Saturday 16th January - Go Ride

Once again this week we invited those riders who own road bikes to bring them along to practise their skills.  Much of the site is currently pretty soggy so we are limited to the playground and some sections of the path.  Less opportunity for racing around but plenty for riding slowly and in control.

A chilly start to Saturday's Go Ride

The frosty start seemed to have delayed most people's arrival so we went straight into the session.  A quick warm up of 'whistle stop' ended with Cartriona and Luke going head to head for the longest balance; Luke was victorious in the end but it was a hard fought battle.

We split into two groups, I worked with the small wheels on the infant playground practising riding in lines (wiggly ones and straight one), riding one handed and stopping in the box.  The bitter cold made squeezing the brake levers very uncomfortable so we had ten minutes on the play equipment after our biscuit break to get the feeling back in our hands.  

Meanwhile, the older riders had been practising riding in contact with each other in a build up to some Madison hand sling practise, judging by the looks on their faces I think this session will have to be repeated it was such good fun.  Meanwhile we constructed a huge multi skills circuit on the playground including ride the line, slalom, mounting, dismouting, scooting, the post office queue, taking a teddy and stop box/sumo.  A great way to end the session with plenty of skillful riding from everyone who took part.

Madison hand sling, can't wait to see it on the bike!

Next Week: Saturday 23rd January 2016 9.30am - 12 noon Indoor Session at St Johns Church Centre, Hildenborough.  Please bring a CLEAN bike, if you would like to learn how and practise puncture repair.

Saturday 9th January - Welcome to 2016!

Our first session of 2016 kicked off with an off the bike warm up which involved some core strength exercises and running, not all the riders embraced this activity with the same level of enthusiasm ;-)  We moved onto a bike warm up of 'thread the needle', riding in a block of club run pairs, the two riders at the back have to wiggle their way between the other riders to the front.  Lots of concentration is required for this to go well.  As usual our stunning riders managed this tricky activity with a wide range of ages and abilities.

Good controlled riding from Cayden & Thomas

For the next part of the session we split into two and worked on our slow riding skills.  Our younger riders are still getting to grips with the concept of riding slowly, we threw in some human cones to ride around and take objects from which seemed very popular.  Finishing off with riding slowly with a cone on your head. Older riders were challenged a step further and had to pick up items from the ground including tiny twigs!

Ben and Luke, start their move from back to front

Perfect pace from Zara and Jacob

Smooth riding from Catriona and Alisha

Did Ben get the baton?

A pretty soggy youth ride today.

Next Week: Saturday 16th January - Go Ride at Stocks Green 9.15am, Youth Ride road bikes only 11.30am - contact me to sign on.

We are now on Twitter!

Damian is now managing our Twitter feed.  If you'd like to find out what that means don't hesitate to have a chat to him at the next Go Ride session. Alternatively find us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/the_KvK

Saturday 19th December - Pimp My Ride

Calvin and Michele delighted us once again!

Nico, Stuart, Toni and Albert

Santa (AKA Malcolm), Gareth, Izzy, Louise, Zara, Catriona and Sophia

Thirty riders met up for our now legendary Christmas ride.  Our youngest riders joined us this year and demonstrated their impressive bunch riding skills in the large and dynamic group.  We delighted local residents who waved and hooted as we headed down the cycle path to Tonbridge.  We returned via Hayesden and Powdermills and headed up to Cafe 1809 for coffee and hot chocolate.

Chris, Damian, Luke, Caspar, Franklin and Ben

One to watch Calvin, Franklin's reindeer bike shows great potential!

Returning via Powdermills

Relaxing at Cafe 1809

Christmas KVGs (and Serena)

Our very own Angels! Serena, Betsy & Zara

Malcolm and Hope

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 :-(