The Trax Youth club does not meet at the normal time or place on Saturday 11th September due to the annual Lordship Rec Festival on the day.  We do invite kids and parents to join us instead on that same day for the annual Peace Road Ride against gun and knife crime organised by Derek Brown from the Shell Theatre at 11am as part of the festival. Kids must be accompanied by parents so make this a family day out. In the afternoon we will have a stall at the festival by the skate park from where we will be signing up new members and running taster coaching sessions. So please pass the word and feel free to join in.

Morning: 11am Shell Theatre / skate Park Peace Road Ride (kids must be accompanied by parents so make this a family day out)

Afternoon 1pm -5pm : beginner club taster sessions (All welcome - bring your friends)

Lordship Rec Festival: 3000 people last year.  Including: Tottenham Flower & Produce Show, Dog Agility Show, Cycling Activities & Dr Bike, Fun Run, Performances & DJ, Community Cafe, Skateboarding/BMXing, Football Tournament, Netball, Tennis, Aerobics, Martial Arts, Rugby, Arts and Crafts for Under-5s and for older children, Pedal-powered Stage, History Displays, Pond-Dipping & Bug Hunt, Adventure Play, Children's Procession (tbc), Picnics and Community Stalls

Questions: Daniel Mintz daniel.mintz@ibikeride.com 07990577206

NB: The club meets as normal on Saturday 4^th September and 18^th September

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Our first away day ride for the youth Club on this Saturday 28th August  is open to exisiting youth club members only. This is in order that we can maintain a safe, organised and fun guided ride. If you are not an existing member of the youth club and want to join then please get in touch and feel free to join us on the following Saturday (4th Sept) at the Rec.

Plan for Youth Club Trent Park Ride Saturday 28th August - Members Only

Arrive: 9.45 prompt Lordship Rec club hut

Return: 3.00pm (not 2pm as previously thought) Lordship Rec club hut

Bring: Bike, helmet, Packed Lunch, snack and water for the day. Waterpoofs and trainers to cycle in. Cyling gloves recommeded

If you have a free oyster card bring it otherwise the club will cover the cost of transport

Plan: The  Trent Park away day is a guided off road ride. Two coaches, the club Welfare officer and a general volunteer will accompany the kids. We ride to Hornsey station (along quiet roads). Here the Bikes will be picked up in a van from there and transported to New Barnet station. The kids get on the train to New Barnet where we collect the bikes and cycle to Trent Park. Here the real fun begins as we ride around the beautiful woodland. We return to Lrodship Rec. The ride is led by lead coach Mario who is a CTC qualified ride leader.

To help us plan and to ensure a space please let us know if you can make it.  Any questions please contact: Daniel Mintz 07990577206  (daniel.mintz@ibikeride.com) or Mario Schmoltzi 07540972076

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If you want to use the TFL (Transport For London) bike hire scheme, but want to ensure that the nearest docking station has a bike, and that there will be space at your target destination, there are a number of tracking apps available.
This is the nicest I've seen, since it's overlaid with a map, has a nice graphical interface and gives you a real-time update of the number of bikes at each docking station in a very clear and easy to interpret fashion.

http://www.oobrien.com/vis/bikes/

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Today we passed a milestone in making the club sustainable. We have permission from Haringey council and a ready to use facility to store bikes, helmets, cones and trail maintenance tools etc.

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Folks,

As a quick update we are curently planning a structured summer program for the youth club. We are aiming for Mid June to start on Saturday mornings 10-12. If you are interested in getting involved (as a coach, trainee coach or general volunteer) then please get in touch direct. More info to follow over the next few weeks. In the meantime happy riding.

Daniel

daniel.mintz@ibikeride.com

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As part of a consultation I have been asked  by the LCC (London Cycling Campaign) in Haringey to give input on the following question..

What needs to be done to enable more people in Haringey to cycle?

This is because Haringey has become one of the Mayors nominated cycling boroughs and they are in planning mode as to how to achieve this..

My response is below and feel free to add. In essence I felt the suggestions to date had really missed out how to create a communtiy around cycling and how parks and off road cycling in London could be a major means of driving more folk into cycling across the board. Hopefully that comes across below.

Adam,

For people to cycle more then I think getting people into cycling when young is key. A key barrier to this is fear of taking your kids out as a family on the roads. A key opportunity is to get kids and families cycling in the local parks and green spaces. The attitude of the many parks I come across is that cycling is a danger to park users and to the environment and this is mainly due to a lack of cycle paths in parks and so pedestrian and cyclist conflict occurs. I really believe the more cycle paths in parks will instill cycling into kids at a young age and lead to more family and community cohesion.

Queens Wood is a perfect example where the Friends group do not allow cycling and have asked the Trax club to stop riding there. Ancient bye laws dictate in so many parks you cant cycle. Remove the outdated laws and create specific paths and signage to create unity and community support between differing user groups. We have seen this work effectively in the magnificent support we get in Lordship Rec from the community groups.

Taking this to the next natural step we can move to a network of off road dirt tracks in our local green spaces throughout the borough and then London. They can be small and allow kids to engage in activities after school and on weekends, The health and social benefits are enormous as we are seeing in Lordship Rec as we coach local kids in Tottenham every weekend on our small dirt BMX track as part of the club activities. This enables kids from all socio economic groups and abilities to meet in  a cohesive cycling community.

This model should  extend to the whole of London and it is what The Trax are committed to. We already have two other parks in contact with us. Once it is in place then the opportunities can be whatever we make them. Envisage a new mini amatuer racing league for London with schools competing with each other. Very shortly thousands of kids would be cycling and having fun in our green space cycling infrastructure and network throughout London. We just need some relaxed bye laws, some small infrastructure and pro-active groups like the LCC, British Cycling, the CTC, IMBA and local community groups to get behind us and make it happen.

All the best Daniel Mintz
Chairperson - The Trax Club

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.we will keep the rides in the calendar so we can keep the momentum going and all get to meet up, but they will not be formal club led rides as such. Hence do please always check to see if a ride leader is nominated. If not then please go ahead but organise between yourselves the day and the plan using the calendar or the forum as you see fit.

If anyone wishes to volunteer to guide and lead rides for any of the entries (or other locations / dates) then please let me know when are where and your availability (even if only one ride every couple of months that be great). The main requirement is a) knowing a route b)  using common sense and looking out for each other c) turning up and organising the day. We have some simple guidleines and procedures that can help if you are interested.

Do get in touch if either coaching or being a ride leader are of interest.

For clarity rides that are not led by the club formally can not be covered by the clubs liability insurance so are at your own risk. Enjoy...

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Quick update.

Going forward Sunday is the new regular day for weekend rides. This is because Saturday is being used for regular 16 and under youth coaching in the Rec.

Also rides will now all be graded either

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

The same rides can have a combination of grading. Please check the Event detail of a ride to see the gradings of a particular ride. Any questions just email me on daniel.mintz@ibikeride.com

As the club is growing :) I would expect that soon we will be offering a selection of rides on the same day to suit different levels and abilities.

Please note helmets and common sense are mandatory on all rides.

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Folks,

Just an update on a few things with the club for general knowledge and discussion

Junior Trax Off Road Cycle Skills Course - 6th Feb - Mar

This is an off road skills course being run in Lordship Rec every Saturday morning from 6th Feb to 6th March for 10 to 16 year olds. It is made possible by a grant from Play Sport london. Lucy, Mario and Oliver will be coaches on the courses working alongside Firecrest MTB.

After a detailed planning session on site we are all set to go and very psyched. Attention is now on publicising the course and spreading the word so we have emailed the Friends email list, met some local youth projects and got some posters up locally and generally started talking lots to local folks. NB the course is all abilities so we are working to communicate it to all groups to ensure it is as inclusive to disabled riders too.We've all been out there along with Shaz getting folks enthused. All going well.

The plan is to continue these sessions as an ongoing Saturday morning session. I will be training as a British Cycling Coach this year and so will be lending a hand (and sounds like lots of fun) and if you are keen to be a coach then please let us know your interest (we are looking at funding to help out).

The sessions are Saturday so don't be surprised if you start seeing the regular rides move to a Sunday (as the coaches want to get out and ride too;)

Feel free to spread the word.

Big Bad Bike Race - 13th March (tbc)

Bill Wright from Brtish cycling and the same loud-mouth lot from the club above have been working to plan a Bike Race in Lordship Rec on 13th March for under 16's. Well why not. Races are fun. It forms a nice culmination to the end of the skills course and will also be open to kids not on the course from local schools and community centres etc. We will have three races we are thinking. A time trial, a relay and a mass start. Our top coaches will be on hand to get folks warmed up and thinking technique as well as fun. Hopefully four races even..as we get the 16 plus club members and stewards to race too;)

We are currently planning the day structure and map of the course in detail but looking like a Dr Bike from 11am to get the bikes in order and then the racing goes from 1pm to 4pm. Loads of fun! We are looking for some stewards to help out and have fun with us on the day if you fancy getting involved in the madness.

BMX Dirt Track Repair Project

This project is to repair the existing BMX dirt track to give us an infrastructure to coach on as well as a place for all the public to use.It is split now into two phases:

Phase 1:

We intend to do some small maintenance (fix the starting ramp, fill in holes) just before the 6th Feb course. We will do this as council volunteers under their supervision and insurance.Probably day of 2nd Feb if anyone is around and not working and fancies lending a hand?

Phase 2:

We still need to do a bigger repair that requires funds and more autonomy.

a) Autonomy: So I am looking for our own insurance so we can work outside of council supervision at a more convenient time (i.e. weekends when the club members are mainly free). I am shopping around and working with Karl Bartlett form the IMBA to make this happen.  At the same time we will have a management contract with the council which we are looking to draw up in March.

3) We need equipment and materials and we have put in a funding request with Comic relief so will hear back mid Feb

Early March we will have all the inputs and probably review as a club in more detail. I am thinking though that the project going forward will be more focussed as a repair job with adults from club than a big publicised under 16 event we were thinking previously. One of the reasons for this is the two project above are satisfying our drive to recruit under 16's so less need (and less complexity.. we have a lot on;)

OK that's enough for now. We have Epping Ride next week and a pub/ club meeting to define the constitution and drink beer on 2nd Feb in the Islington Tap around 7.30pm. Hope to see you then :)

NB I will do these posts intermittently to give folks an update. Feel free to contact me directly

Thanks to all and a special thanks and acknowledgement to Mario, Lucy, Shazi and Oliver who have really worked hard and been brilliant in making all this happen.

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