Cycle magazine August/September 2026 LITE

£6 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

T H E

M A G A Z I N E

O F

C Y C L I N G

U K

A SPOT OF BOTHYING Great nights out for free in remote places EUROVELO 7 HEAVEN Berlin to Copenhagen on superb cycle paths

E-cargo bikes ARCC Linton Estarli L20 2.0

Never Netherlands?

Challenging the idea that the UK can’t go Dutch

On test • Bastille folder • GPS units • Restrap rack • Microshift Advent MX

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From a distance – across the North Sea, let’s say – cycling utopia looks unattainable. In the UK, cycling infrastructure often means painted lanes on roads with cars parked in them, or pavements accessorised with blue signs. A cycling revolution couldn’t happen here, people say.

Yet when would-be cyclists aren’t forced to share space with impatient motorists – and I use the word ‘share’ loosely, given the behaviour of some drivers – they do actually get on their bikes.

You don’t just see it in the Netherlands or Denmark. We saw it here in the Covid lockdowns when cars were largely removed from the equation. You see it in Paris and London, which in recent years have been transforming themselves into more cycle-friendly cities. If you build it, it turns out, they will come.

That’s how the Netherlands did it. The Dutch haven’t always been a nation of utility cyclists.

In the 1970s, Dutch transport infrastructure was like ours: roads, roads, roads; cars, cars, cars. The difference is that they decided that this wasn’t sustainable. Too many children were being killed by drivers. Outraged parents protested and the government responded. The rest is not just history but cycle-path geography.

Separated cycle routes are everywhere.

The idea that it could never happen here is largely an excuse for not doing enough now. The Netherlands doesn’t have a long list of advantages the UK lacks. It rains there, too. Space is at even more of a premium. Sure it’s flat, but so are many parts of the UK. For the places that aren’t, there are e-bikes.

It did happen there. It could happen here.

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07 This is Cycling UK The Cyclists’ Defence Fund needs you; bike servicing with the Big Fix; Bikmo’s insurance benefits; and more

44 Shop window Product previews

16 Gallovidian Gravel The new route’s guidebook and GPX are now available TOUR & EXPLORE 20 A spot of bothying No electricity, no sink, no beds – no problem 26 Weekender An 88−mile taster of the Old Chalk Way 28 EuroVelo 7 heaven Berlin to Copenhagen on cycle paths

Top: Robyn Furtado

Founded in 1878

Editor

IN THE FRAME 38 Gear Components and accessories tested

14 Summer raffle Win great prizes – including £2,000 cash and a bike

DAN JOYCE Cover photo: Cyclists on Glasgow’s segregated South City Way cycle path. By Andy Catlin

QUICK RELEASES 04 Freewheeling Bits and pieces from the bike world

FEATURE 32 Never Netherlands?

Challenging the idea that the UK can’t go Dutch

46 Books Cycling inspiration when you’re stuck inside 48 E-cargo bikes The ARCC Linton and new Estarli L20 2.0 55 Bastille E A French folder with big wheels 58 GPS computers Six GPS units with good navigation features OVER TO YOU 63 Letters Your feedback on Cycle and cycling 66 Profile Linskill Riders CCC 68 Q&A Your technical, health and legal questions answered 70 Bike finder Which £500 hybrid?

73 Travellers’ tales Cycling UK members’ ride reports

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

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Quick releases ROUTES

Gallovidian Gravel, Cycling UK’s newest long-distance route, was officially launched on 25 June, a few weeks after the member-only preview last issue. And what an opening day it was: blue skies and 35ºC sunshine that felt more Mediterranean than Scotland. The route’s shady forests, sparkling lochs and café stops were even more appealing than usual.

The launch event in Dumfries brought together donors, partners and stakeholders, including representatives from VisitScotland, the South of Scotland Destination Alliance (SSDA) and local tourism businesses, to celebrate a new

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route that showcases the very best of Dumfries and Galloway.

Many guests took part in a short preview ride led by Cycling UK’s Routes and Training Programme Manager, Ross Adams. The ride followed the River Nith to Mabie Forest for a taste of what makes Gallovidian Gravel so special – including the ice cream at the on-site café.

Gallovidian Gravel is already proving popular, with more than 2,521 GPX downloads in the first 72 hours. The first guidebook was sold at 6.32am on launch day to one particularly eager rider. If ever there was proof that people have been

331km of adventure riding 4,002m of climbing 3 linked loops for shorter rides 1st Cycling UK route entirely in Scotland

waiting for a Scottish addition to Cycling UK’s route collection, that was it.

A journey through SW Scotland Gallovidian Gravel is a new 331km circular route starting and finishing in Dumfries in south-west Scotland. Designed to be ridden either in one go or as three shorter, interconnected loops, it offers plenty of flexibility for riders looking to tailor the experience to the time they have available.

Along the way, the route links rugged coastlines, ancient woodland, quiet back roads and some of the country’s finest gravel riding.

Developed by Cycling UK in partnership with route designers Guy Kesteven and Kieran Foster, it joins a growing collection of long-distance routes that includes King Alfred’s Way, Royal Chilterns Way and Traws Eryri. What makes Gallovidian Gravel special isn’t any single landmark but the sheer variety packed into a compact corner of Scotland. Within a few days’ riding, you’ll roll from traffic-free forest trails to wavelashed shores, from bustling market towns

cyclinguk.org

Photos: Robyn Furtado

Gallovidian Gravel launched

GALLOVIDIAN GRAVEL IN NUMBERS

Quick releases to some awe-inspiring remote landscapes.

Leaving Dumfries, the route heads straight into Mabie Forest, where gravel tracks meander beneath the pines and views stretch across the Solway Firth towards the Lake District fells.

From there it makes for the coast through Rockcliffe, with its sandy beaches and rocky coves, before reaching the secluded beauty of Balcary Bay, which was once associated with smugglers.

The route then visits some of Galloway’s best-known cycling destinations. Dalbeattie offers world-class riding among distinctive granite outcrops, while Kirkcudbright’s colourful harbour and thriving arts scene provide a memorable stop. Further west, Gatehouse of Fleet combines a strong cycling culture with welcoming cafés and independent businesses.

Beyond the coast, the landscape begins to feel wilder. Ancient military roads and quiet gravel tracks lead deep into Galloway Forest Park, the UK’s first Dark Sky Park. Here, the route passes remote stretches of water such as Loch Dee and winds through vast forests where red squirrels, wild goats and red kites are often spotted.

You follow the legendary Raiders Road, one of Scotland’s classic gravel rides, before crossing beneath the towering Big Water of Fleet Viaduct and tracing former railway lines through the heart of Galloway. From there, the route sweeps back east through rolling

Your next adventure

Route: Gallovidian Gravel is available as a free GPX download from the Cycling UK website (cyclinguk.org/gallovidiangravel), alongside route information and planning advice. The official guidebook (shop.cyclinguk.org) contains everything you need to plan your ride. The route is split into eight sections, featuring detailed 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey mapping and points of interest along the way. It also includes practical advice, suggested itineraries and route options.

Need to know: The terrain is predominantly unpaved surfaces. Start/finish – Dumfries.

Best bike – gravel, adventure or touring.

Format – three connected loops that you can ride in one go or as separate sections.

cyclinguk.org

The route includes quiet roads as well as unpaved tracks

countryside and cycling-friendly communities, eventually returning to Dumfries.

Off the beaten path For route creator Guy Kesteven, Gallovidian Gravel reveals a side of Scotland that many riders have yet to discover. “We’ve worked hard to create a moving story of an adventure that takes in traffic-free paths and quiet back lanes, linking trail centres, craggy coasts, smugglers’ coves, seemingly endless forests and wild mountain landscapes,” he said.

Gallovidian Gravel is a journey through one of Scotland’s most overlooked cycling regions. Rich in history, wildlife and welcoming communities, it encourages riders to slow down and explore beyond the familiar tourist hotspots.

Getting there: The route starts and finishes in Dumfries, which has good rail connections. For those driving, Dumfries is easily accessible from the M6 and M74 motorways, or the A74 if travelling from Northern Ireland.

Galloway Gravel Escape: For riders seeking a fully supported experience, Saddle Skedaddle has developed the Galloway Gravel Escape. The holiday includes carefully selected accommodation, seamless logistics and local expertise, so you can focus on enjoying the ride while everything else is taken care of. skedaddle.com

A ride to remember Celebrate your Gallovidian Gravel adventure with an official A3 art print of the route. Produced in collaboration with Ordnance Survey, the artwork is available in light and dark designs. It features the complete route and elevation profile alongside key locations, total distance, elevation gain and descent, creating a lasting record of your ride.

To order a Gallovidian Gravel art print – or artwork from any of our long-distance cycling routes – visit the shop: shop. cyclinguk.org.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

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Great rides

A spot of bothying No wi-fi, no electricity, no sink, no beds: bothies are back-to-basics shelters in remote countryside.

Tony Dabb and his son Jacob visited two of them last autumn

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I

t is dark. Really dark. You have pedalled along a disused railway track, far away from any road, never mind civilisation. Your heartbeat quickens as you turn off the path and descend into the trees along a narrow track. The forest throws back a forbidding blackness as an affront to your puny light. At the end of the track is a near-derelict stone hut, its silhouette against the

night sky. Wait! There is a sound coming from inside. You are not alone.

Tentatively, you push the creaking door. There is a man. With an axe.

A scene like this in a film would have any survivors running and screaming through the woods, Blair Witch-style.

But we’re actually pleased to see the axe-wielding stranger. It’s a freezing cold night at the end of October, and David, who is actually a cheerful paramedic, has been busy chopping a small mountain of logs and firing up the stove to make Leyburnsfoot Bothy warm and cosy for him and his pal Kieran – and for anyone else who might happen to seek shelter from the elements. This is the ‘bothy code’ and David is an excellent ambassador.

It’s our first time bothying. In spring I’d fallen into conversation with Brian who, at almost 70, still spends three weeks each April covering hundreds of kilometres across Scotland. “You should try the bothies”, he said.

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Tour&explore

Clockwise from far left: Leyburnsfoot Bothy, near the abandoned Riccarton Junction station.

Staying at a bothy is like indoor camping.

Departing Leyburnsfoot. The Waverley Route was once a train line between Edinburgh and Carlisle

“Unlike a lot of things in Scotland these days, they’re free.”

Spring turned to summer, then the leaves began to fall. It was late October before I could get around to organising a short half-term trip with my son, Jacob. While camping was still just about an option, the promise of a dry place to sleep, an actual roof, and smoke curling from the chimney of a stone cottage in a forest clearing began to take on a certain romance.

A sky full of stars Leyburnsfoot Bothy is near Riccarton Junction, a former station on the disused Waverley Route between Edinburgh and Carlisle. To get to it, we left Newcastle and followed part of the Reivers Route (NCN 10) northwest through the ‘debatable lands’, which were once ravaged by warring Armstrongs, Thompsons, Carrs and other clans.

We cycled through pretty villages with church spires and cricket greens,

cyclinguk.org

like Stamfordham and Matfen, then reached wild moorland and rugged sandstone crags. At Bellingham, just over halfway between home and the bothy, we ate well in a superb repurposed railway carriage (‘Tea on the Train’). We also visited the appropriately named, for this frontier land, First & Last Brewery taproom.

Our plan was to skirt the edge of Kielder Water, eventually crossing the border through an unlikely gap in the trees to follow the North Tyne through Saughtree (blink and you’ll miss it).

From there a winding gravel track rises away from the valley to reach the Waverley Route, a line that last saw service at the end of the 1960s.

While that is indeed how the journey unfolded, we may have spent a little more time in the taproom than we had intended. We pedalled through and out of Kielder Forest as twilight turned the sky rose gold, and a waxing moon, purple at the edges, appeared in the firmament like a sci-fi backdrop.

It’s difficult not to think of space, in every sense, in this part of the world.

Kielder Observatory has the darkest skies in England and has been named as a Gold Tier Dark Sky Park because of the clarity of its sky. As we tilted our heads in slack-jawed amazement, it positively glowed with wispy nebulae tracing between uncountable stars.

The bothy code The Mountain Bothies Association maintains eight bothies north of the Tyne Valley and into the Scottish Borders. There are plenty more (about 100 altogether), often in some of the most remote and most beautiful places in Scotland, Wales and northern England. Yet there is no guarantee that you will be able to find

“We pedalled through Kielder Forest as twilight turned the sky rose gold and a waxing moon appeared”

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

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Feature

Never Netherlands?

The suggestion that we can’t create Dutch-quality cycle infrastructure here is a cop out. Sophie Gordon spotlights some inspiring UK examples

32 AUGUST/SEPTMBER 2026

cyclinguk.org

Feature

Y

OU’VE HEARD IT OFTEN ENOUGH: “You’ll never

get lots of people cycling here. We’re not the Netherlands.”

You might have even thought it yourself, after tangling with a poorly designed cycle route that rudely spits you out into busy traffic.

It’s easy to forget that even the Netherlands wasn’t always the cycling haven it is now. In the 1970s, the Dutch were headed in a very different direction. The car was the symbol of the modern age, and multi-lane highways were sprouting everywhere.

That was until the parents got stuck in, protesting about the numbers of children being killed on the roads. They created the political will to reimagine how people would move around the streets.

Change is possible. In the run-up to the 2024 Olympics, Paris built 60km of cycle lanes linking all the venues.

The number of daily cycle trips has more than doubled since 2019. In the early 2000s, Seville embarked on an ambitious construction programme, building 80km of protected cycle lanes within just a few years. The results are striking: the number of daily cycle trips increased 11−fold, from 6,000 to 70,000.

All right, you might say – but it’s different on the Continent. Can the UK really experience a cycling revolution?

encounter a big multi-lane road.

I don’t need to worry. Suddenly he turns onto a two-way separated cycle path alongside the main road, and I feel myself relax. We have our own cycle traffic lights to cruise across two lanes of traffic, and then we ride down the A38’s central reservation through an avenue of trees. It’s amazing.

We’re riding on one of Birmingham’s ‘Blue Routes’, completed in 2019.

The route is now used by around 500 people a day, with year-round use even in bad weather. Khalda Begum is one of them. She says the route has made a huge difference for her.

“It’s lovely cycling around the park, but if you want to incorporate cycling into your everyday living then you do need to get out onto the roads and be able to use it to get from A to B. The Blue Route connects to so many places in the city centre, including the university, hospital and shops.”

Khalda is a ride leader, and she uses the route to introduce new or less experienced riders to road cycling. “Because it is in the middle of the road, it gives you a feeling of being on the road, with cars near to you. But you have the safety and comfort of being separated from the cars.

“It’s really sad that, in this day and age, so many women are still fearful to cycle. So many of them feel intimidated on the roads. But you see their confidence build as they start to know their rights on the road and feel comfortable among the traffic on a route like this.”

Birmingham’s Blue Routes I struggle to keep up with my friend Jethro as he weaves through central Birmingham’s slow-moving traffic.

He’s used to busy urban cycling, whereas I’m just visiting for the weekend before the two of us set off on a cycle trip. We follow a sign for the A38 and I brace myself, expecting to

cyclinguk.org

Photos this page: Joolze Dymond

“We ride down the central reservation through an avenue of trees. It’s amazing”

Main image: This separated cycle path by the A38 is one of Birmingham’s Blue Routes, which are similar to London’s Cycleways

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

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Shop window

New and upcoming products that have caught the editor’s eye

Save money

Don’t forget your exclusive member savings, with up to 50% off cycling products and services.

Visit cyclinguk.org/ member-benefits

02

Ridgeback Voyage £1,449.99

One of three additions to Ridgeback’s touring – sorry, ‘trekking’ – range, the fully equipped, flat-bar Voyage has 2×10 Shimano CUES gearing, hydraulic brakes and an open-frame option. ridgeback.co.uk

01

Lezyne Road Drive 500 £60 At 87×54mm (and less than 18mm deep), Lezyne’s new rechargeable light is the size of a credit card yet emits up to 500 lumens. It comes with a quarter-turn mount GoPro mount adapter. ride.lezyne.com

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03

Continental Dubnital 50−622 £66.99

Continental has added a narrower (50mm) version of its Dubnital MTB XC race tyre, which already came in 55 and 60mm. The 545g tyre is for gravel riders. continentaltyres.co.uk

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Van Rysel EDR Period Protection Shorts £34.99

04

Surly Steamroller frameset £699.99

Surly has released a limited run of its venerable fixed-gear/singlespeed frameset in ‘anxious lavender’. As before, it takes 38mm tyres – or 32mm with mudguards. Sizes: 49−62cm. surlybikes.com

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These women’s waist shorts have a special multilayered seat-pad with moisture absorption and a one-way membrane.

They also have two cargo pockets. vanrysel. com

Apidura Expedition Bolt-on Top Tube Bag (1L) £56 Top-tube frame mounts are increasingly common, and this one-litre waterproof bag makes use of them, storing electronics, snacks and more in a frame-rub-free way. apidura.com

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Zéfal Gizmo Universal Bottle Cage Mount £10 Need to carry another water bottle on your bike to cope with the summer heat? Zéfal’s inexpensive Gizmo will fit frame tubes, fork, stem, handlebar or seatpost. zefal.com

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Bike In the frame test

Loaded with potential E-cargo bikes can replace cars for many load- and child-carrying journeys.

Richard Peace tests an ARCC Linton and an Estarli L20 2.0 The ARCC Linton and new Estarli L20 2.0 look superficially similar: they’re e-cargo bikes that are made in Britain, using the typical longtail format. Those stretched-out rear frames and racks will carry children in seats, cargo in boxes, shopping in huge panniers, and more. Yet the two bikes’ spec sheets show notable differences in design and intent.

Frame, fork & cargo racks The Linton’s frame and fork are hand built in Cambridge from 4130 chrome-moly steel. All aspects of the Linton conform to the groundbreaking German cargo bike standard DIN 79010, as well as the EU equivalent, BS EN 17860.

The Linton’s top tube is actually two thinner tubes with cross members, which looks elegant and is clearly stiff enough. By contrast, Estarli’s L20 is made from chunkier aluminium alloy tubing and has a lower step-through.

The rear load areas are similar: both bikes will carry around 80 litres in the rack-top boxes supplied.

Longtail panniers with a capacity of 50 litres each can also be fitted.

Estarli supplied its own, while I fitted Decathlon Longtail Panniers to the Linton. Finally, both came with their

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optional front racks, The Estarli’s gross weight capacity (including rider) is 250kg. The Linton’s is 200kg.

The Linton model I tested with an 8−speed hub weighed 35kg but the range starts at 24kg for the stripped-back singlespeed. At 37kg, the Estarli is heavier but not hefty in e-cargo bike terms. It does have a weighty Enviolo hub, however, as well as a larger-capacity battery.

Both are by definition fairly large bikes, especially with the optional foot rails and safety cages. The Estarli has a fold-down handlebar and pedals to help with storage.

Electric components The Linton uses widely available Bosch power tool batteries, combined with a Bafang front hub motor. The test bike came with two 216Wh batteries and a fast charger.

You can select 144Wh or 324Wh batteries if you prefer.

The use of power tool batteries may sound basic but is actually very sophisticated. ARCC’s Intelligent Drive System consists of: the

Middle: Bosch power tool batteries are easy to find, but it’s worth carrying a spare Bottom: ARCC Bikes IDS Wireless Remote.

The lever unlocks the deployed kickstand

cyclinguk.org

In the frame Bike test

Tech spec ARCC Linton Left: The LInton’s rear rack carries up to 100kg, the front 20kg Below: Bafang front hub motor. It’s lightweight but lacks the torque of the Estarli’s mid-motor

ARCC Bikes IDS Pod, a battery mounting/control unit with three USB outlets (one 1.5A, two 0.5A); and a handlebar-mounted ARCC Bikes IDS Wireless Remote that can be removed from its magnetic cradle.

It’s proprietary tech designed and made by ARCC. The only jarring note for me was the plethora of key systems involved.

The ARCC system can be retrofitted to other bikes, although the company insists on doing the work. The advantage of bike and electric components being ‘separate’ is sustainability.

The electric parts can be upgraded or replaced, while the bike itself may last a lifetime.

The Estarli L20 takes a more conventional approach. It has an own-brand, mid-drive motor with 110Nm torque and a highcapacity 600Wh or 820Wh battery.

The battery is well positioned midframe and is removable with one key.

The ARCC system now features powerful hardwired lights. There is also an app that lets you see the charge remaining in percentage terms instead of battery-level LEDs. The Estarli is again more mainstream, employing an easy-toread central display that shows all the usual metrics. This L20 2.0 has front and rear hardwired lights. The rear is very bright indeed.

longtail rear panniers should suffice.

Both pairs here have internal pockets and fold flat when not in use. Optional footrests effectively support the larger-than-average weights you are likely to put in them.

The Estarli bags go on and off more easily using straps around the frame. The Linton uses panniers just like Decathlon’s; they’re bolted to the rack via lugs on the panniers.

For the rear loading area, the Linton uses a friction-fit plastic box sitting inside the safety rails.

The Estarli has a reinforced canvas bag inside the rails with Velcro fasteners. While the safety rails will be appreciated for child carrying, I’d like a way to fix cargo boxes to the rear rack without them. Rain covers for cargo would be nice, too; these have open tops.

With the right accessories, these bikes can also carry passengers.

The Linton will carry an adult or two children at the rear, while a frontmounted child seat enables a toddler to be carried there. The Estarli is capable of carrying ‘up to

Price: £5,729 (from £4,499).

Sizes: One (4ft 9in-6ft 4in).

Weight: 35kg (as shown).

Frame & fork: Chrome-moly frame with stainless steel rear rack. Fittings for belt drive, front rack, footrests, kickstand, mudguards and two batteries. Chrome-moly fork with mudguard fittings.

Electronics: Bafang front hub motor, 216Wh Bosch battery, torque and cadence sensors, ARCC Bikes IDS Wireless Remote Control, ARCC Bikes IDS Pod. Wheels: 55−406/55−507 Schwalbe Pick-Up f/r tyres, 20/24in Mach1 Trucky 30 rims, 36 spokes, Bafang front hub, Shimano Alfine rear.

Transmission: VP607 pedals, 170mm cranks, 55t Gates CDX beltring, belt & 22t sprocket.

Shimano Alfine 8 shifter & hub.

Eight ratios, 32−98in.

Braking: Magura hydraulic discs with 4−pot callipers and 180/160mm f/r rotors.

Steering & seating: Brooks Cambium grips, 22.2mm swept-back steel riser bar, 300mm-tall quill stem, threaded headset. Madison saddle, 400mm seatpost.

Equipment: Mudguards, wheel guards, lights, locking kickstand, footrests. Test bike extras: 2nd 216Wh battery (£280), low-rise front basket (£325), rear rack safety frame (£225), locking spare battery holder (£175).

“I COULD SEE THE LINTON BREEZING THROUGH CYCLING CITIES LIKE YORK OR OXFORD”

Other components I’m going to focus mostly on cargo accessories. For the weekly shop,

cyclinguk.org

arccbikes.com Dimensions in millimetres and degrees 364 570 565

65˚

508 f 615 r

505

45

590 73˚

32

493 715

170 283 1305

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2026

80 135 507 56

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Over to you

Profile

Linskill Riders

This North Shields based Community Cycle Club won our our recent photo competition. Senior Project Officer Lynnette Evans spoke to Lucy Fenwick and Annie Hodgkiss from the group WHEN CYCLING UK launched our Community Cycle Club photo competition at the beginning of this year, we were looking for images that best showed the club to the world. The entry from Linskill Riders (cyclinguk.org/group/linskill-riders) captured the atmosphere of a night ride with riders lit up by their lights and jackets, a sense of place with the backdrop of Tynemouth Priory, and the impressive composition of the moonlit sky.

Lucy Fenwick is a group leader with the club, while Annie Hodgkiss volunteers as a ride leader. Based at the Linskill Centre in North Shields, Linskill Riders became a Community Cycle Club in 2021. The club’s work is designed around ‘the five ways to wellbeing’ and aims to reduce social isolation for older people. The club’s cycling activities started in earnest during the Covid lockdowns when they found they could safely offer socially distanced rides, and it grew from there.

Lucy, who works for the Linskill and North Tyneside Development Trust, says: “We now have eight active volunteers supporting our Community Cycle Clubs and Big Bike Revival activities and offer at least one ride a week throughout the year. I couldn’t do with without my volunteers! They make the whole thing happen; I would be lost without them.”

The club offers local rides across North Tyneside. Most start from the Linskill Centre, with starting points in Whitley Bay and Tynemouth too.

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Join the club Community Cycle Clubs are affiliated under the Cycling UK Community Cycle Clubs programme, which has helped clubs develop and thrive across England. They are set up in a range of situations, from faith groups and community centres to veterans’ organisations and health and wellbeing groups.

You don’t need to be a confident cyclist to take part, and some clubs will provide bikes to borrow.

Participants say they ride more, feel healthier, happier and better connected with their community.

Clubs are supported by Cycling Development Officers who enable clubs to grow by training volunteers in ride leadership and ensuring that clubs deliver safe activities that are welcoming and inclusive.

To find out more, visit: cyclinguk. org/community-cycle-clubs.

Lucy explains that the rides are aimed at beginners or those returning to cycling “who want to build their confidence, fitness and route knowledge while meeting like-minded people”. So they’re never longer than 16 miles and usually have a café stop.

One of Lucy’s favourite rides involves taking the ferry across the Tyne, then cycling through South Shields along NCN 1 towards Roker.

Annie loves riding the 19th-century Waggonways, which are a legacy from the area’s mining history.

“My favourite is one I call ‘Paths a-Plenty’,” she says. “It’s a 15−mile circular route which includes a country park, some roads and junctions, a midway coffee stop, ponds, wildlife and short hills. It’s perfect for our more experienced riders, who are often unfamiliar with parts of the route, and

Clockwise from top left: Lucy Fenwick (centre).

Café stop at The Hive.

The winning photo

it gives them new options when they go out independently.”

Lucy urges anyone thinking about joining or volunteering at a Community Cycle Club to give it go. Annie agrees.

“Try it and see,” she says. “I’ve made new friends, learned new skills and explored many new local routes. I’ve gained confidence as a cyclist and ridden in more weather conditions and on different surfaces than I ever would have if I hadn’t volunteered.”

Support from the Community Cycle Clubs project has been invaluable. Lucy describes Cycle Development Officer Jordan Matthews as “brilliant”. She adds that he is “extremely supportive of what we are trying to do and always has great suggestions in terms of routes and networking. It’s also reassuring to have the support of Cycling UK behind us in terms of insurance and guidance.”

cyclinguk.org

Join today!

Membership from just £3 a month!* Click here for more information *See www.cyclinguk.org/join for more information and for terms and conditions.

Over to you

Travellers’ tales

Western Isles smiles Who: Nicki Calcutt Where: Outer Hebrides When: May 2026

Rebellion in reverse Who: Rich Burrough Where: Norfolk When: June 2026

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Each summer I take on one of Cycling UK’s long-distance routes. This June I set my sights on Rebellion Way. For practical reasons, my trip would begin and end in Oxborough. I would stay with friends in Norwich, then spend a night near the aptly named Great Snoring.

The only disadvantage of riding anti-clockwise would be that I would have to follow the Cycling UK route guide backwards. But with four weeks to go – disaster! A cracked and stuck carbon seatpost meant a race against time to have it repaired. As I waited, the changeable forecast gave me further cause for concern.

I needn’t have worried. With the weather improving and a more solid post installed, I set off. Not entirely trusting the bike over the bumpier trails through Thetford Forest, I didn’t enjoy this stunning section as much as I should have. However, any doubts were soon forgotten as forest gave way to quiet lanes and picture-postcard villages.

Misjudging the depth of the

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River Waveney ford couldn’t dampen my spirits, and a stop to imagine Venta Icenorum capped a fine first day.

Defying the forecast, the skies were blue as I weaved along Norwich’s cycle paths and out into more glorious countryside the following morning. The Bure Valley Path was a joy, and I was soon in Aldborough, where a cricket match was about to commence. Could things be any more English? I had a photo stop at Blickling Hall and a well-earned ice-cream at Sheringham. A diversion to the fascinating Baconsthorpe Castle rounded out day two.

Though it was too early for the devout to be out in Great Walsingham early on day three, there were plenty of tourists enjoying the sunshine by the time I reached Wells-nextthe-Sea. Then I took in the splendour of Holkham Estate.

After diversions into Sandringham Estate and Castle Acre, I tackled the long gravel section to Swaffham – now with full confidence in my bike.

Before I knew it I was back in Oxborough, with wonderful memories to keep me going until next year.

• Read more about Rebellion Way: cyclinguk.org/rebellionway-route

For my 70th birthday last year, I was lucky enough to be given a Brompton Electric P Line. I christened her Dora the Explorer and decided we’d ride the Hebridean Way together.

I reckoned that by travelling light and going with the prevailing wind, I could cover the 185 miles – consisting of 10 islands, six causeways and two ferries – in four or five days. In the event, a strong northerly blew all week. But it didn’t rain, and I happily pedalled from Vatersay to the Butt of Lewis, with time to explore and take in the beautiful surroundings: beaches, machair, standing stones, mountains and almost continuous cuckoo calls.

I stayed in excellent hostels, bunkhouses and a comfortable B&B. I enjoyed the solo riding yet the opportunity to meet up with fellow travellers each day.

The Brompton’s battery is housed in the front pannier so to the casual observer it is an ordinary folding bike. Speeding along with the occasional boost of zoom assist, I became a familiar figure: a grey-haired granny making light work of the Harris hills on a Brompton.

I think Dora and I might tackle the Orkneys next year.

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