Monday, 14 December 2015

Saturday 12th December - Go Ride & Youth Ride

Awesome bike riders Betsy, Izzy, Ellen, Cayden, Sophia, Ben, Luke, Nico, Ethan, Albert, Hope, Sammy, Barney, (Zara & Franklin) enjoying our last Go Ride session of the year.  We finished with team games, always popular and great to see our riders young and old all riding bikes together - IT'S WHAT WE DO!

Afterwards we headed out on the Youth Ride, Claire and Michele took the shorter route, Damian, Malcolm and I rode the longer route.  We all headed out towards Penshurst.  Unfortunately some rather deep and badly placed potholes caused Ellen to puncture (front and rear) and left her bruised and battered, which meant we had to launch a rescue for the second week running.  Luckily a passing motorist gave Claire and Ellen a lift back to Hildenborough and a local resident offered to take care of the bikes until they could be collected later.  Nice to know that when you need a little help people will step forward.  We cut the rest of the ride short, it had been a fairly eventful morning!

Next Week (Saturday 19th December) Our Christmas Ride "Pimp my Bike" - meet at Stocks Green School 9.15am for a 9.30am departure. Return for coffee at Cafe 1809 around 11am.



Saturday 5th BMX at Cyclopark, Sunday 6th Power Pack with Damian and Bee

Saturday
Toni, Luke, Polly, Katie, Sophia, Izzy, Hope, Calvin, Ben H, Ben B, and Jacob all enjoyed a BMX session with Keith at Cyclopark.  Unfortunately the younger riders who were signed up weren't able to ride due to someone called Desmond who had made it very windy.

Keith split the group into first timers and those who'd ridden before, but it wasn't long before everyone was on the track proper and experiencing the thrills (and some spills) of the bumps and berms.



Sunday
The wind hadn't really abated by Sunday morning but in true KVK style our riders were still up for Power Pack.  Damian was standing in for John Leach so all in all it was a true KVK takeover.

Next Week: Saturday 12th December Go Ride at Stocks Green 9.15am for 9.30am start.
Youth Ride 11.30am

Saturday 28th November - Go Ride & Youth Ride

A bright but chilly morning greeted me when I opened the front door this morning.  Despite low overnight temperatures there was no sign of ice in the lane so looked like we were good to go.
Chase the Snake with Toni
My group changing off the front 

The warm up was organised by our Young Volunteers who used the top half of the site to create a mini circuit including the popular lump and some riding on the now pretty boggy field.  Our Go Ride session focussed on group riding skills and build on the techniques we've worked on in previous weeks we split into two groups; Damian took charge of the older riders on the main playground while I had the younger riders on the Infant playground.  Our young riders were soon whizzing round in pairs so we moved onto a bigger group of four and then the full 'egg box' six.  Once we'd mastered this we started changing off the front with one pair drifting to the side and rejoining at the back.  These are challenging maneouvres, requiring the riders to control their pace and position in relation to other riders; what a great job they made of it!  We spun our legs out with a quick round of Chase the Snake with Toni, one of our Young Volunteers acting as pacer.  After the biscuit break we tried some pairs slalom; once again a skill that requires considerable concentration and judgment.  With some help and encouragement from Ash everyone was soon making it through the course as a pair. 

Meanwhile our older riders were working with Damian on some similar activities on the main playground; more space to play with means more speed and a few more thrills.


Damian explaining the session

Nico, Hope and Sophia on the Youth Ride
Our Youth Riders headed out after Go Ride on a couple of routes called Easy Peasy and Not So Easy Peasy.  Claire and I tackled the shorter route with Hope, Nico and Sophia while Damian, Sarah and Malcolm took on the longer route with Toni, Luke, Ellen Sophia, Polly and Calvin.  They didn't get far (Carters Hill I think) before a loud crunching preceded Calvin's rear mech disintegrating.  Nothing for it but to wait for a rescue, at least they got some shelter in the pub.
Toni, Luke, Sophia, Ellen and Polly, Calvin had to abandon with a broken rear mech :-(