Get Set for summer cycling

On By Guest Post

For Bike Week 2021 we are running a series articles about opportunities to get cycling in south Leeds

The last 12 months has seen a real community of cycling opportunities develop and bought together within the Inner South.

In 2020 Get Set Leeds Local secured British Cycling Places to Ride funding, matched through Active Leeds to develop a hub for cycling opportunities from Cross Flatts Park.

Being able to provide bikes and helmets to groups, having community conversations and creating new connections has sparked a programme of activities for this summer, from beginner learn to ride sessions for adults and road confidence sessions through Cycle North commissioned by City Connect, to social led riding groups through Better Action for Families, Your Space and South Leeds Lakers and Cycle for Health sessions.

There’s hopefully something there to support anyone hop on a bike, whether cycling is an activity someone has just never had the opportunity to learn, or it’s something not done since they were a child, or someone just looking for others to go on a social ride with, there will be something for you.

Watch out for the full timetable of opportunities on our Facebook page and @GetLeeds on Twitter.

We’re keen to hear from any local residents with an interest in helping us develop the cycling opportunities further. Although there will be a packed programme of activity for this summer, we’re always keen to look at how we can work with the community to develop sustainable activity which meets the needs of the community.

Cross Flatts Park would be a great location for a regular parent and toddler session balance bike session. We can provide bikes, helmets, and mini ramps along with Ready Set Ride training to any parents who might want to set up an organised weekly session. Get in touch if it’s something you’d like to help develop getsetleedslocal@leeds.gov.uk

Get Set Leeds Local are looking forward to planning a cycling summer event at Cross Flatts Park, working with all the great cycling groups and partners to showcase all the good stuff happening. Watch this space for further information.

Get in touch if you’d like to be involved in planning something. In addition we’re starting to talk about an Autumn Sportive event. A Sportive is a set route distance event to give people a challenge to work towards, a little like a running 5km or 10km event which gives people a goal to work towards.

One of the things we’ve been asked is about local cycling routes which are ideal for bike rides. Middleton Park from Cross Flatts Park is accessible by nearly all off road cycle routes (head towards John Charles Centre), where from Middleton Park or Leeds Urban Bike Park you can enjoy a range of routes.

Search online to find ideas for your next ride:

If you have an enjoyable and accessible local led ride then share it with us, and together we can start to build up a bank of enjoyable ride routes, which start from South Leeds. Where’s your favourite local ride?

 

This post was written by Karen Peck

We encourage anyone living or working in South Leeds to use this website to tell their news. You can either use the Create an article for South Leeds Life page, or email us at: info@southleedslife.com