Handbikers To Attempt Skiddaw

A couple of years ago, a group of unfeasibly intrepid hand-bikers undertook to ride Cadair-Idris in Wales (you can see our original news story about it here). Their latest slice of awesome is to ride Skiddaw, in aid of the ‘Challenge Your Boundaries’ project at Coed y Brenin.

Looks like bloody hard work – handbiking Cadair Idris

Here’s the full release:

On Saturday 25th April 2015 a small group of hand-cyclists from around Britain will attempt to scale Skiddaw in the Lake District. The ride is the latest in a series of epic off-road adventures called “Hand-Bikes at Dawn,” co-ordinated by the “Challenge your Boundaries” project based at the Coed y Brenin Trail centre in North Wales.

The riders will be using specially designed mountain bikes which are powered by hand, and have especially low gears to tackle the steep slopes to be found on the mountain. This means that riders lacking strength or movement in their lower limbs can take on mountain bike challenges such as this.

The ride co-ordinator is Graham O’Hanlon from ‘Challenge your Boundaries.’ “We like to take on classic mountain bike routes, such as Cadair Idris in North Wales, and work out how to negotiate them with a hand bike” said Graham. “Skiddaw will be the biggest challenge yet. Although there are shorter options, the full route will be 20 km long with 1039 m of climb and we expect that riders will need around 8h to complete the route.”

The ‘Challenge your Boundaries’ project also trains mountain bike leaders to work with disabled riders. “These rides are also a great way for our volunteer-leaders to further develop their skill-set” added Graham.

The ride will be raising funds for the Challenge your Boundaries project, “Walking with the Wounded” and Mountain Rescue.

Further information about the ‘Challenge your Boundaries’ project and the Hand-Bikes at Dawn ride can be found at www.facebook.com/ChallengeYourBoundaries

Best of luck to them!

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.