Learn about your bike – 15th November 2019
It was a cold November morning, the children were being dropped off for Madrassah, the teachers were rushing in for their classes and volunteers were guiding the traffic.
Meanwhile a number of ladies were congregated in a group and unusually, they all had bicycles.
A “Learn About Your Bike Course” for women was being held. Fatim Panju, the coach for the day and expert cyclist, was setting up the biking equipment. Meanwhile, Iffat her co-organiser was putting out the food and snacks. It couldn’t be a Khoja event without some food to enhance the learning.
Fatim started with introductions, she spoke about how she became interested in cycling when she was 30 and she reminisced about her cycling touring adventures which took her around the world. We all felt inspired listening to her stories, you can read her story at https://sjladies.org/how-i-got-into-cycling-fatim-panju
All the ladies then introduced themselves and shared their stories about how they got into cycling and what they wanted to achieve from the course. It was so inspiring to listen to how they overcame challenges, became interested in cycling as well as some of their dreams and aspirations.
Fatim Panju started off by explaining the different types of and what kind of surfaces they are suitable for.
We learnt how to do the “M check,” which is a pre-ride check to ensure the bicycle is safe and reliable. You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qtx60bcNk0
Fatim educated us on parts of the bike, she showed us how to wash our bikes, clean the chains and lubricant them. Following on, she showed us what equipment we should carry when cycling, the right cycling gear to wear and other cycling accessories to use.
Now it was time to learn how to fix a puncture. We learnt how to remove the wheel from the bike and the tube from the tyre as well as, how to put the tube back in and pump the tyre up. It started to drizzle but spirits remained high, aided by warm chai and chicken tikka rolls. Yum! The group dispersed slowly and a tight knit feeling of shared adventure had been established.
A ladies cycling revolution had just begun! We look forward to setting up more courses in the spring, so make sure to keep yourself updated by joining us on Telegram and the ‘Let’s Ride’ cycling platform.
Join us our telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/EW2zJVTdQTLJyCHXnxUNYA
Our let’s ride group: https://www.letsride.co.uk/groups/stanmore-jafferies-ladies-cycling
