Your stories

At Better By Bike nothing makes us happier than reading about your experiences on a bike, so why not write in and tell us.

You could write about a recent cycling holiday or your best bike journey. Or perhaps you're not a regular cyclist yet so why not write in and tell us about the preparation you're putting in to making your first journey.

We'll publish as many of your stories as we can. Scroll down the page to read the entries we've received so far...

The Great Weston Ride 

The Great Weston Ride took place in July 2010, supported by Cycling City in South Gloucestershire. Here's some of the feedback we received:

• Chris

The ride was my first experience of an organised event and also the longest cycle ride I had ever completed.

I already cycled to work on a daily basis and whilst my confidence on the road was good, I was not confident about taking on long distance rides. I very much enjoyed the event and the challenge it presented.

As a result of participating in the first Great Weston Ride I am now confident to take on longer distance rides, and am keen to participate in other similar events.

• Dylan

The [event] really helped us to encourage a group of colleagues to get involved and try a cycling event for the first time. We all thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was great exercise, very social and enough distance [56 miles] to feel you have achieved something when you finish.

The event was very well planned and executed.  It has encouraged me to ride longer distances more frequently and also made me think about participating in the Bike to Work Scheme to improve my bike. 

I am now considering cycling to work and I know some of the members of our group have begun to cycle more frequently. I believe it was an excellent initiative to provide free places and I hope it will continue in the future.

• Tom

I entered the Great Weston ride as I had just moved to Bristol and felt like giving a road event a go.  I found on the ride that I recognised others from my office and it turned out to be a good way to meet other cyclists from work, so personally was a good event!  

It was also a good office break to look through for all the embarrassing photos of each other on the website too!

Inspirational stories

• Pete Fryer - Born again cyclist

I’ve been cycling to work from Downend to the Create Centre for just over two months.  The journey into work from the heights of Cleeve Hill down to sea level at B Bond is a sheer delight. 

I have the great privilege to use Bristol - Bath cycle path from Morrison’s to Old Market. Traffic-free, plenty of trees and plants and birds to observe as I am steadily overtaken by fit cyclists on their racers. 

Then across Castle Park, the dreaded cobbles across the docks, Queen Square and Pero's Bridge and I’m at work.  Journey time: 30 minutes, distance: 8.2 miles and no slower than the car!

All didn’t run smoothly however, The first occasion I cycled in front of the new Museum of Bristol and got trapped in the tram lines…I still bear the scars and recently my handlebar came adrift due to vibration over the cobbles and I still can’t do the ‘wiggle’ in the underpass –I have to dismount but I’m getting there!

Why has it taken me nearly five years to take courage and return to cycling?  As a lad and newly qualified Environmental Health Officer I cycled to work and cycled my district. Thirty-five years ago though it was frowned on; professional officers had to have a car. 

I had to promise to learn to drive and use a car for work so at 22 gave up cycling.  Having regularly cycled 90 miles a weekend, having cycled from Bremerhafen to Hannover and then from Hannover to Margate (ferries across the North Sea) I gave up cycling, seduced by driving and the professional suit.

Five years ago, overweight but ‘green’, my wife and I started car-sharing to reduce fuel miles.  Colleagues suggested cycling but the journey home, up hill, after working all day really put me off. 

For a while I toyed with the idea of a folding bike but none were guaranteed at my price band to take my weight.  Time went by and it was clear my health was suffering.  I eventually visited the doctor and got the bad news…grossly overweight, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and elevated cholesterol – time for a life change? 

Over the next six months I dieted, cut out sugar, increased my walking distances and speed and lost a few pounds.  Unfortunately I like food.  Pre-diagnosis I ate one large meal a day, in the evening.   “No! No! No!” said the dietician and the diabetes nurse.

You must eat three times a day, little and often otherwise your body hibernates and your sugar levels fluctuate widely.

So more changes to the diet, a few more pounds shed, and I felt more active. Then I saw an advert on Amazon for an electrically assisted bike.  Total cost £399.  I read the customer reviews, read about electric bikes in general, found out about batteries charging and usage modes, and ordered the bike.

The bike arrived and I was not disappointed.  The bike is well engineered and heavy enough to take my 17 stone, even at 20 mph over deep potholes.  It is not a sleek racing machine, but it gets me home, up the hill all the way to Downend.

I’m much fitter, my muscle tone is better and I’m losing weight and saving money. A real win for my health, my wallet and for the environment!

If a fat, unfit, old man of 57 can do it, anyone can!  I started with the council on a bike and now it looks like I will retire using one!  What a missed opportunity in between!

• Ian Hopper

Ian Hopper let us know ' The Betterbybike website advises that I will "arrive at work feeling refreshed". 7 hours after my first ride to work, I'm still shattered. I hope you're satisfied!'

Well, believe us Ian, it gets easier the more often you ride and you can have a well earned cool beer when you get home!

Well done too to our Cycle Advisors who helped Ian find his motivation to ride to work. Let's see if any of Ian's friends or neighbours will rise to the challenge!

• Jonathan Gadsby

This March marks my third anniversary of using cycling as my main mode of transport. I am a community psychiatric nurse, and travel around Bristol during my working day to visit mental health service users in their homes. I have done the job in a car, by motorbike and by cycling.

I didn't think it could be done on a bike. Surely it would always be raining, and I would have to travel too far, taking too long and getting too tired?

A social worker colleague inspired me to try. She cycled everywhere, and yet she didn't seem to be a fitness fanatic. I was amazed. For the first two or three months, I was a bit tired by the end of the week, but otherwise, there were no problems! Small individual journeys, often hoping on and off the Bristol to Bath cycle path, soon added up, and I found I was regularly doing over twenty miles a day.

The other shock was how quick it was. The journey times just were not as long as I had thought they would be. I wasn't spending all my valuable time pedaling. It was only then that I began to see all the hidden time costs of driving in a city. Firstly, on average, parking can take my driving colleagues a staggering 30 minutes plus per day; looking for a space, and then walking from it (and then back to it). Secondly, traffic affects cycles less, and this is even more the case when using cycle paths. In a car the same journey can be 15 minutes or 45, and sometime this is very hard to predict.

The special thing about my bike is that there is nothing special about it! It is a useful mode of transport, not a style icon! I paid £300 for it, and spent another £150 on a rack, panier, yellow coat, and lights. I realised fairly early on that puncture proof tires were essential (I paid £32 for the pair) and over time I also replaced the brake levers (they were a bit plastic and feeble) and the plastic pedals, which cracked.

In total, I think I have now spent about £750 on maintaining my bike over three years, some of which cost would have been avoided if I had perhaps spent £100 more at the beginning. I think I have cycled about 7500 miles on it, so it works out rather neatly at 10p per mile. Another rather neat sum is that since it has replaced a second vehicle, the RAC reckon I have saved about £7500 over the same time period (tax, MOT, insurance, depreciation, servicing, fuel), making my bike a tenth of the cost of owning a second car.

During December 2009 we ran a competition asking people to tell us what they love about cycling. Here's two of the best:

• Geoff Gardner

I've been cycling from the first moment I can remember. I started with my dad running behind me, with his fingers crossed and hope and pride in his heart (as I now know being a Dad myself) . I then escaped my suburb as a teenager. I could go further, have more experiences and meet more people.

I have several bikes - about as many as I have pairs of shoes. My favourite is the oldest, although I do have a bike-to-work masterpiece of Taiwanese engineering that changes gear so smoothly it is like driving an automatic.
"I think cycling is mainly about sensible journeys. So whenever it is quicker or cheaper or more reliable I will use the bike. If I go into London it makes sense to me to cycle between main stations, through Hyde Park on a Brompton is simply better than a crowded Tube.

Cycling is all about having fun, getting fit and feeling free. The last one is important because my life is increasingly constrained and the bike is one place where I can feel the wind in my hair and a sense of exhilaration. Cycling through the trendy parts of Bristol and seeing cyclists who, young or old, male or female, pretty or not but all inspirational and attractive makes me feel I have arrived in my aspiration group.

In some parts of the UK I do feel like a member of a very odd 1.5% of people who do this strange thing. And yet I still do it. Like most utility cyclists I have enjoyed the pleasure and relief of surviving slightly perilous journeys such as carrying two suitcases on the end of handle bars. Cycling into a hotel lobby in Kensington, after a cycling pub crawl, and having a minibus load of American Air Crew marvelling at our two Bromptons made me feel not like a mad person!

• Carol Laslett 

I started cycling just a little bit when we moved from Hampshire to Bristol in 2002. I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a child. I just wanted another way of getting around and being able to avoid traffic queues. It does give sense of freedom but it helped to explore my new surroundings.
 
I have a Marin Trail hybrid that my husband bought for me for our first Christmas here. I have recently had urban tyres to replace the chunckier ones as I'm doing more miles these days.
 
I now cycle out to Yate for work. I work 18.5 hours a week and can have to go to places other than my designated place of work. For almost a year I was based at Emersons Green so I could use the cycle path and worked up to being able to do the extra distance. I also was fortunate enough to be able to adjust my hours to give myself maximum recovery time!  I cycle across to Westbury Park when I look after my granddaughter once a week. I got rid of my car 2 years ago now. I can get to work by bus, and I did at first. I will choose to go by bike for most local journeys when I am on my own. I go into the city on the cycle path.
 
The thing I like most about cycling is using the cycle paths and beating the traffic! Even a bus journey takes longer door to door. The hills are a challenge but the range of landscapes and routes is good. Cycling around gives me the nearest feeling to being an urban revolutionary I am ever likely to feel (however, I do behave responsibily!). Lots of places are within  a few miles and therefore possible by bike.
 
My best adventure is a short(ish) one; it's going across the old Severn bridge. I have bigger and longer ambitions and like reading bike blogs aboout what people have done; most of which are inspirational.

Cycling blogs

Below you'll find links to current cycling blogs from people who live in and around Bristol. If you think that your blog might encourage people to start cycling, write in and ask for a link.

• Lands End to John o' Groats blog - a member of the Cycling City team tells us about his preparation for this famous British journey
• Bristol cycling chic - who's hot and who's not on a bike in Bristol
• Oli Beckingsale - the diary of world class mountain biker based in the south west
• Henry Rolls - follow his journey from Bristol to Morocco

Get Gorge-ous Cycle Challenge

After training for six months, 80 people took part in Cycle Bristol CTC's Get Gorge-ous Challenge to ride to Cheddar Gorge and back in June 2009. There was some wonderful feedback written by all involved. Download some of their comments and see for yourself. Or watch the short trailer in our videos section.

If you're thinking of taking part in 2010, you need to sign up as soon as possible as places are limited. Contact Sue on 0117 966 3261 or suehawkins@care4free.net if you'd like to find out more, or http://www.getgorge-ous.co.uk/

Turning Points

Between June and September 2009 Bristol City Council ran a competition called Turning Points. Entrants were asked to write in and tell the council, in 50 words or less, about their turning points - that moment when their lives literally changed gear. Their turning point could have been a time when they got back in the saddle again, or stepped on a bike for the first time. Entries are available for download.

Downloads: 

Bristol City Council's turning points competition

Get Gorge-ous feedback