Rollers

Dave Chadderton said:

Last September we as a club got involved and helped organise a local youth
Olympics, our event was the cycling, for which we used a pair of borrowed
competition rollers. The original plan was to use mountain bikes on a
grassed area but according to the risk assessment, kids on bikes even on
grass is far to dangerous, so we opted as a last resort to rollers. The
response was to say the least fantastic, over 90 kids tried and loved the
event, they kept coming back for another go. This response although
fantastic has left us with a problem, next time we will when the word has
got out probably have even more kids wanting to have a go and with just one
pair of rollers we cannot cope, we need more!

Does anybody know where we can beg, steal, buy or borrow some competition
rollers, please. Any clues, leads or any info about any rollers, broken or
incomplete [we managed to repair the set we borrowed] will be very
gratefully received. Experience has shown us how difficult it is to attract
youngsters into the sport and now we have found a way we are being thwarted
by the lack of equipment. We are prepared to travel to collect, make a
donation to any club who help and treasure and look after any equipment
loaned to us, as well as being eternally grateful.

Thanks............ Dave

I have some rollers that haven't been used for a couple of years. They
are static training rollers for trackies or time triallers, not sure how
they differ from competition rollers, I suspect the latter have some
sort of counter attached. Will mine be any use ? I consider them more
dangerous than riding on grass since the bike is not at all fixed to the
device.

Dave Chadderton said:

Last September we as a club got involved and helped organise a local youth
Olympics, our event was the cycling, for which we used a pair of borrowed
competition rollers. The original plan was to use mountain bikes on a
grassed area but according to the risk assessment, kids on bikes even on
grass is far to dangerous, so we opted as a last resort to rollers.

That RA isn't on line anywhere is it? Is cycling on grass now really
considered "too dangerous" to be allowed? What were the identified hazards?

Quoted message said:

The
response was to say the least fantastic, over 90 kids tried and loved the
event, they kept coming back for another go. This response although
fantastic has left us with a problem, next time we will when the word has
got out probably have even more kids wanting to have a go and with just one
pair of rollers we cannot cope, we need more!

At least they enjoyed it.

Quoted message said:

That RA isn't on line anywhere is it? Is cycling on grass now really
considered "too dangerous" to be allowed? What were the identified

hazards?

Quoted message said:

The safety brigade have contributed towards a reduction in opportunity. In
1996 I qualified to take small groups of people mountain biking - it was a 2
day course and I felt that the course (on top of my years of off road
riding) was sufficient to prepare me to do a good and safe job. So much so
that I took groups of school pupils out on afternoon rides for several
years. I also led groups on the four day bash from Llanwrtyd Wells as well
as ad hoc groups of people who turned up in Mid Wales and wanted a local
guide to show them the best rides.

I won't do it now. I would stop groups at the top of a tricky descent and
tell them it was tricky - possibly a bit dangerous, that it would be best
for them to make their own minds up before going quickly. It would appear
that that's no longer sufficient and that I must specify the risks beyond
the possibilty of misunderstanding.

What? If the guide says the descent is tricky, what more warning does an
intelligent person need?

I went out with a group of friends today and fell on my face - my fault. We
were riding down a rough lane and I dropped my front wheel into a mud hole,
those behind were impressed with my Superman flight but less impressed by my
choice of line.

I'll stop now - I'm sounding a bit like Clarkson.

John