Keith Jepson.
Ride Journal.
Why?
I have decided to create a Ride Journal to record all of my cycling experiences. I intend to keep a record of the mileage, type of riding, the people I ride with, the location and all the experiences and events of the ride. I am cycling for work with Max Bikes PR, with Learn Cycling teaching Bikeability with Bike Hire Shrewsbury, guiding and for leisure and pleasure.
Why do I ride? Cycling is the perfect solution to many modern problems, including obesity, sustainability, congestion, mental health, transport and health / wealth. The bicycle is one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind, alongside the Alphabet, language, the printing press, the internet (?) and modern medicine. The bicycle, moving art that uses human power to generate clean and efficient energy, all in an artistic and fun package. That is the Bicycle…but why do I ride?
I ride to stay fit, to travel in style and with a smile…and to keep me sane in a world of demands. The bicycle has always made sense but even more so now. In an age of uncertainty, the bicycle and the ride it offers is joy, a pure truth; a universal truth.
I ride for enjoyment, for travel and for cycling advocacy now that I teach cycling to the next generation. Now, that’s enough waxing lyrically about cycling for the time being, let’s start remembering actual rides and the experiences, people and places that enrich them.
30th October – 2nd November, 22. Balance Bike Training, Greenfields School, Shrewsbury.
Balance bikes are the children’s bikes with cranks and pedals that have become popular in recent years. They are designed to help children with their balance and improve cycling skills without the aid of “old school” stabilisers. As a concept, they certainly work, having used both stabilisers and balance bikes with all of my own children. The balance bikes are amazing for encouraging balance and bike control. There is nothing more rewarding than teaching reception, year 1 or year 2 children how to ride bikes and see their progression from small steps to gliding with their feet off the ground.
We do this through a series of games designed to develop spacial awareness, balance and looking…”Keith the Crocodile” chasing excited and screaming children around a playground seems to me particularly popular with the children, teachers, TA’s and co-instructors or is it?
– Balance Bike Training, 7th, 8th, 9th November, Radbrook Primary, Shrewsbury.
Today in glorious and non – seasonal winter sunshine I taught a young downs – syndrome boy to ride a balance bike, all through holding his gaze, getting him to ride toward me and keeping his head and eye line up. It’s amazing how such a simple thing as “keep your chin up” keeps you looking forward. Perhaps this is a positive analogy for life in general? A cycling mantra, a positive ideal like so many…
keep pedalling, don’t look down, watch where you are going and many more all fit into the narrative of life.
3rd November, Packwood Haugh School, Ruyton Xl Towns, MTB coaching and guiding, Year 7.
On Thursday afternoon of each week I offer Mountain Bike coaching, skills and guiding to Packwood School, who built an MTB course in their wood during Covid lock down. Yes, it’s true to say that not every school has 65 plus acres and their own forest, but it’s so great seeing them making the most of it with masses of outdoor activities! It’s a really relaxing and rewarding end to most coaching weeks, being in the forest and away from the hustle and bustle of riding on the road. The children have built a short, but challenging off-camber track that sympathetically follows the typography of the wood. We are building jumps, berms and other trail features and I look forward to seeing their progression as we ride across the winter and into the spring…watch this space!
11th of November, 22. Derwen College, Oswestry. 20 miles of rolling North Shropshire Countryside.
Teaching Bikeability 1 to a group of very special young adults. A day of reflection and perspective. A day when you leave everything else at the door.
Cycling can do that…it’s a leveller.
