Overtaken by events

It's been a little while since we've posted on the blog, although those of you who follow us on Twitter, @FamilyByCycle, will have an idea as to why!

The list of recent events waiting to be published (the pictures and some of the text having been put aside in preparation!) goes a little bit like this:

• Thomas Ivor has met and ridden with touring legend Mark Beaumont, given his first illustrated lecture at the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe, has moved house, started at a new school, won some more races, appeared on the podium at the Women's Tour of Britain, moved up to a larger bike, and climbed Scafell Pike as part of a project to climb and cycle between the 'Three Peaks'

• Rhoda is balance biking and has progressed to using the Rothan rather than the Strider.

• Ruth now has her Cnoc 14 and is riding confidently on her own two wheels. She has started to use our new Islabikes trailerbike, and then stopped again, and then started again, because...

• Mummy and Daddy had our touring bikes stolen from the rack on the back of the car hours after this picture was taken. We lost both our Trek tourers, the Islabikes trailerbike rack, the bike carrier was badly mauled; the car damaged. We've replaced the bikes for the short term, and now the car's exhaust has dropped off in sympathy, a week before the MoT is due. We had a great time in Clitheroe and we've celebrated our wedding anniversary with a #Microadventure of our own, we've made a few little films, carried on finding ways to be adventurous and to ride bikes one way or another, and, er, neglected our blog.

We're still sourcing bits and fettling our new bikes with the hope of having some kind of a touring trip this summer when we had almost given it up as a bad job.

The good news is we have lots of things to write about and share, from the lows of seeing over £3000 of stuff stolen or broken outside our home, to the joys of seeing another child pedal off into the distance. We'll turn the story above into links to those individual tales, just as soon as we can, and we look forward to sharing our experiences once more.

Meantime, why not visit our YouTube Channel and subscribe? There are new films of all kinds on there and more in the pipeline...

Inspire the next

Today's trip to the park has seen all three children making progress on their cycling journey.

We started out by raising Ruth's seat, and she is now scooting with increasing confidence. I'm amazed how slow she can travel with both feet up in the air! We do need her to cotton on to the idea of using her brakes before too long, or she will learn by the school of hard knocks. We're also going to have to speak to Islabikes about the long seatpost for the Rothan, because Ruth is now right up on the stop.

Thomas Ivor, meantime, has been working on bike handling, taking the opportunity to use laps of the bandstand to practice the skills we want him to have at his disposal on the road, in comparative safety. Today we've done riding one-handed and looking behind whilst tracking in a straight line, leading to indicating left and right, which has gone well. Until he's doing this as second nature he will rely on having one of us on his shoulder on the road, so this is an important, if mundane, rite of passage for him, which will lead to him becoming more independent.

That's where the report might have ended, but sat in the rucksack on my shoulders as we did all this, a little girl kept insistently shouting "Bike!, Bike!".

Once Ruth decided she wanted a sit down, out came the allen key, and Rhoda, at all of 16 months, sat imperiously on the bike, like Borat with a chair, before edging forward a couple of inches...

 ...and falling off.

"Oh Dear!", she pronounced, getting back to her feet without a fuss.

Proud Dad.