A Free Bicycle Workshop

The Event

Bunnies on board - Lou, Amanda, Diane & Annette

Meeting place - Ourimbah, CARES facility

Time - 9:30 am - 12:30pm

Weather - Overcast with some drizzle

Distance cycled ~ 1km...

Today's event was the much anticipated workshop provided by Central Coast & North Sydney Area Health. We rocked up with our bikes to find an amazingly "cute" facility: traffic lights, a roundabout, intersections & road signs galore – all backing onto the bush with bellbirds singing at the top of their voices :) (They also run a great program for school kids here!).

There were quite a few exclamations of WOW! as we parked our bikes outside the main building, where we had the introduction and theory component of the workshop... The co-ordinator Nigel, introduced himself and talked a little about the reasons for setting up these 'cycling confidence workshops', before handing over to our workshop instructor – Allan.

Allan talked about state and council goals for improving cycling safety and participation around the country. He also talked about his previous work within Gosford council and gave us general advice on helmets, what to wear and different types of bikes.

Lou ticked almost every box as the prepared and road-ready cyclist, and was asked to stand up and demonstrate not only her outfit (great for cycling) but also her fancy basket, with both water-bottle and sunscreen onboard! :) Amanda got to stand up and demonstrate her helmet (she even performed a most graceful bend forward, to show that her helmet remained on her head :) ), and as she is our fashionista bunny, she also got to show off her very flash reversable cycling jacket :)

So 2 of our biker bunnies (sporting slightly redder faces) were now offially introduced to the entire group. A group which consisted of mostly women and a few happy guys of varying age and cycling confidence. Although we didn't really have time to get to know each other in the short time, it was great to see the level of enthusiasm in the group: everyone seemed keen about cycling and finding ways to gain more on-road confidence.

A 'mature' couple had brought their fancy 'fold-up-bikes' to the workshop, and the man demonstrated how quickly he could fold the bike into a small package: Janine, you'll love this: Not only does the bike itself fold up to almost "carry-on" luggage size, BUT the PEDALS fold up as well, meaning

that this bike is perfect if you want to push it along and not get jabbed by protruding pedals each and every step you take ;)

With all these demonstrations, Diane (my mum), quickly removed the disintegrating foam pads in her purple helmet just in time to show off her 'older-style' helmet, naturally a perfect colour match to her vintage purple bike, which also received quite a bit of attention on the day :)

By the time our instructor picked up my heavily modified blue bag, attempting to introduce it as 'the latest in bag technology' oh ok, maybe not quite... ;) I had to stop him, fearing that he'd discover all the chopped off straps half-way through the sales-pitch, with inevitable occy-strap tangle to follow...

We had a quick coffee break and by now we were getting excited about trying out the outdoor facility, wriggling slightly in our seats and looking at those clouds outside moving closer and closer...

Then... Lou pipes up: "Ehhhmmmmmnm – are we going to learn how to fix a puncture???" Who could deny such a request? Our instructor dived into descriptions of the latest puncture fixing gadgets (slime, air canisters, inner-tubes pre-lined with slime, other types of inner-tubes and valves, patches, allen-keys, levers, wrenches and more) while a guy in our group went off to get his handy-dandy floor pump, which enabled the demonstration to finish with a fully pumped tyre at the end :)

Finally we appeared to have covered all the theory aspects of the workshop and we moved outside to try out the bicycle riding facility! Rain was just starting to spit, but thankfully it moved away pretty quickly :) We practiced riding in an anti-clockwise pattern around the COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area :D ) and Diane, who will happily signal right-hand turns, was thrown in at the deep-end with only left-hand turns on the menu! She managed gallantly though, and we all seemed to pass the first practical test.

Then we got to extend our riding practice by riding past Nigel, who was sitting in a car unable to decide if he was coming or going, & kept swinging his door open into our path! Admittedly we giggled quite a lot, though we're very aware of the 'door-zone' danger in the 'real' world and did our best to not get caught by Nigel's door :)

After the door-zone hazard, we moved onto the actual traffic area of the facility and got to practice riding through the roundabout (Lou can now navigate a roundabout with her eyes closed), stop and start at traffic lights and navigate the speed humps and other cyclists along the way.

One of the ladies in our group had an unfortunate, but elegant topple-stack in the middle of the roundabout! (I almost called out "Bunny DOWN!! Bunny DOWN!!!" But managed to contain myself as Allan ran to her rescue; luckily she was fine, and only needed to pop her chain back on before she was ride-ready again :)

Diane on her 'vintage' bike stopped at a red light

Amanda on good behaviour with our instructor

Waving at the traffic lights ;)

bunny-Diane cruising around the course

Summing up:)

This was a great workshop, especially as council and area health have provided these workshops free as an incentive to get people out cycling more for fun and fitness. Gear Up Girl also run an annual workshop (I think it's once a year, around July-August), a more hands-on workshop covering bike maintenance and practical skills. Maybe this would be fun to do at some stage??? :)

• Information - We received lots of valuable and interesting information, including cycle maps, clubs, websites and events on the coast.
• Technical Know-how - We covered "fix a flat", "bike-locking", clothing, and necessary onboard tools
• Practical - Personally I would have liked to have spent more time outside, but we still got to practice the "power position" for that cruisy start, "left, right and stop hand-signals" and avoiding the "door-zone".
• Goodies - We also received a cool backpack with lots of great information, a fabulous cookbook and a way-cool cycling computer which will help us clock up those kms! Talk about a great incentive! :)

All up: A fun morning, which no-doubt will lead to more exciting adventures on our bikes :)