Do you need some encouragement and support to get you cycling regularly?
Our courses are aimed at people who haven’t done much cycling before or have not cycled for a long time. We can teach you to cycle with confidence, from braking and turning, to cycling off the tarmac and uphill.
Cycle for Health was originally developed through the CTC and their cycle champion Steve Marsden.
It started in 2008 with Steve identifying the need for such a course within the city. He then worked with a partnership of the CTC, the Primary Care Trust, Sheffield City Council, Heeley Development Trust and Pedal Ready to establish funding and start delivering gentle cycling courses to the people of Sheffield.
The main objectives of the cycle for health course is for people to have the chance to try out a bike, gain confidence, meet new people, socialise and get a feeling of a new way of getting about.
The course is taught with a small group where progression is made at your pace, supported by instructors with years of experience teaching adults in a variety of environments. You are under no pressure to reach any particular standard, but will be surprised by just how much you can do.
Courses are run in parks throughout the city, so there should be a course near you.
Courses are usually over 6 lessons, each lasting about 2 hours.
Booking is essential.
We provide you with:
- Bikes suitable for all riders
- Helmets (not compulsory)
- Friendly instructors
- An unpressurised environment
- Enclosed off road surfaces
- Opportunity to explore the parks
- Quiet on road cycling (if you choose)
- An opportunity to meet new people
These park based courses are ideal as a way of discovering the benefits of cycling. You’ll feel more confident about cycling more often. You will feel some of the benefits that cycling at your own pace brings: gentle low impact exercise, losing weight, a sense of freedom, improving your heart and lungs and simply learning something new.
Steve Marsden of the CTC:
“Cycle for Health has helped hundreds of people over the few years it has been running. People have gone on to buy their own bikes and to carry on cycling. We have even had one chap who sold his car and who now uses his bike as his only mode of transport!”
There is no charge for these courses if you are a Sheffield resident but booking is essential for these courses as numbers are limited.
The bikes that Pedal Ready use on the Endcliffe Park and Hillsborough Park courses have been loaned to us by the CTC.
The Cycle Confidence courses developed out of the Cycle for Health courses and offer the same format. They are an ideal stepping stone to the on-road training courses that Pedal Ready offer.
In 2013 these courses will be run in Endcliffe Park, Hillsborough Park, High Hazels Park in Darnall and Concord Leisure Centre. These courses will be starting again soon as follows:
Endcliffe Park
The first course will start on Tuesday 26 March 2013 from 10:00am to 12:30pm (this course finishes on 30th April, and the next course begins on 7th May).
Hillsborough Park
The first course will start on Thursday 28 March 2013 from 10:00am to 12:30pm (this course finishes on 2nd May, and the next course begins on 9th May).
Darnall
The first course will start on Thursday 22nd May 2013 from 10:00am to 12:30pm (this course finishes on 26th June, and the next course begins on Saturday 13th August, finishing on 17th August).