CTUK News - February 2010

Times Online: Where will your first cycle lesson take you?

For journalist Renata Rubnikowicz at The Times it was cycling in the New Forest on a winter afternoon.

Renata never learnt as a child but wanted to join the growing number of people cycling in and around London.

This is her description of her first lesson with CTUK:
‘My very first lesson came courtesy of Eric Gauster of Cycle Training UK. He began by holding my handlebars and running backwards, while I wobbled along grimly in Greenwich Park. By the second lesson I was looking up, pedalling solo and ready to think about doing ‘yoga on wheels’, as he put it, practising somewhere further afield’

You can read more about Renata’s cycling experience here

Thank you to The Times for permission to use their feature.

More women are getting a bike fix

More and more women are picking up the spanner and fixing their own bikes. Two women explain why they signed up to our one day maintenance course.

Christine has done a few cycling touring holidays including a couple of trips around the Scottish islands and a three week trip to Vietnam.

Why did you decide to do the course? My husband, Pete and I are cycling from London to Sydney. Prior to taking the course I didn't even know how to fix a puncture with any competence! Knowing how to fix bikes is obviously essential on a trip like this when damage is certain to occur, quite possibly in some very remote places.
Was it worth it? Doing a maintenance course is much more satisfying because you can fix simple things yourself rather than having to take your bike to a shop (and for them to charge you lots of money to do something you could have done). If you do it yourself you know it is done right.

Find out more about Christine’s trip here: http://londontosydneybybike.wordpress.com/

Christine in Vietnam

Jane has recently trained as a cycling instructor and needed to brush up on her maintenance skills.

Why did you decide to do the course? I've recently trained as a cycle instructor and knew nothing about maintenance, not even how to mend a puncture, so thought I'd better learn (cycling instructors have to be able to make children's bikes roadworthy before taking them out on road) I am also thinking about doing the coast to coast cycle ride (very slowly, I hasten to add, on my lady's shopper bike) and thought that at the very least I should know how to mend a puncture in the Pennines.
What can you do that you couldn’t do before?Mend a puncture, adjust brakes, fit bike, oil chain and possibly adjust gears (at least I know now that adjusting gears is easier than I expected)
Do you think women are averse to maintaining bikes? For me, I don’t like getting my hands dirty (but that Swarfega is good stuff!), you can pay a shop to do it and I thought it would be more difficult than it actually is.
What’s been the best thing you’ve learnt? Every bike I've ever had has had brakes that rub. Now I know how to solve that. I'm really proud that I can do that (and I can go faster with less effort.)

Jane cycling on the water to Holy Island