You may recall that recently our 9 year old son was the first in our family to take part in a junior triathlon. His favourite part of it was most probably the cycling as he loves his bike (although we discovered that day that it was actually too small and he needs a new one). Since then he has been entered into a local junior cycling race next month – which coincides with the arrival of the Tour of Britain and part of the Cheltenham Festival of Cycling. Our youngest was unable to enter the Triathlon because he still hadn’t got the hang of a bicycle without stabilisers – but cracked it for the first time the day after the event (well pedaling that is, not actually stopping). Therefore, we were super-duper excited to be invited to The Ridgeback Kids Club with Pave Velo and The Bicycle Society
The Ridgeback Kids Club Event
The Ridgeback Kids Club Event was located on the doorstep of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the EastVillageE20. The aim of the event was to teach the children to ride confidently and improve on their cycling skills – catering for children as young as 18 months. Ridgeback Bikes provided each child with the correct size bike and helmet and then taken off to a nearby location. The children were split in two with the smaller children in their own group and the bigger, more confident older ones in a separate one. The Bicycle Society specialises in teaching bike skills to younger children and have taught over 15,000 children to ride bikes and have trained in more than 300 London schools). Their kids Coach Rob ran fun sessions and games such as the Safari game and The Adventure Bike Ride, whilst helping develop the children’s bike skills, and in some cases correcting some bad habits (like using the brakes correctly!).
All three of my children had an amazing time at The Ridgeback Bikes Club – including my youngest who was really under confident at first (I should imagine it is quite hard to see so many younger children riding around making it look easy when you are struggling) – but had improved so much but the end of the session, including getting to grips with gears! My confident 9 year old loved riding a bike with so many more gears (21) and enjoyed the challenges such as riding a whole lap standing up and ducking under the pole. In fact even the teen had a great day out (although it was much harder for him to duck under the pole!). Plus they made new friends – as well as getting outdoors and having some fresh air.
When the event finished their was food and a bouncy castle – but it wasn’t long before the boys were asking to go back on their bikes! They loved their Goodie Bags to take home and the youngest even put one of his stickers on his new helmet. With so much to do in the local area we carried on exploring. The boys had been excited to visit the Velodrome (the fastest indoor track in the world) before the event and play on the many fantastic local play areas – so we went to find more, as well as to look at the Arcelormittal Orbit (the World’s tallest and longest slide!).
Benefits of Ridgeback Kids Club
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- Exclusive offers and information on Ridgeback Kids Bikes and associated products
- Sign up after buying a Ridgeback Kids Bike and Receive a FREE Goodie bag worth £25: includes a reusable bag, water bottle, Be Seen HI VIS Vest, sticker sheet, woven badge, Colouring Pencils and exclusive vouchers.
- An amazing 15% off animal kids clothing
- Invitation to exclusive events in your area with test rides on all models.
To join the club and find out more visit www.ridgeback.co.uk
Since 1983 Ridgeback has been building bikes for UK riders and has an unmatched reputation for innovation and quality. From high-performance flat bar and touring bikes to comfortable commuters and children’s bikes.
Follow @ridgebackbikes on Twitter and Instagram.
Lovely to catch up with Jaime Oliver, Laura Asbury and Carolynne Ash
Big thanks to everyone involved in the running of this event – it was fantastic and a great experience/opportunity. We were invited to the Ridgeback Kids Club Event – all opinions are honest and my own.