THEY DID IT! 70km on a tandem bicycle (with tiny wheels) using Birmingham’s existing cycle routes and great green spaces with some massive hills thrown in. View their ride HERE.
Lisa and Esther took on this huge challenge to raise funds for our #BrumByBike project to allow us to continue our cycling projects across Brum, delivering tuition, route finding, led rides and maintenance sessions enabling people to replace shorter car journeys for active travel, helping to reduce congestion, CO2 emissions and improve air quality.
If you can, please support us today with a small donation, this must be done via our BIG GIVE campaign page.
Donations made between 22nd-29th April will be matched by The Big Give which will help us continue to grow our project and give people the skills and confidence they need to choose to active travel.
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Being thrown out of their comfort zone with huge millage and massive hills on a small wheeled tandem was defiantly physically demanding proven by the 11hrs it took to complete the route and although they both had an great day riding across Brum having a none standard bike meant there were a few other challenges encountered along the way. Small lifts at New Street train station means for some, combining active travel and public transport just wouldn’t be possible. A few barriers along some of the greenways on route the girls needed to lift the bike above their heads to get through. Not an option for a person in a wheel chair or adapted bike.
For majority of the route we had no issues at all but these few small hurdles really highlight the need for accessible bike friendly routes for more people to feel confidant to choose active travel. This has been a learning experience and we will be useful when delivering route finding sessions and when creating routes promoting active travel for our upcoming 69wards project. We look forward to the promised new cycling infrastructure across Birmingham and happy to report we noticed that lots of barriers had been removed/removed making for an enjoyable ride.
Big thanks to Ruth for letting us borrow Daisy the tandem, you can follow her families car free adventures over on instagram @life_down_purple_lane.
And thanks to Michael from The Ride to Positivity Project for joining upon the ride and taking some great photos throughout the day. Michael is doing a great job inspiring people to get out on the bike and organises a social ride from Erdington to our morning Bike #BreakfastClub every week.