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Cycling boss REALLY encourages cycling

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    The CEO of Madison (UK importer and distributor of Shimano and many other bike brands - and owner of Ridgeback) Dominic Langan went cycling with 30 cubs (including his son) yesterday.

    It obviously made as a big an impression on him as it did the kids. He has blogged about it today.

    "Kids love cycling so how come they don't do it all the time?"

    Just a short journey on local (mostly) off-road paths. As a cycling parent he had probably used them before but -

    "Although all the kids are local and we only did a bit over a four mile loop, many of the kids have never ridden along those tracks before - I found this unbelievable."

    I'm sure the same is true in Edinburgh in spite of a good selection of traffic free places to ride.

    Dominic concludes -

    "Kids love cycling but without the parents supporting the enthusiasm, it is tough for them to get out and enjoy the fantastic freedom that cycling brings.

    Come on parents, get your family out riding bikes this weekend!"

    Indeed. 'We' know that.

    I wonder if his company will now become more involved in 'grassroots' (non 'sport') cycling? It's three years since the boss of Trek in America said “Spend More on Bicycle Advocacy”

    In the UK most bike manufactures/importers pay a levy to the Bicycle Association which is used for Bike Hub "to support the future of cycling in the UK". But there's always room for more...

    Targeting non-cycling parents would be good for their children (and for business) but it won't be easy!

    However his Linked In profile states "Creative thinker, motivator, energetic and a high achiever who thrives on success and achieving goals."

    Perhaps he is just the person...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Matchstickwarrior
    Member

    Thought I would drop the guy a hint by posting links to this thread and the article about John Burke, and what does his comments box tell me?

    "Really long words are not allowed!"

    Broke the addresses up with spaces an' all, the longest unbroken string of letters being "Edinburgh" and it still didn't work.

    Are the words "creative thinker" and "high achiever" really appropriate for someone who can't deal with more than a 5 letter word?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. SRD
    Moderator

    I was definitely thinking that if some of these big corps invested in that sort of family/leisure cycling, then there would be definite rewards - presumably it would broaden the pool of racers etc as well, as kids grow up cycling for fun and then take up competitive training too.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. dominicl
    Member

    [quote Matchstickwarrior
    Member
    PM this user

    Thought I would drop the guy a hint by posting links to this thread and the article about John Burke, and what does his comments box tell me?

    "Really long words are not allowed!"

    Broke the addresses up with spaces an' all, the longest unbroken string of letters being "Edinburgh" and it still didn't work.

    Are the words "creative thinker" and "high achiever" really appropriate for someone who can't deal with more than a 5 letter word?[/quote]

    I really don't know what you mean. Were you not able to post a comment on my blog on madison.co.uk or somewhere else? I would really like to know. Also I find your comments rather rude and misplaced considering you don't know me. I am however able to assure you that I can deal with words greater than five letters long!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. SRD
    Moderator

    Hi there dominicl - nice to see you found your way to our forum. I suspect that our friend matchstickwarrior was just expressing frustration that your 'comments' section didn't seem able to handle multi-syllabic words. Please don't take it personally - we're all happy when anyone else is enthusiastic about cycling (well, before we start squabbling about how best to get more people cycling, not to mention the dreaded helmet debate....). feel free to join in anytime - just accept that we're all (most) a tad ironic and jokey here, but admin won't let us have emoticons so it doesn't always show...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. Matchstickwarrior
    Member

    @dominicl

    My sincerest apologies for any offence I have caused.

    I was genuinely touched by what you wrote on your blog, and we really do need someone with some real clout in this country to help with the encouragement of general cycling in the same manner that we have recently had for competitive cycling.

    When I tried to post the links I came up against the word length restriction and felt yet again the same "banging my head against a brick wall" sensation that I have had trying to encourage cycling in my workplace, locality and in my letter exchanges with the Lothian and Borders Police, which really did frustrate me. I unjustifiably took this out on someone I do not know, which was quite wrong.

    So often in our consumerist and media driven world, and especially on the internet, we can tend to see people as being far away, or as mere words on a page and can possibly forget that there are real people with real feelings behind them, and I confess to having fallen into that trap.

    I hope that you will enjoy many more local rides out with your family using your local and NCN paths (I am an NCN volunteer ranger), and hope that you can accept my apology.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    @ Matchstickwarrior

    Nice apology. I'm sure dominicl will understand you were railing against technology not him!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. dominicl
    Member

    No problem. I know the feeling.

    We have tried to create the problem here and we can't get the issue you experienced to happen. Any chance of a screen dump with the error and detail of your browser and version. It would really help us and hopefully we can identify the bug and get it sorted.

    It is quite difficult to get involved in the grass roots cycling. Councils are almost impossible to work with and can't be seen to be favouring a particular business. We had some success with Exeter council who are really pro cycling and also with Northampton but they are the exception rather than the norm.

    Loads of the team at Madison get involved in cycling projects in their area and especially those of us with kids. It took me over 3 years to get my school to put up the bike shed and it took becoming a governor to make it happen and they had the money from government to do it.

    There are loads of positive local bicycle stories and there is real momentum but Rome was not built in a day!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "It took me over 3 years to get my school to put up the bike shed and it took becoming a governor to make it happen"

    Shows the value of getting involved and a degree of persistence/patience.

    Edinburgh has quite a good record on bike racks (and a few sheds). But the initiative has mostly come from City Development rather than Children and Families.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. carltonreid
    Member

    Top work, Dom!

    We need more kids on bikes, for sure. I run a school cycling club (and am a coach for a Saturday Go Ride club) and teach cycling skills on the school playing field. Once a term I take about 15 kids on a longer, rural ride...and, of course, they love it.

    As Dom found, many of the kids don't go on these sort of longer rides, and would benefit from doing so.

    It's vital for the bike industry to pull together to support youth cycling. I sit on the committee for Bike Hub levy and know that our support for projects like Bike It can have a major impact on levels of youth cycling all across the UK.

    It's a huge shame that some companies don't throw their full weight behind the Bike Hub levy. Such as? Halfords.

    Bike shops and bike suppliers which don't pay the fractional bike levy do themselves no long-term favours. Together we can make a difference.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Matchstickwarrior
    Member

    Dominic,

    See the link to the screenshot below:

    Blog screenshot

    I am using Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    "Such as? Halfords."

    I expect there are people on here whose employers use Halfords for Bike to Work.

    Maybe they could suggest that their employers ask Halfords to join Bike Hub - or change BtW supplier to one that uses local bike shops...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. spytfyre
    Member

    off topic to admin but I am seeing Matchstickwar beside the post - is there not enough space for long user names?

    @chdot - my work uses Halfords but you can also go to Alpine bikes (which was where I went for infinitely better bike know-how)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. chdot
    Admin

    "is there not enough space for long user names?"

    Not unless I play around with the css which might cause more problems than solutions!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. Matchstickwarrior
    Member

    "Once a term I take about 15 kids on a longer, rural ride...and, of course, they love it. "

    TryCycling rides are just the same, everyone always has a great time, whether a regular cyclist or just starting out.

    As for Halfords, we also had the issue that a body of employees wanted to support their local bike shop, however their was a degree of office politics that got in the way of this, and as I was working for a financial institution at the time I suspect their may have been some other directly related motives too. There certainly was with every other supplier we used.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. chdot
    Admin

    "TryCycling rides are just the same"

    Were

    As far as I know they have not been re-started

    http://www.trycyclinginedinburgh.org.uk

    But they were ideal for 'novices' generally under 10 miles on quiet roads/off-road paths.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. Matchstickwarrior
    Member

    That's a grand shame, and a great example of where our "model cycling friendly city" council should really pick up the baton and organise a selection of ride leaders to carry on - I only know of a tiny handful of people that could measure up to Maggie's enthusiasm and run something like this by themselves, and they have enough to do already.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. carltonreid
    Member

    Thanks Dom and Chris - your words have inspired this month's column in BikeBiz mag.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    "Thanks Dom and Chris - your words have inspired this month's column in BikeBiz mag."

    Can we get autographed copies?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. dominicl
    Member

    Thanks for the screen shot - we'll get on to it right away.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. carltonreid
    Member

    I'll get my agent to send you a signed headshot.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    How do I manage it? I put out the last ever monthly citycycling and the boss of a major cycling products company just happens to wander by.

    Pah.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    This thread inspired an article in latest BikeBiz mag.


    http://www.bikebiz.com/news/32625/BikeBiz-August-print-edition-now-live

    Page 78

    Posted 13 years ago #

  24. Wendy
    Member

    We're hoping that the new Edinburgh Cycle Challenge (also named the Friends & Family Challenge) can help to encourage families to at least try out cycling to see if it's for them.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  25. LaidBack
    Member

    A lot of sense in the article.
    I don't see much point in training kids up for rides that they'll never do due to the 'fear' factor - so getting 'out there' is vital.

    The whole cycling scene is full of contradictions on 'risk'. By that I mean it's considered safer to drive kids on a 40 mile round trip in a minibus to do mountain biking than let them cycle their local streets. By this you show them that cycling is not about 'going places' but a 'niche' activity which you can do once you have a car.

    CP in Edinburgh ran a few holiday clubs and they were much enjoyed (and now missed).
    The theme was 'Bike the City' and the aim was to learn a bit in the morning and go somewhere 'fun' in the afternoon - usually involving a play park.

    Initial day was getting everyone sorted with bikes and playground skills.

    It did take a lot of trainers and RAs to keep rides safe but in my view worth it. The result is that the public see children out on bikes on their local streets and paths. The children too see that their local streets aren't dangerous if cycled with care looking over shoulder etc. They also how to learn to use their bikes as transport and some may be able to pass this on to their (non-cycling) parents

    This is how it should be unless we want 'non car assisted' cycling to die out.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  26. SRD
    Moderator

    "CP in Edinburgh ran a few holiday clubs and they were much enjoyed (and now missed)."

    Don't know what CP is, but I'd be up for helping organize something like this in a few years...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Cycling Proficiency?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  28. LaidBack
    Member

    Changing Pace

    Posted 13 years ago #

  29. spytfyre
    Member

    @LaidBack - once my bairn is in school I would be very interested in giving some time to any cycling scheme that goes to schools or runs after school/holiday things to get bairns on bikes, is chainging pace still running then? (mind you it is another 2 years before he goes to P1...)

    Posted 13 years ago #

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