St Mungo,s to Glasgow Green

Today's diary. An introductory session for 11 young girls from various schools in the east end of Glasgow. We all met at St Mungo's Ac, at 10.00 am got kited up. The session started with some input on the use of observation skills being the most important part of cycling and safety. We then moved on to the sizing of bikes. Then on to the bikes them selves. A few circuits around the upper playground gave us an idea of how the girls were at the basics. We then moved on to the lower play ground and did some work on changing gears and then we were of to Glasgow Green lead by constable Geoff Smith. These in school initiatives are organised by cycle cops from the Strathclyde-Force so we had 3 Police escorts on the short route to the green through the streets, it's a strange experience for a long time serving cyclist to have the traffic stopped to ensure your passage through the busy streets of Glasgow. But it did feel good to have motorists being very cautious when they approached me/us, for a change.
In the green we completed a figure of 8 circuit using the down hills in the park to encourage the good use of brakes. The green has an old cycling proficiency course of mini junctions and a roundabout as well as a BMX course, good stuff to help in developing skills.
The emphases was on observation, control, braking, stopping, starting, signals for turning and slowing down.
The wobbly wheels soon disappeared along with the near misses, with these girls showing a lot of progress in such a short time. A few circuits of the BMX track improved the handling skills still further, we then moved on to doing more down hill control on the rougher ground around the track. Then another unique experience of being escorted by the police on our return on road to the school and into the warmth of the dining hall. All in all a good session with a good degree of all round positive skill improvement and good bit of fun.
This is the sort of work that bike and hike is involved in providing through a number of intiatives organised by the education, culture and leisure outdoor team and land services of Glasgow City Council.