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Cycle To Work Day events

Free breakfasts, bike checks and more

This Thursday, September 12 is National Cycle To Work Day, and it looks like the weather is going to be dry over most of the UK, though it’s also forecast to be overcast and misty in many places.

Nevertheless, it’s worth slapping on your lights and getting out for the round trip to work, not least because in quite a few places you can grab yourself a free coffee courtesy of bike shops that are putting on Cycle To Work breakfasts.

There are some ambitious rides to work in the offing too, like Chris Boulton’s commute. Chris plans to ride from Highclere to his office in central London - 67 miles each way. Trot that out next time your colleagues express amazement at your ten-mile round trip.


Martyn Bolt in his mayoral cycling 'robes'

Our favourite commuter is Martyn Bolt, the Mayor of Kirklees, in Yorkshire. “I have a citizenship ceremony to attend in my capacity as mayor of Kirklees at Huddersfield Town Hall,Martin wrote to tell us.

He has to wear his full mayoral robes for the ceremony, but he’ll be riding to get there.

“I will be cycling in to the event (and no there won’t be a car following me!) wearing my cycling ‘robes’ which have been made for me by local cycling kit manufacturer Force GB.”

Chiswick Business Park in west London, which plays host to companies such as Paramount Pictures, PepsiCo, Starbucks and Walt Disney has recently started a cycling club which rides in Richmond Park on Thursday mornings. During the day a team from Ultimate Bikes will be running a bike servicing sessions, and over lunch riders can sign up for a free bike maintenance workshop which will go
through basic and routine maintenance.

In Crewe, you can get a free breakfast courtesy of the charity Christian Concern which promotes everyday cycle use at St. Pauls, in the centre of Crewe from 7.30am.

Crewe also has Cycle To Work roadshows at three locations during the day, with bike safety marking, travel planning and free bike health checks. Times and venues are:

8.00am – 10.00am Wulvern House, Crewe Business Park, Electra Way, CW1 6GW
12.00pm – 2.30pm Delamere House Car Park, Delamere Street, CW1 2LL
3.30pm – 5.30pm, Halfords, Grand Junction Retail Park, Earle Street, CW1 2RP

All stores in the Cycle Surgery bike shop chain are offering free bike health checks from September 6-12 so riders can make sure their bikes are fit for Cycle to Work Day.

See the Cycle To Work Day website for more. Know of any more Cycle To Work Day events? Let’s have them in the comments.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

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a.jumper | 11 years ago
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Is that a helmet cam holder, or does the mayor have antennae?  3

Avatar
arfa | 11 years ago
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I fully support the initiative but would it not be better to do it when the weather is getting better and the days are getting longer ? Newbies might be more inclined to stick with it as it's easier to get stuck in with improving conditions....

Avatar
Matt eaton replied to arfa | 11 years ago
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arfa wrote:

I fully support the initiative but would it not be better to do it when the weather is getting better and the days are getting longer ? Newbies might be more inclined to stick with it as it's easier to get stuck in with improving conditions....

+1

Timing does seem odd. The need to specialist kit (jackets, lights, waterproof bags/panniers, mudguards etc.) gets greater from this time of year onwards as well. We all know it makes sense to make the investment and stick with it but its a harder sell for a newbie, who's more likely to have a car-centric mindset.

Avatar
Leviathan | 11 years ago
0 likes

That jersey is just not right, who wants to see mayoral moobs, not flattering.

Avatar
daccordimark replied to Leviathan | 11 years ago
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bikeboy76 wrote:

That jersey is just not right, who wants to see mayoral moobs, not flattering.

It's a very unflattering picture - Martyn and the jersey look much better in the flesh.

Avatar
notfastenough | 11 years ago
0 likes

I shall be cycling to work then treating myself to a danish pastry. That's an event in itself!

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