It’s 6am and once again, I’m Kingsworthy bound to pick up Jo for another cycle adventure. But there are no bikes in the van this time.
We are on our way to Birmingham for the National Cycling Show. I’m not sure that we would have gone if it wasn’t for the free tickets, this is a new show and it was hard to tell what we were letting ourselves in for. I had been to something similar in London but run by a much bigger company whereas this was a completely new experience for Jo.
Our main aim was to see as many of the talks as possible. There were two main stages - Cycling 101, sponsored by Cycling UK and as the name suggests, had mostly ‘How to’ type talks. The other was the inspiration stage. Both had a long list of talks just begging for us to go and listen to.
We arrived after the welcome but before the initial talk on the 101 stage. The first talk was a little disappointing, it was titled ‘Women - know your limits’ the write-up suggested a rallying call to women cyclists everywhere and sounded right up my street. Instead, it was really just an excuse for a set of female cyclists to chat to each other about their best’s, longest’s and most’s!
We nipped across to the other stand just in time to see someone put on a large jacket that looked like an orange segment. She proceeded to explain that with the surname 'Orange' what else should you wear when completing your first marathon? She then showed a photo of numerous other pieces of Fruit that she has made for each marathon she ran. (There were quite a few!)
A gap between talks allowed us to wander around the stands. The connection between some and the subject of the show was tenuous, to say the least.
Jo arrived back to the seats at one point having been offered to have a wave put into her hair by the salon taking up one of the biggest stand spaces. Given that the majority of the attendees were middle-aged balding men, I’m not sure how much trade they got. Another stand nearby sold premium dog food! We didn't revisit that aisle.
We were offered numerous freebies from the Cycle UK stand but surprisingly little from elsewhere. Instead, there was the usual ‘subscribe to our email list here and we will give you free entry to our competition to win some socks!’ The British Cycling stand had especially little to offer and was quite uninspiring.
Our packed lunch was literally inhaled waiting for the next talk at the 101 stand. It’s hungry business listening to talks you know!
Next up was Duncan Dollimore explaining how they managed to finally get the Highway Code changed. He also showed the video campaign they decided to fund to try to get the message across to the general public but wasn’t then used by national media. Even now, it’s shocking how little people understand about them as was clear from some of the questions being asked.
I chatted to Duncan Dollimore for a while afterwards asking if more could be done to twist the arms of the train companies to provide easier and cheaper travel for the cyclists, citing our recent trip to Carlisle and our wish to have gone by train rather than a van trundle. I also suggested they ran an affiliation scheme with campsites who were willing to allow cycle campers to stay one night for cheaper rates as the now standard £20 a night (with electric hook up!) or the policy needing a two-night booking is crippling those trying to cycle tour. He said he would look into the issue.
Another break in the talks and more wandering around the stalls. Apart from finding the hair salon a bit odd, I was surprised that none of the big bike companies were there. In fact, the only type of bike you could buy (if you had the money) was electric and these were plentiful.
Back to the inspiration stage to listen to Mimi Anderson talk about her transition from runner to endurance cyclist. But as with many of this type of talk, the adventure seemed way out of reach for mere mortals like myself. I had opted for this one rather than the Cantti way talk as that was repeated on Sunday. But I kicked myself as I listened to the same speaker - Mildred Lock speak of her method of bikepacking during a later talk. Seeing how her bike was packed was fascinating.
Heads spinning from tons of information we headed back to the car park I did consider buying a show bag but decided that £5 was just too much for something I really didn’t need so walked away. I guess most other people did too as we were then given one for free on Sunday. (Ironically, I have since found it an exceptionally useful bag!)
We had opted to stay in a bed and breakfast literally 5 mins from the venue. So were checked in and settled in no time. We ventured down the road to a Brewers Fair for a vegetarian carvery then retired for coffee and an early night at our lodgings. The other room was now occupied by a couple visiting the flower show on at the NEC at the same time. We only found this out when we had to disturb our host as our key was stuck in the front door. The landlord, and a can of WD40, soon had things sorted though.
Once in our room and a coffee in hand, We checked out our wish list of Sunday's talks only to find that just as with day 1, our choices were remarkably similar.
The day started very quietly as we ambled around the stands, giving away our emails for little in return. A loop round didn’t take very long and the crowds were building. We chose our seats and waited for the first talk by the Canal and riverboat trust about 'Sharing the space'. The technology they are using to track users is quite amazing as is the simplicity of their measures to slow people down. We both agreed that it was very interesting.
The possibly mistitled ‘The logistics of organising a multi-day bike packing trip’ began and we heard how each of the speakers organised their bikepacking journeys . I guess this would be useful if you found yourself in their specific situation e,g, up a mountain that your father-in-law organised you to be airlifted from by someone such as Richard Branson! I found it slightly lacking in general hints and tips. Maybe I needed more coffee and to tune in a little better. A little demoralised and again feeling quite fraud-like to even think I was a tourer, we went for another loop of the stalls.
We went back to the Litelok stand. We had looked at the locks the night before and spend a considerable amount of time researching them. We asked all the questions we had thought of and both walked away with slightly heavier bags.
I didn’t buy the Ikea-inspired bike rack in the end, it was a close one as I really did like the look of it, but did by some mix it yourself touch up paint for my bike.
And of course, we had to sneak in a quick sock photo while waiting for the next talk. This one was about the Cantii Way. And finally, we were listening to like-minded people doing like-minded things. The fraud like feeling, slowly ebbing away as they talked.
We were quite excited by this new route and have vowed to give it a go. We even went running off to the Cycling UK stand to buy a guidebook, only to find that they cannot produce one due to some clause in the funding used to produce the route in the first place. There are lots of details online though and it was genuinely great to see that our membership money gets very well used. Well done Cycling UK
By this time we were shattered. We wandered across for coffee and slumped into the cafe chairs. We decided that the walk back across to the 101 stage was a trip too many and decided to give the ‘Making cycling more inclusive’ talk a miss. Instead, we watched the people trying out the different types of electric bikes while we waited for the next inspiration talk. This one was by Kate Rawles about a ride she made through America. I initially wasn't too keen as I had really enjoyed listening to a set of people talk about something real and obtainable. I feared this would be just another privileged person explaining how amazing they were at cycling.
But as soon as she started talking, I realised I had heard Kate's story before, most probably on a podcast. This was confirmed when she mentioned her bamboo bike named Woody. She was the first person all weekend that made me pick up my pen and write down a load of quotes.
I loved her referring to us cyclists as 'accidental eco-warriors', a label that I am more than happy to wear.
But her explaining the loss of over 60% of all species during her lifetime (which happens to be my lifetime too) really hit home hard. Of course, I was already aware that we now have more endangered species than ever before and that the way we use land plus the way the climate is changing holds much of the blame. My mind quickly went to those evenings spent watching the wonders uncovered by Jonny Morris and later Sir David Attenburgh and reading stories of so many new species being found every week. My head was now reeling at the shear scale of this impending disaster.
Kate's slide show continued, showing amazing photos of the diverse animals she saw on her trip and the changing landscapes that she rode through, but all the time reminding us of the threat they are now under. I knew humans were cutting down rain forests for example, but I had no idea that humans are currently clearing those forests at the rate of seven football pitches a minute. In fact, looking it up today, it appears that we have become even more efficient and are now clearing 10 pitches worth a minute. How we are sitting back and letting this happen is almost unfathomable.
Kate had very cleverly weaved her message regarding the increasing loss of biodiversity and the increasing dangers this causes to the balance of the Earth within the talk of the adventure and the ride itself. I wondered how the others in the audience felt. Though clearly moved by her environmental message, I was also quite motivated by this normal woman, of a similar age, travelling in a way I loved, on a type of bike that I hankered after. The photo of her and a laden Woody came as a reassurance that
1. A wooden bike can take the loads needed for camping and 2. I don’t pack ‘too much!’
Just as I felt myself sinking into global warming induced despondency, Kate introduced the idea of Adventure plus - using an adventure story to help raise awareness and inspire action. From that moment, this concept just kept playing round and round in my head. Could I do something like this? Another seed was sown.
We stopped and chatted to Kate at the end of her talk, I asked after Woody and explained that I was looking into getting a wooden bike too. She reasured me that Woody was extremely comfortable and easily carried far more weight than I could imagine trying to cycle with. I would have loved to have spent the rest of the day chatting to her, but the next speaker was just beginning and the whole venue had moved to this corner to hear from the Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey.
Jo and I did one final loop of the hall, chatting for a while with the Femwicks family and buying some extra eco friendly bike care before heading back to the van to to start our journey home. Our heads and conversations were full of what we had heard, ideas to put these things into practice and schemes to return next year with more folk.
Thank you as always to Jo for your wonderful company.
Thank you Kate for your inspirational talk, permission to use your photograph and numerous conversations since Birmingham.
Thank you Cycle UK for your tireless (no pun intended) campaigning to improve our cycle journeys.
And thank you to The National Cycle Show for the option to get free tickets from Cycle UK that enticed us up there in the first place.
For more information -
Kate Rawles - https://www.outdoorphilosophy.co.uk/
Cantii way - https://www.cyclinguk.org/cantii-way
The National Cycling Show https://nationalcyclingshow.com/
