It is not very often we welcome a new bicycle into the family but that’s just what we have done recently. This is more of a bicycle fostering arrangement through an excellent scheme called Wheels to Work and administered by the Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity.
Trek 7.0 hybrid
Almost certainly we will be publishing a more in-depth view of this bicycle in due course but first impressions of the Trek 7.0 hybrid are pretty good. While it is never going to be a Tour de France winner, it has a great design for a modest day-to-day bicycle which can be used for commuting. It is well equipped, sturdy, it has a very wide spread of gears, is very user-friendly and easy to live with.
The scheme itself has been set up by the Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity and is designed to assist local people solve local transport problems through the loan of a bicycle. Locally their partner Travel Choices are the “shop front” for the scheme in Dunstable and are providing a brilliant service in promoting cycling as a means of transport (alongside other forms of sustainable transport).
For the time being this is now “Rachel’s bike” or rather “Mummy’s bike” and is absolutely ideal for someone who is not a natural cyclist. Understandably there is the issue of inexperience, confidence, traffic, negotiating busy junctions to contend with as well as “Yours Truly”. Yours Truly as you know is a keen, confident cyclist who happily takes on all kinds of challenges. Yours Truly takes it easy with Rachel the Reluctant Cyclist, never leaving her behind, always expressing compliments, supportive and loving words of encouragement. We appreciate the cycle track running alongside the Luton Dunstable Busway and the Trek is ideal for this – the wide tyres provide a nice cushion against the stony surface (which, BTW, is still improving nicely).
It’s worth mentioning Travel Choices in their work alongside Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity provide lots of support for would-be cyclists including training, route planning and accompanied rides to assist people wherever needed. Seems to me to be a Win Win situation.
Related:
How to encourage the Reluctant Cyclist
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