My son has just come back from school after his first day of cycle training. He has been told he needs reflectors on his bike, front, back and wheels or he will fail. He’s riding a nice little SS inbred that I built up for him last year, by far the best and safest bike in the playgrond. I thought they were only required if riding between sunset and sunrise? Anyway, I’ll try and suppress my rant so that my son can have an easy life.

So do any of you have a set of cheap / nasty reflectors kicking about I could buy / have?

Thanks folks!

Defo got the wheel ones, will see if I have front and back.

If you need them let me know and you can mail me your address..

Cheers TP

email is criefftony AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

Do you need anything in return?

I have some kicking about (well front and rear)email me if you want them – bet your LBS will have too that they have taken off bikes or not fitted
I have reflective kit on all my bikes – but I make my own up from reflective tape so its neat and light – it really does make adifference

legal stuff here

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3522

Looks like to ride at night pedals and rear reflectors are needed.

I have put amber reflective tape on my pedals and cranks to cover this – 2 reasons – if in an accident after dark then I can say I at least tried to meet the regs and also nothing says bike like amber pedal reflectors

Looks like to ride at night pedals and rear reflectors are needed.

Good advice. Although I use pedals for daytime riding as well.

Thanks for all that guys

There is a fair bit of reflective tape on the bike already, but I guess the trainers have their rules to follow.

If TPbiker doesn’t have a full set I’ll get back to you Jeremy.
Cheers Guys

i have 2 x orange and 2 x white wheel reflectors and a front one as well. No back reflector I’m afraid, but the bike shop will surely sort you out?. Oh..I have a bell to if required!

No charge, I get enough good free advice on this forum. Will mail you and post tomorrow

TP – you are a star!

Drop me a line at… criefftony AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk
and I’ll give you the address etc.

and I’ll bung a few quid into the forum kitty by way of thanks.

got a rear reflector – email me if yo want it and I’ll post it – as above its worth half of **** all so if you would like to post me half of **** all in exchange fine

I have some frosties wheel reflectors some where, but you can’t have them.

Having fitted said reflectors, detatch either back or front brake, loosen headset, lower saddle as low as it will go, raise handle bars to stupid height, and see if they say anything about that..

mailed you

The Brick..now thats what I call a reflector! Would look bling on my Heckler…

Thank guys!

I’d guess that a LBS would probably give you a set (maybe for cake ?)

TheBrick – a giant reflective cock ? Very stw

Out of interest whereabouts is this? Great having reflectors, but in reality cycle training is carried out in daylight hours and through experience i’d rather have children learn how to cycle safely than making enforcing the reflector thing a make or break rule.

FWIW It’s Perthshire.
Volunteer trainers so I’m not going to give them a hard time
I guess they are just following the rules as they understand them

One of those situations it’s not worth fighting!

Aha, that’ll be the crieff bit off criefftony, sorry i’ve had wine. Fair enough bout not causing a stooshie, but it’s a nonsense, i’ve never turned anyone away from cycle training for no reflectors. Lights are in the cycle check too but it would be daft telling a kid they must have them for next week

Oh, hope he enjoys it

As a MB leader and cycle trainer I’m struggling with it too.
He’s quite a handy rider, so he’s probably not going to get much from it.
I don’t want to slag off the trainers, they are volunteers after all.
What is most frustrating is I offered to help but they said they didn’t need me!

I’m off to my happy place now – night all!
T

You want this rear reflector email me – in profile

When my son did it they were a bit taken aback with his bike, no issue with indicators but we did have a discussion as the chap was adament that both feet should be able to touch the floor when sat on the bike…

Have a drawer full of front and rear. I normally replace them with cateye lights with integral reflectors. All BS approved. Email in profile if you need them. I also have some nice spoke reflectors that aren’t BS approved.

Hmm with all the reflector offers (I have some too) is it possible to over reflectorize the bike 😆

I helped out at sons school many years ago, many of the bikes were in really bad condition, mainly poorly adjusted brakes & gears. I said would bring tools next week to sort out what I could. was told under no circumstances was I to do any repairs/adjustments in case one of the kids injured themselves. Bikes would have to go to a “proper bike shop”

🙄

The last time I did an mtb course up at Glenmore lodge I was told that my qualifications MBL only covered me for doing ‘trailside repairs’ and that we were not to bikes as you tend to do before a ride. You had to be Cytech or equivalent in order to do any maintenance for a client/pupil. Real shame as part of the point was to show kids how to fix their bikes.

I helped out at sons school many years ago, many of the bikes were in really bad condition, mainly poorly adjusted brakes & gears. I said would bring tools next week to sort out what I could. was told under no circumstances was I to do any repairs/adjustments in case one of the kids injured themselves. Bikes would have to go to a “proper bike shop”

My nipper did a course at school last year and the majority of the bikes were heaps of poo, not in a bike snobbery way either but just generally not maintained. The instructor was not allowed to touch the bikes either.

think its a real shame that some of the kids that would most benefit from the training get excluded because a lot of bmx’s aren’t road legal – they might leave the shop with 2 brakes and reflectors but don’t stay that way, these are often kids that use their bikes a lot but often without parental supervision (read as road panic) and other than being able to wheelie in front of buses don’t have any traffic safety skills

for our school i did a list of what parent/carers needed to check and a list of local bike shops to send home to kids a month before to reduce the numbers excluded

– i can’t really understand why the trainers don’t upfront this with heads

Y- i can’t really understand why the trainers don’t upfront this with heads

Agree with this. I am a volunteer trainer and this is what we do along with a bike MOT check sheet. However there are still kids who turn up with a bike which most of us would have thrown in a skip having been dragged out of an uncles friends shed from down the road!! I usually take along some bikes I have collected for my grand kids and if the pupils bikes are just too bad they get to use them. Being a qualified car mech and currently a factory mech I am deemed a “competent” person when it comes to doing quick fixes to allow kids to participate on the day. Sharing bikes is another way we get round the crap bike issue, time consuming but kids are good with this.
Info here for anyone who has not seen it.
http://cyclingscotland.msol.org.uk/local/bikeability/resources/CYCLE/documents.html

sorry Trekster – i’ll change that to can’t understand why some trainers don’t upfront this

The instructor was not allowed to touch the bikes either.

Would s/he have been within their rights to refuse to train anyone on an unsafe, badly maintained bike though?

I think so.
If you’re gonna do H&S, do it properly, and a LOT of people have no idea at all about the bilge they spout sometimes.

Trekster, good on you mate! 🙂

That’s using some common sense*. I do bike MOT days in conjunction with the local council. I’m not qualified either, but a lot of people get something good out of it. m
🙂

*Freely availalable. Just think about it.

As well as the ‘feet must touch the floor’ rule my lads were both told to not stand up, there was never any circumstance where it was necessary to leave the saddle. 😕

Beans – Really, REALLY???

My heart just died a little reading that. 🙁

opps sorry,

I’ll submit my posts for you to vet next time.

PeterPoddy – Member
Trekster, good on you mate!

Cheers PP.
The schools I “work” with are not in the most affluent area of town and there are a few characters 😆 but all great kids. We set out to do our best knowing full well what state bikes were likely to be in when we got them but some of the kids are or can be excluded from stuff due to their circumstances so the last thing we want to do is say sorry no-can-do until some jobs worth says otherwise 🙄
For another project I have the use of whatever bikes I need form one of the local bike shops who collects and recycles bikes to charities.
I am sure there will be cycle trainers out there who do not know one end of a spanner from the other and it is best that they do the right thing and not try any repairs. I know some!! Depending on what the remit is they may or probably do not have time built in to spend fixing stuff, we make sure we have that time especially on the first day.

I have heard all this helping out with cycle training at school .Took my tools got told not to touch bikes (but did anyway cos many were dangerous )and all the kids had to find reflectors .It`s quite worrying how many 10 year old are poor on a bike as well

Way back in the day I was excluded from doing my cycling proficiency because my bike had loose spokes – otherwise it was fine and this was only in the playground riding anyway. I was devastated – mainly because my parents wouldn’t let me out of our cul de sac until I passed.

It must be possible to at least attempt to stop this happening and I hate the ” you can’t do this elfandsafety” nonsense – and not allowing to fix bikes is nonsense.

so long as you do what any competent mechanic does you are fine

As well as the ‘feet must touch the floor’ rule

Bad practice.

😥

I was faced with this when my GF did a charity ride to France on the Kaffenback I’d built up for her. They insisted on wheel reflectors, which would have looked terrible. Ended up getting these http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/mobile/m-wave-3m-scotchlite-spoke-reflector-prod23743/ which don’t look too bad, but are fantastic at getting the bike noticed. Recommended!