Cycle Training

Chris Street at BeSeenOnABike has been a Hampshire Cycle Training Instructor since 2000. He recommends that all cyclists (both children & adults) attend cycle training classes.

• The new 2005 National Standards for Cycle Training are summarised by Cycle Training UK.
  • National Standard Accredited Instructors

Cycle Training for all ages gives greater confidence and safety and encourages more bike riding. To participate in classes contact:-

• your Councils Road Safety Unit
• Road Safety Officers
• your childs school. Stage 1 Cycle Profeciency Classes are for 7+, Stage 2 for 10+
• CTC (Cyclists Touring Club) as the national accreditation body for cycle training in the Uk has approved the following providers as instructor training centres. This means that they are able to train new instructors to deliver the National Standard. National Cycle Training. Four organisations have been acredited by CTC to run Cycing Training. They use Cycling Instructors who have been on four day National day Instructor Training courses.
  • London: Cycle Training UK
  • Bristol: LifeCycleUK
  • York: City of York - for children and adults
  • Manchester: Bikeright!
  • For an updated list click.

Cycle Training News

• CTC wins Government support for Cycle Training March 2005
• Hampshire Cycle Training site
• Witham, Essex Cycle Training by Peter Fox
• Bikeforall.net: lists UK cycle training courses for children and adults
• RoSPA reviews research "Effectiveness of Cycle Training" (2001)
• DfT announces Cycling England and a new National Standard for cycle training (March 2005)
  • Cycling England, will have a budget of at least £5m a year for the next three years to allocate to cycling programmes. Cycling England will change the way that the Government manages and delivers cycling policy.
  • Investment in cycling has greatly increased in recent years. In 2005/06, local authorities (outside London) expect to spend £46m on cycling facilities - up by 50% from 2000/01, while Transport for London is projecting a record spend of £17m on cycling in London in 2005/06.
  • Cycling England will work to build on the success stories of towns such as Bristol, Hull, London and York to ensure that this greater investment in cycling leads to increases in cycling across the country.
  • One of Cycling England's first priorities will be to promote the new National Standard for Cycle Training - a successor to The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents' (RoSPA) "Cycling Proficiency". The new National Standard aims to increase the amount of cycle training, both among children and adults, and improve the quality and relevance of training.
  • * The National Standard has three levels:
    o Level 1, Beginners and basic cycling skills - held off-road and teaching children how to control, balance and manoeuvre;
    o Level 2, Introduction to on road cycling - held on quieter roads in groups, children will learn where to position themselves when riding on the road and how to observe traffic, signal, turn/manoeuvre safely and basic Highway Code;
    o Level 3, Advanced cycling - held on busier roads to teach skills required for making longer journeys and to develop strategies to deal with all types of road conditions - e.g. roundabouts, traffic lights, multi-lane roads.
    
    * The Standards describe the outcome of the training and can be delivered through different schemes. So they can be applied to child or adult cycle training. Where applied to child cycle training, the training ages for the different levels would typically be 7 years (level 1), 9/10 years (level 2) and 11/12 years (level 3).