Bicycle Network Victoria: Skill Up
Skills courses for adults
Never learnt to ride? Or a little bit wobbly, and need a refresher? New or returning riders don’t have to do it alone; there’s plenty of help to get the bike rolling. Melissa Cranenburgh reports.
Ask the experts
Physiotherapist and bike-skills trainer Rosy Strong has been running the CycleWise road skills classes in Melbourne inner-north for about three years. Although the classes were aimed at raising bike riders’ confidence on the road, Strong also heard from people who had never learnt how to ride, but were keen to give it a go. Rather than turn them away, she decided to offer classes geared for beginners.
The resulting, aptly named, Learn2Ride course was surprisingly popular. While Strong’s clients came from diverse backgrounds, the majority were women and tended to fall into two broad age groups: young adults in their early 20s and 30s, or older women in their 50s and 60s. “Some weren’t allowed to ride a bike as a child due to fearful parents, some tried but didn’t pick it up as quickly as other kids, and some simply missed the opportunity,” Strong explains.
Like Strong, Louise Bricknell – who, with business partner Justin Riedy, runs Bike Beyond in the Melbourne suburbs of Carnegie and Hawthorn – has found her Foundation Skills classes have attracted older, often female, clients. While some have never learnt to ride, others may have left their single-speed circa 1970-something rusting in the shed for 40 years. In the meantime, bikes have changed. And, as Bricknell wryly notes, “Modern bikes have 50 gears instead of one.”
AusCycle accredited trainer Geoff Gilchrist offers classes on the mid-north coast of NSW – from Grafton to Port Macquarie – customising lessons to offer one-on-one for raw beginners and group classes for more confident riders. Gilchrist has seen his clients go from barely being able to ride in a straight line, to capably navigating traffic. And it’s this latter skill he feels beginner riders need the most. “Expect that traffic hasn’t seen you,” Gilchrist says. “You’re pretty much invisible. If everyone can take that away from a cycling course, they’re halfway there.”
Working on it
Bicycle Network Victoria is now running Workplace Riding Courses that aim to give exisitng or new riders the knowledge, confidence and skills to become regular bike commuters. Bicycle Network Victoria’s Rachel Coley explains, “The courses use theory and practical hands-on training, designed and presented by Louise Bricknell, to help riders brush up on the basic skills needed to join the thousands of other people now enjoying the benefits of riding to work.”
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This article first appeared in the August-September 2010 issue of Ride On.
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