organised and have work clothes, towel and shower gel to hand at work once I get there!

You would think that travelling 3.5miles through this lovely town would be stress free, pleasant and
leave me full of life when I get to work, but this is not always the case. On the roads of Harrogate,
and I am sure most towns around the country, car users have changed over the years, and quite
frankly made the journey far from safe.

On my own blog site, I recently posted an article about car drivers and the lack of road sense, mainly
around the fact that traffic lights during rush hour times seem to have become meaningless, with
more and more cars not just jumping an amber/red light but actually choosing to follow two or three
other cars through a red light. Add to this, mounting kerbs to get round stationary traffic and parking
on double yellow lines on the corners of roads near schools, and you can see that it’s not the safest
place to be.

Now put yourself on two wheels, with your only protection being a helmet – something I think
should be made a legal requirement for cyclists, but that is another debate!

I lose count of the number of times on my journey, a car will get impatient, revving the engine
before flying past very close, or as you come to go past a junction and you can see a car edging to
get out before you reach it, wondering if this is the one who will knock you off. The relief when I get
to work or back home is immense some days.

The council have tried to make things a bit easier, you can now cycle legally on the stray paths,
though not all of them, of the cycle routes takes you onto Stray Reign and up to a busy roundabout
instead of across another path, but the cycle lanes don’t seem to be a priority, they aren’t in great
numbers or ideal, take the one on Oatlands Drive, which is used for people to park cars so they can
walk their dogs or fly kites!

In summary, I do think the council should look at its cycling provisions and see if anymore can be
done, and car drivers, please don’t rush, set off earlier, take a bit of time, think about cyclists, but I
encourage everyone to get on their bikes and get out in the fresh air, it has health benefits. But be
careful!!

About the Author

Simon Williams is 44 years old, Married with 4 kids, he has lived in Harrogate for 13 years and worked in IT in Harrogate for nearly 22 years. A Former Triathlon, marathon and Ultra marathon participant, now a regular park runner and not regular enough cyclist.

You can catch up with Simon on his blog swcoachblog.wordpress.com

Why Cycling is less risky than not Cycling

Cycle accidents have been in the news this week. Bradley Wiggins had a lucky escape and so did Shane Sutton. The question for me that follows these high profile accidents has to be is cycling dangerous? Turns out the answer is ermm, no not really, and the benefits of the exercise far outweigh the risks of riding the bike. So that's not what we hear is it?

This is an interesting table   if you like me, like data of course, it shows relative risks of death of a few sports and pastimes. Now its a bit out of date (1986) but I'll bet it hasn't changed that much.

	Climbing	137
	Motor sports	81
	Fishing	41
	Horse riding	29
	Swimming	7.0
	Athletics	5.7
	Football	4.9
	Tennis	4.2
	Cycling	1.0
Safer	Golf	0.83
	Rambling	0.06

I'm a climber. I climb about as often as I cycle and I have done both regularly for over 25 years. To be honest I feel safer when I climb than on a bike. Turns out I'm on average 137 times less safe climbing as I am on a bike. I do a few things to minimise the risks when climbing, I generally wear a helmet and I don't free solo many big routes any more, nor do I go on many glaciers but still. I bet I still run way more risks climbing than when cycling.

Here is another table that tries to quantify the risks of death against the benefits of the exercise. This is a bit more of a difficult one. If you are fit already and exercise regularly riding a bike is not going to make you live longer. You will of course do your bit to ease congestion and you may have fun and save on petrol. However if you are sedentary so you  take little or no exercise and you start riding a bike now we are in most definitely in business. The second table shows that the benefits of cycling massively outweigh the risks by somewhere between 13:1 and 35:1 it depends on the data set and I have ignored the report that claims a benefit of 415:1 as that seems plainly daft.

Now to get these benefits it's not enough to own a bike you have to ride it. If you can do half an hour three times a week or ideally five or more you are getting the benefits that the studies above claim. So a 15 minute commute of say a couple of miles would be perfect. You don't by the way need to ride like Wiggins we are talking gentle exercise here. Incidentally being overweight isn't really the problem as long as you exercise regularly. See this marvellous video for a good summary of the studies on the positive effects of exercise.

So the people who have most to gain from riding bikes are people who could ride them to work regularly, who are currently not doing much exercise. There are lots of people like this in the UK maybe as much as two thirds of the adult population and many in Harrogate. Harrogate lends itself to bikes, it is small and many people's commutes are relatively short. The good thing is once people become bike riders they tend to keep doing it. So how to get them to start? Well one of the reasons that comes up again and again is fear of the road network. Now as we have seen, oddly its safer than you think but how to remove the fear?

Well a start is to get more people doing it. Its bad enough doing something you think is dangerous it's much worse if you are on your own. Creating a cycle culture where it not seen as weird is a start, we are on to a winner here in Harrogate there are a fair few of cyclists already and not just leisure riders, you do see people using bikes to commute. So hopefully pointing out that you are better cycling than sitting down might be a start.

Employers and I mean large ones should do more. I think the Hospital in Harrogate should do more They could offer incentives, free breakfasts have worked in a few places and better safe cycle parking. It would help their terrible parking problem and impact positively on their sickness rates too. We have repeatedly asked them about this, the silence is deafening.

Next  better infrastructure this is the "build it and they will come" argument and that is where we will continue to lobby local government. Actively promoting the routes that exist would be a good start. Adult cycle training could be prescribed in the same way that GP's now prescribe trips to the gym and why not throw in a bike from one of the excellent recycling schemes that are springing up? Oh and try and finish the integrated network in Harrogate that is currently patchy and piecemeal. If people felt catered for and their mates were doing it people would feel more inclined to save themselves a bit of petrol money.

So if you have a bike but don't ride it because you think it dangerous and you don't get two and a half hours of exercise a week you would be safer on a bike.

Support from a legend - record breaker Mike Hall talks to Cycle Harrogate

Mike Hall is quite an individual. Not only did he break the record for cycling round the world earlier this year but he supports our Cycle Officer campaign. 91 days to cycle round the world unsupported, some 18,000 and something miles that is pretty extraordinary. Oh and Mike is a Harrogate chap so he is a local legend to boot.

Somebody tipped me off that Mike had signed our petition and I got in touch in a hurry. Mike was good enough to answer a few questions and also publicly give his support to our campaign. Wow we have a celebrity endorsement, better keep going hard at it then then Mike would.

Here is what Mike had to say

Cycle Harrogate Mike you Broke the world record for cycling round the world which is an incredible achievement. Which person from your past or present influenced you the most whilst you were riding, or does all your strength come from within?

Mike Hall I suppose initially I was influenced by guys in mountain bike racing - particularly the guys that were racing 24 hour races solo, not stopping for any more than a couple of minutes at a time and lapping the circuit as fast as many of the relay teams. I'm now lucky enough to call most of those guys my friends and from there my horizons widened when I learned more about the big unsupported mountain bike races like the Tour Divide - a 2745 mile off-road race down the continental divide from Canada to Mexico and guys like Matthew Lee, 5 time winner would complete the journey in around 17 days with no outside support and carrying all their equipment. When I did the race in 2011 it taught me how to pack my bike superlight, do with out all but the essentials that I could ride long miles day after day over big mountain passes. It was those skills and knowledge I took to the World Cycle Race. When I was speculating on what could be achieved I thought of the achievements of Tommy Godwin. He showed that mileages of over 200 miles a day were humanly possible over a much longer period. I already knew I could do big distances for 2-3 weeks but it was what he and a few other pioneering others had done all those years ago, that gave me the confidence to keep it up for much longer. Another rider I often thought of on the ride was Tom Simpson who, despite the tragedy of his story, will always be an inspiration. 

CH Mike you signed our petition for a cycle officer for North Yorkshire and thank you very much, but why do you think a North Yorkshire County Council Cycling officer is important for cyclists in Harrogate and the county?

MH The recent summer of sporting success, particularly in cycling, along with the general trend and incentives for people to adopt more sustainable transport methods nationally mean that more and more people are either picking up bikes these days or thinking about it. That's a great thing for peoples health, reducing congestion and meeting environmental targets. Without appropriate representation, planning and infrastructure for the increased number of cyclists on the road, however, we risk this being a short term thing and we also fail to protect their safety whilst they are attempting to use a road system which is designed predominantly around motor vehicles. 

CH Elite cycling has been in the news a lot recently with the the Tour de France, the Olympics and your epic ride. What single thing could UK government do to improve the cycling experience for everyday cyclists?

MH I'm not sure I know what the biggest thing that would benefit the most cyclists is but I think the biggest thing the UK Government can do for me personally as a cyclist and probably many others is tackle the social issues of conflict among road users in an increasingly congested traffic system which is experiencing a surge in the population of cyclists. Cyclists are vulnerable road users yet there appears to be an increasing amount of animosity directed towards them in the media and on the roads, by motorists wishing harm to them. I fear that a 'them and us' culture is being fostered on the roads and in the press, between motorists and cyclists, rather than one of co-operation, mutual respect and sharing the road. As a cyclist it makes me worry that my safety could be willfully disregarded by other road users.

If you want to know more about Mike's ride this is a pretty nice article

or you can visit his website normallyaspiratedhuman.com

and this is another cycle based cause he supports Cycle a Difference