5 Pits, 12 riders, 1 cloud burst, 0 complaints ....

A great loop on the 5 Pits Way made for a damp but, enjoyable May family ride. Proof if proof were needed that a bit of rain never hurt anyone.

The kids loved it, but so did the adults ... although to be quite so cold in May was a 1st for some.

June ride details soon - 21st June - a sunny one perhaps?

May ride - 17th May ... Grassmoor Country Park

Sunday 17th May for a ride along the 5 Pits Trail from Grassmoor Country Park near Chesterfield. 10am for 10.30 departure.

See car park on map here. Note there is another car park on the northern side, but you want to come to the south eastern one that is bigger.

Some people had trouble last year, so we have marked the route to take on gmap pedometer - an amazing site for route planning.

Take A61 to Chesterfield and the A617 towards M1 and then follow above.

Super sunny tram assisted ride

A super sunny ride to Renishaw Hall on the TPT, with picnic, tram-assists for many and only one broken chain, but plenty of home made brownies and flapjack.

A great turn out of kids on their own bikes, on seats, tag alongs, tandems all very excited by chocolate coin hunts, jet skiing show offs and the opportunity to whizz along in a wonderfully wack races-like fashion along a great traffic-free route. They all coped very well with a few hundred metres of busy road too and the adults all tolerated the moving feast that was the picnic. How could anyone ever say a bunch of feasting cycling gannets could make somewhere look untidy ...

Next ride on the 17th May from Grassmoor .... more details in the coming weeks

April Ride - with tram option ...

The next Sheffield Family Ride has the option of a tram assisted start on Sunday April 19th. Meet at 09:45 @ Sheffield Cathedral to catch the tram or meet us at 11.00am Rother Valley CP Cafe.

The destination for the ride is Renishaw Hall whether you catch the tram, cycle out to the Park or park there.

The tram option is great fun for kids - putting your bike on trams is not allowed on everyday trams. The costs for the chartered tram are:
Adult + bike return £5
Child + bike return £2

The ride from the tram stop to the Park is mainly on off-road through housing, but there are bits of on-road. The route from the Park is on traffic-free routes, apart from the last bit to the Hall.

Pic-nic at the halfway stage as usual. Look forward to seeing you all.

Next ride - Sunday 15th - Rother Valley

The next Sheffield family ride is on the 15th March at Rother Valley Country Park. 10am meet for 10.30 departure. Around 10 gently rolling miles, the majority of which are traffic-free.

Everyone welcome ... we've get a mixture of tandems, tag alongs, trailers, child seats and of course kids on solo bikes. All under 16s accompanied by an adult.

More details nearer the date.

CANCELLED - Sunday 15th ride ... too icy still

Apologies to everyone for late notice, but an inspection of the trails in the woods today suggested it would not be any fun cycling in there with families.

The snow has lingered, compacted and outstayed its welcome.

We are sure it will be gone soon and the normal light drizel and low cloud we all love will be back for the March ride ....

Snow much fun? 10am Sunday 15th ...

This months family cycle ride is planned for this Sunday, 15th February. Meeting at Millhouses Park Café at 10 am ish for a 10.30 start, then cycle through Ecclesall woods to Whirlowbrook Hall for a lunch stop (space to picnic in garden, or café) and back to the start.

This ride has got nice stretches of off-road cycling in the woods and is not too long or challenging, although can be a bit muddy if the tracks in the wood are very boggy or wet.

We will need the snow to have melted a bit more though before we can do it – the tracks are not very cycleable at the moment – so check this blog the day before and we’ll post an update on whether its going ahead or not.

Other planned rides for 2009 are (every third Sunday, 10 for 10.30 am):

15 March – meet at Rother Valley Country Park Visitor Centre
19 April – bikes on tram ride – meet at Cathedral tram stop at 10 am (nb note this ride starts a bit earlier than our normal rides)
17 May – meet at Grassmoor Country Park
21 June – meet at Old Moor Wetlands Centre car park
19 July – meet at Endcliffe Park Café
16 August – trip to Clumber Park

We’ll post directions and route descriptions on the blog - plus email them out the week before the ride.

Happy riding.