Starting Cycling

We have two services designed to give people the confidence and knowledge to cycle successfully.

Lessons

All our instructors have been trained to National Standards level of “Bikeability”. This means you will be trained to a standard consistent across the whole country.

There are 3 levels of skills to progress through. Children would start with levels 1 & 2, progressing from the playground or park to cycle on less busy local roads. Teenager and adult beginners can also learn levels 1 & 2 in an off-road and quiet environment.

Confident teenagers and adults can broaden their skills by learning level 3, using multi-lane (多道) roads and larger roundabouts (环岛). We provide both a complete package of lessons for the beginner or individual lessons tailored to the client. You can ride a bike but don’t feel confident about right turns on multi-lane roads. Whatever the need

We can address and practice until perfect!

Everyone can be taught to ride a bike!

We train both adults and children.

We cover London Zones 1 & 2

The cost is ￡30 per hour.

Guided Ride

We know that riding on the roads in London can be scary, and if you have to navigate (确定行车路线) as well it can become a real hard task! The Guided Ride service takes all the stress out of it for you by providing the following:

Route planned in advance to suit your skill level. Route map provided to you.

Cycle and equipment checked. We will teach you a simple method to check basic roadworthiness (车辆性能) of your bike that you can perform on a weekly basis.

Route discussed and focus given to any areas requiring special attention.

Cycle along with the instructor close behind. Here the traffic can be controlled by the instructor and rider observed.

Occasionally stopping to discuss events.

We currently cover London Zones 1 & 2. Please contact us if your requirements are outside of these areas.

Cost ￡30

Recently I accepted a challenge to join Naasih, a motivational speaker, on a voyage through India designed to revitalize(使恢复生机) my spirit. After too many hours, Naasih and I arrived in the slum(贫民窟) just as the sun was breaking across the smoggy Delhi sky. It seemed as if the small houses extended for miles, an ocean of tin roofs and laundry lines.

Finally, Naasih stopped and turned to me. "Give me your bag," he said. I handed it to him. I had promised to follow his directions, and in return, I was hoping to find whatever I thought was missing from my life. "I’ll meet you back here at sunset," Naasih said and walked away.

I began to walk through the streets. No one paid too much attention to the tall, hairless man walking among them. My throat was dry, my stomach turning over with hunger. And then I saw a small house and I knocked softly on the door.

A young, skinny man, no older than 25, came to answer it. As I soon found out, the man is named Sankar and he was a Lakers fan. I also learned that he was a recently graduated university student who had left his family to go after a dream of success in the big city. Instead, he had found work in the back of a restaurant.

After lunch, Sankar took me to play basketball with a group of children in a trash-filled field down the road. The sun was beginning to fall as the laughter of the basket games echoed(发出回声) across the slum. I had been so caught up in my day with Sankar. I had started the morning in fear and exhaustion, but I was ending the day connected to something much larger.

After the game, Sankar and I walked to Rata Road. There stood Naasih. He said, "You’re shining, Leon." I had been knocked entirely out of my comfort zone, and I felt that wild burst of life that had been missing from my own.

Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens are to start a war on gray-headed flying foxes. These super bats have invaded one of Australia’s most famous public spaces. Officials have said the animals are destroying trees and have to move on.

These unwanted guests at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens look like tiny foxes with wings. Officials have estimated there are about 11,000 of them living in the picturesque harbor-side park. After inspecting damage to dozens of trees they now believe there are twice as many as previously thought. Branches have been breaking under the weight of these furry invaders and their droppings have been poisoning plants.

Help may well be at hand, however, in the shape of the ordinary garbage bin. The gardens’ director Dr. Tim Entwistle hopes the unpleasant sounds of crashing bin lids will agitate the flying foxes and force them to move on. “The way to disturb them is to use noises, so we’ve used the loud noises made by rubbish bins in the past. You can also use speakers as long as you move the noise around, and what we’ll do is have a series of noises, at the beginning and end of the day. What we’ve found in the past is that the flying foxes leave the gardens and go somewhere else,” said Tim.

The gray-headed flying fox is Australia’s largest bat. It flies around at night using its eyes and a powerful sense of smell to search for fruit and flowers. Officials at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney have said they’re optimistic the unwelcome colony can be uprooted. If and when the bats do move to other parts of the city they will of course then become someone else’s problem.

Long before iPhone， the cigarette was the companion of choice for restlessness． And long before Facebook and WeChat， it was tobacco that promised to better your social life． Now， quitting smartphones has become the new quitting smoking．

Of course， technology does not yellow your teeth， cause disease or lead to cancer． But some individuals are so concerned that device addiction is damaging their mental health． In order to reduce their dependence， even in Silicon Valley， people are turning off the messages that constantly buzz for their attention， banning smartphones from the bedroom and， curiously， changing the colors on their screens to a less tempting scale of gray．

The big tech companies will have to work out how to respond to this new generation of quitters． Facebook is the first to go public with its attempt， hoping its recent move can make the social network more homely．

Last year the tech industry got a bad name ---Big Tech---with unfortunate echoes of other industries that have faced fierce opposition， including Big Tobacco． Like them， the tech industry has to reduce concern from a new generation of activist shareholders （股东） that are questioning its role in the world． These campaigns are never as fierce as those faced by Big Tobacco． In the 1990s， socially responsible investors refused to put money in tobacco stocks．

It is far difficult for investors to challenge Big Tech and hard to separate the good these companies do in the world-connecting old friends and giving space for people to share their ideas-from the bad． In the meantime， stopping using technology remains problematic． In The World Without Mind： The Existential Threat of Big Tech， Franklin Foer argues that tech should be seen in a similar way to junk food： a convenience that some reject for more continuing nutrition．

So we need to do more to turn the tide． In the same way that public service announcements made smoking around your children taboo （禁忌）， we can warn parents against losing themselves in their smartphones while taking care of kids． We can also create no-smartphone zones at dinner． Eventually smartphones could be banned from all public places and help us give our attention to the people around us instead．