We’re pleased to say that we’re extending our mountain bike provision at Jifkids. Starting shortly, there will be two mountain bike sessions organised by the club, both taking place on a Wednesday evening.

The first session starts at 6.15 and is a coached session with up to 3 coaches depending on availability. The purpose of this session is to further develop the mountain bike skills of children who already attend Jifkids and have demonstrated enough competence, listening skills and aptitude to develop their skills further in a more challenging setting.

The second session starts at 6.30 and is a non-coached ride for older children/young adults who are looking to put their skills into practise. To attend this ride we need to have previously assessed rider ability; an activity that will first take place in kids club on a Saturday afternoon. The best way to interpret this type of ride is ‘a ride for competent riders, chaperoned by a competent adult(s), outside of the auspices of the club insurance and therefore the same as riding with friends or family outside of the club’. For riders under the age of 16, we will require a signature from a parent to indicate they understand the basis on which the ride is undertaken. We also encourage active, mountain biking parents to join this ride as it improves the supervision and helps to further foster the collaborative, family nature of the club itself.

For both rides, a mountain bike equipped with off-road tyres will be required. Suspension is not a necessity, but would be advantageous.

While we’re very pleased to be able to extend ride opportunities for our children, the thing we need to stress, is for both of these rides, our coaches need to be convinced that the children are ready for this step up in riding. The environment outside of the school offers greater challenges and dangers, but also more opportunity and fun. We will offer the possibility of this type of development to parents when their children are ready. Equally we are happy to discuss with parents the development progress of their children if these sessions are of interest. While we have to be sensible about how we approach rider safety in a mountain biking environment, we absolutely want to avoid any sense of being left out.

In line with our ethos of improving access for all, there will be no cost for these sessions and they are open to members of other clubs providing the rider attends at least one Jifkids Saturday session in advance (£1 per session). For more details, feel free to discuss with Simon, Laura or Jake. Attendances can be confirmed by discussion, or direct messaging on Facebook or Twitter.